(MENAFN- America News Hour) In the United States Of America, teens are facing a real mental health crisis that makes it a hot topic to discuss. The mental health crisis is declared officially by the United States Surgeon General recently. In reality, teens have been suffering for quite long. In the past 10 years, the situation has got more complicated. In 2019-2020, 21% of the adult population suffered from any mental illness which is equal to 50 million united states population.
The vast majority of Americans are not having any type of therapy or use medications to treat their mental disabilities which compromises the country's people's health. Mental health problems can affect young people's emotional well-being, academic performance, relationships, and overall quality of life. This article covers different aspects of teens' mental health crises that make it important to go to a denver teen therapist to understand what's going on.
How many students in the USA struggle with mental health?
By classifying the category of individuals, if we talk about the students only, so the percentage is over 3 quarters of college-going students (77% of the young population) deal with moderate to severe level mental distress. Additionally, 35% of undergraduates are diagnosed with anxiety and the rest of them with depression.
The reasons why American teens are so depressed.
American teens face a range of challenges that critically affect their mental well-being. These challenges contribute to the health crisis they are more likely to experience.
Academic pressure
Teens are immature at that phase of life and face tremendous pressure to excel academically. There is great competition for getting admissions to superior colleges that have more repute, and brand value and are considered a symbol of high prestige.
At a very early stage, they are hungry of appearing everywhere at the top regardless of making any compromise. So, when they don't meet the high expectations, it leads to immense stress levels and feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. Most students even commit suicide as a result of not performing well in the race. They don't see the bright side of life and made the decision.
Social Media and Cyberbullying
In 2023, is there anybody who doesn't use social media anymore? There is no one who doesn't have access to social media. Everybody has the leverage of using it. Therefore it has become a big part of teens' lives but with lots of negative effects on their health.
American teens are highly exposed to constant comparison, cyberbullying, and online harassment. This mostly happens to students who have a considerable amount of followers online and if a student defies them as their senior, they use social media to bully them online by creating hateful posts against him and urging the followers to bash him online so that he faces humiliation. This is quite common nowadays.
Family Dynamics and Stress
Family is a precious gift for everybody, you are rewarded with brothers, sisters, and parents that care for you more than any other person in the world, but this is not the case for Americans. There is a great ratio of couples who are separated or got divorced.
Filing a divorce for parents is easy, but it's mental torture for kids. The family environment plays a crucial role in a teen's mental development and well-being. Issues like parental divorce, domestic violence, substance abuse, or negligence create an unstable and stressful atmosphere for them that affects their brain and they enter adulthood with those complications, inner flaws, and other mental disabilities.
Lack of Access to Mental Health Services
Another major cause is the lack of access to mental health services. Because not everybody has insurance coverage that provides them leverage for getting quality medical support on a fixed schedule. Unfortunately, teens don't have such facilities and they also act rebellious in this phase that they don't need anybody to look after them.
So, when they have financial limitations, long wait times, and no insurance coverage. How will they talk to somebody about their situation? This must be addressed professionally and an effective strategy should be made and implemented at the mass level to facilitate youth.
Physical and emotional/ behavioral symptoms of teen bad health.
Physical Symptoms Fatigue & lack of energy Chronic pain such as headaches and stomach-aches
Dealing with infections very often
Digestive issues, such as frequent indigestion or constipation
Emotional and Behavioral Symptoms Persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness Experiencing a decline in academic performance
Social withdrawal from friends and family
Loss of interest in hobbies
Cognitive Symptoms Memory Issues Poor judgment and impulsiveness
Sleep Disturbances Substance Use Experimentation with drugs & alcohol Dependency on substances as a coping mechanism
Changes in Appearance: Poor hygiene Noticeable changes in grooming habits
What is the right time to see the Denver teen therapist?
Ideally, as parents as soon as you identify the symptoms of bad mental health in your child's behavior and activities, you should get an appointment with a Denver teen therapist to get to know in detail about the condition and how it must be treated.
The healer will need to have a complete flashback of the teen's story so he makes a decision about his mental health needs and treatments. The kid may have to attend several meetings just to ensure the thought patterns and prescribe the treatment accordingly.
He may combine the therapy with oral medications just to see the drastic improvements. The whole process requires patience, motivation of living life, and being very honest to the therapist.
Later, depending upon your current condition, he may increase or decrease the number of sessions the teen need. Once you start taking sessions, he will notice a considerable difference in the mental well-being.