Dealing With Teenagers as a Parent or Guardian

How Do I Know If My Teen Is Depressed?

Teens face a lot of challenges that you need to know as a parent/guardian. Some of the challenges he/she might never tell you and it, therefore, calls for your wisdom to step in. Here are some of the things that if you notice in your teenager you will know it is depression.

• If your teen child is quite most of the time when you notice your teen is not talkative the way he/she used to be it's your time to be alert
• If your teen starts being angry for no apparent reason
• The teen is always sad
• The teen has reduced his/her social interaction and most of the time prefers to be alone
• The teen is always absent-minded, If he/she seems to be in a different world most of the time
• The teen has lost interest in the family arguments that he/she used to take part in a lot
• The teen no longer cares about anything whether his/her clothes are being rained on in the hanging line
• The teen does not want to meet his/her friends anymore and always try to avoid them as much as possible

As soon as you notice any of the above signs in your teenage child you are supposed to get worried. Keep it in your mind that no one can help your child more than you can and so it is your responsibility as a parent to help her/him out.

Some parents always do the mistake of taking their children to their relatives once they discover they are depressed. Make sure you deal with it on your own unless it is so serious.

What You Need To Do

Once you notice any of the signs go ahead and follow the following directives

• Talk to your teen, this should be done calmly and do not threaten him/her in any way. Tell her stories that entail moral lessons and then bring the matter and talk with him/her calmly
• Make your teen know that you are with him/her in everything, let them know you've got their backs and can count on you on anything
• If you were an aggressive parent try and change. Be gentle and approachable, do not scare your teens away during the rough times in their lives. Being gentle alone will help him/her and even make them approach you with their problems
• Try and figure out the source of depression and know what to do about it, most sources of depression are hard drugs and as a parent, you need to know this. Find out where your teen has accessed the drugs and deal with it
• Make your teens happy, this simple act helps a lot. Provide for them, feed them, clothe them, give anything you can afford to them but do not confuse it with spoiling them. This gives them no reason to get into depression
• Show your love as a parent/guardian to your teens. Remember that at this stage the teens are filled with mixed feelings and might think of not being loved enough.

Peer pressure remains the main issue affecting youths. Most teenagers across the world testify to this as the main problem and lack the skills to deal with it.

As a parent look out for these signs to help you know if your teen is also a victim

• The teenager does not want to identify his/herself with what he/she used to like initially
• The teen demands for more money, this might be to fit in some group somewhere
• The teen changes their names and want to be called or addressed using their new names
• The teen changes his/her appearance, he/she changes the hairstyle or haircut and also change the mode of dressing

Peer pressure requires strictness from the side of the parent or else the teen might lose his/herself thinking to be getting what she/he is meant to do.

The guardian/parent should follow the following directives

• Make it your business as a parent to know each movement of your teenager child, ask where she/he goes and who he/she spends time with
• Talk to your teens, talking remains the main tool in combating peer pressure and raising your teen in general
• Be a role model as a parent, show him/her how you want them to be by being it yourself
• Do followup on your children, if they were to go to school ensure it is where they went
• Be somehow strict, let them do exactly what you need to be done