Taking Action With Your Troubled Teen
If you feel like your teen is in trouble and attempts to help them at home have failed, there are many treatment options to seek out. Whether your child is defiant and/or delinquent, or abusing drugs and alcohol, there are forms of behavioral and substance abuse treatments you can research. Before deciding on a form of treatment, it is essential to identify and pinpoint the problem at hand. Certain treatment options are better for behavioral issues, while others better for treating addictions. It is important to realize there are alternatives available for any situation.
Therapy with a mental health professional is a form of out-patient treatment. Your teenager can meet with a therapist as often as necessary, depending on the extent of the problem. Many therapists recommend weekly meetings, although the number of therapy sessions needed may vary. Counselors, or psychologists, are therapists who engage in talk therapy, and work in a solution oriented atmosphere to help your teen cope with the stresses of adolescence. Activities involved in therapy usually include journal keeping, art therapy, goal setting, and parent-involved sessions.
In addition to therapy to help your teen work through adolescent problems, wilderness and boot camp programs are designed to get your teen out of their normal element to fight the problems and stresses associated with teenage years. Teens with more serious problems, like those involving law enforcement, or teens with health concerns, may not be well-suited for a wilderness program. However, this form of treatment helps a great majority of teens with mild depression, peer pressure issues or failing grades in school. With its mix of therapy, and an outdoor adventure lifestyle, wilderness camps are a brilliant way to help your child battle the issues and pressures involved in adolescence.
Privately owned and government run boot camps across the nation profess the ability to completely purify a teenager who has violated the law, or struggles with their behavior at home or school. Within a six to eight week time period many boot camp operators proclaim that they can change a teen and their attitude toward their parents and society. Parents who need help with defiant teenagers often search for boot camps when looking for a solution. These programs tend to be located at, or run by state correctional facilities. To be placed in a boot camp a teen typically must be sentenced by a judge to attend. Private programs are more lenient on whom they allow to participate, and are viewed not so much as boot camps, but behavioral boarding schools.
If your teenager is in trouble with drugs or alcohol, and you feel treatment beyond the above mentioned is necessary for their recovery, rehabilitation for substance abuse is usually the most logical choice. Treatment facilities create a specific program for each member; therefore, a unique, personalized approach is given to every patient. However, your teen must be willing to enter the treatment program, and stay the allotted time period to complete the program. Without this agreement and consent, many teens check themselves out of these programs far too early, and return to their lifestyle of abusing drugs and alcohol.
If you need any help for your children mental health then consult with Dr. Sharmistha Barai. Dr. Barai, a leading Child & Adolescent psychiatrist based in Saint Louis, Missouri can help you or anyone you know dealing with depression to find effective, medically-proven techniques to deal with the disease and other disorders.