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Sarah Proulx

Professor Moore

ENGL 1302.08

22 April 2017

Solutions Towards Mental Illnesses

Adolescents should find better ways to cope with mental illnesses because some

treatments are negatively affecting them over time. Mental Illnesses in adolescents are increasing

drastically over time. Some of the problems that has been a factor of increasing these mental

illnesses is sociocultural aspects such as parents. Parental characteristics can contribute towards

the development of problems such as depression in adolescents (Agerup, par.1). Though, it is

not only the parents but also teachers and peers. Present technology and the variety of treatment

methods that are being used are also some factors in a teens mental illness. Sociocultural aspects

such as family life has a big impact on adolescents, especially the parents or guardians of the

teen. Technology is an industry that keeps growing worldwide which is very helpful in our

society, but it can also be scary for those people like teens roaming the internet who are getting

cyberbullied. There are also treatment methods such as medication that effect the adolescent.

These three things play a major role in an adolescents life. Though if the guardians of these

teens and the teens themselves alter these lifestyle choices just a bit it can make a positive

change in their life reducing the teens mental illness. I do want to point out that for most mental

illnesses people are born with them even if they do not start showing signs till later on. If they

are not born with the mental illness than usually the person goes through something traumatizing

like people who get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These three things that have an
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impact on an adolescents life are things that can increase their mental illness very easily and

therefore would like to reduce the stress these three subjects induce on the teens. Some ways to

reduce the mental illnesses in teens is to have the parents or guardians of the adolescent engage

more with each other, make known of the regulations of online cyberbullying and instead of a

vast variety of medications the adolescent can go through behavioral therapy.

Families have a big impact on the emotional stability of their teens. Parents who are

overly involved can exert a lot of pressure in a teen. Those parents who are not involved at all in

the teens life can make the teen isolative which can lead to depression or the opposite of manic

which can lead to angry outburst. The parents of the adolescent should spend more personal time

with the teen. Not excessively breathing down their back but set a side time to make sure the teen

is okay and let them talk and tell the parent what is going on in their life. The biggest part a

parent can do for their teen is to let them know that they are there for them. Parents influence

the development of their children by serving as role models (Evans, par. 10). Children usually

follow in their parents footsteps. The way parents act around the adolescent and treat them is

who they are going to grow up to be. Being an indulgent parent would be the best for a growing

adolescent and more efficient in helping their teen who is going through mental illnesses.

Indulgent parents try to remove outside constraints without endangering the welfare of the

child. Furthermore, indulgent parents provide their child with adult rights but not adult

responsibilities (Evans, par. 14). If parents try their best to be indulgent it will take stress off of

the parents shoulders because they will not have to worry as much about their adolescent feeling

trapped with their mental illness. It would help the adolescent with the mental illness they obtain

because they will feel as though they are free from responsibilities but their parents will still be

behind them showing them the way and supporting them with what they are going through.
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Technology is taking a hold of adolescents over the generations. Adolescents are

depending on technology such as internet websites to interact with people instead of socially

interacting with them face to face. Although teens are meeting new people and talking to friends

more; now it can also be dangerous because there are cyber bullies out there that will not stop

even when the adolescent is at their worse with their mental illness. Parents can help decrease the

internet time that the adolescent has but that would be controlling them which will make them

act out in anger. The adolescent themselves need to be aware of what could happen and the

parents need to monitor what their teens are on. Not just parents but teachers are trying to help

out, Due to the negative impact of cyberbullying on students, schools must take action to reduce

incidents both inside and outside of school (Stauffer, par. 10). When the adolescents are not at

home and at school it is the schools job to watch over the students well-being. Davids law was

made newly in 2017 to help prevent and stop cyberbullying. With technology advancing not only

does the parents and adolescents have to stand up against it but also society. Even if parents think

their teens are not being cyberbullied they should still educate them about what can happen to

those who cyberbullies. So then the adolescents do not cyberbully others and they know what to

do if they are getting cyberbullied.

Besides adolescents being on a wide variety of medications the better thing to do would

be to do behavioral therapy. When being put on a lot of medication especially at a young age it

does a lot of harm to the body mentally and physically. Physically when teens take a wide variety

of medication they can gain a lot of weight or vice versa become skinny. Numerous effects can

happen when taking multiple things at once, Even correctly prescribed and correctly used

medicines can harm through side-effects or unanticipated allergic reactions, ranging from minor

to potentially fatal (Reynolds, par.1). All medication has side effects and usually those are
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precautions that do not end up happening. Though if each medication has a side effect those

mixed together the person is bound to have something severe happen to them. Besides the body

being effected and damaged by the multiple medications being used the brain is also effected.

When starting many medications all at once like some adolescents have to go through what

happens is they start to depend on the medications. So then every time the adolescent feels a

certain way that they are told they should not be feeling such as depression they take another

dosage of medication. When adolescents start doing this and start medicating themselves with all

the medication that was prescribed to them it often leads to an addiction or they overdoes. What

behavioral therapy will do for these adolescents is that instead of taking medication after

medication they can learn how to deal with the emotions they are trying to hide. There are many

types of behavioral therapy that an adolescent can go through, it just depends on what their

situation is. Behavioral therapy is the best thing an adolescent can do oppose to being prescribed

and taking medications. Behavioral therapy is something that the adolescent can use the rest of

their life and use during any situation that they are in. This technique helps them get to know

who they are and how they react to things along with how to deal with an emotion like

depression in a healthy manner when they start to feel that way, rather than feeling an emotion

like depression and acting manic upon it. Adolescents should go through behavioral therapy if

admitted to a psychiatric hospital instead of being prescribed more medication. Behavioral

therapy is better for the adolescent physically and mentally, it also has no side effects and can

help them with situations the rest of their lives.

By taking these three steps adolescents can easily get most of the stress off of them and

be able to resume a better stress free life. If the parents are there for them and work with them

and also the teachers and peers in their life then the teens will know that they have someone to
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turn to if anything is bothering them and not feel self-conscious or scared thinking they are

alone. Monitoring technology is an important thing that is going on and again if the guardians of

the adolescent watches over them and what they are doing then the guardians will know more

about what their child is going through. Also, teens will not being getting bullied as much

because if the parents of other children are watching what they are doing then the parents of the

bullies can put a stop to it. Then there is behavioral therapy which will comfort the teen and help

them the rest of their lives. Behavioral therapy teaches the teen how to deal with their emotions

in a positive way without relying on medication. If they all work together and keep up these three

things being proposed it will create a better and more relaxing life for the adolescent as well as

for the family and friends of the teen.

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Works Cited

Agerup, T., et al. "Maternal and Paternal Psychosocial Risk Factors for Clinical Depression in a

Norwegian Community Sample of Adolescents." Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 69,

no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 35-41. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3109/08039488.2014.919021.

Evans, Nathaniel J.1, nevans4@utk.edu, et al. "Coddling Our Kids: Can Parenting Style Affect

Attitudes toward Advergames?." Journal of Advertising, vol. 42, no. 2/3, Apr. 2013, pp.

228-240. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00913367.2013.774602.

Konishi, Chiaki and Shelley Hymel. "An Attachment Perspective on Anger among Adolescents."

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, vol. 60, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 53-79. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=94839230&site=ehost-live.

Reynolds, Matthew, et al. "A Descriptive Exploratory Study of How Admissions Caused by

Medication-Related Harm Are Documented within Inpatients' Medical Records." BMC

Health Services Research, vol. 14, no. 1, July 2014, pp. 290-308. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1186/1472-6963-14-257.

Stauffer, Sterling, et al. "High School Teachers' Perceptions of Cyberbullying Prevention and

Intervention Strategies." Psychology in the Schools, vol. 49, no. 4, Apr. 2012, pp. 352-

367. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/pits.21603

When caregivers are loving and responsive, children develop secure attachments, acquiring a

model of self as loved and valued, and a model of others as warm and loving (Konishi,

par.2).