The Family Foundation School
I could have died. I believed my own rhetoric of “free will” and “marijuana won't kill me.” Only now can I see where that rhetoric was taking me. Every positive thing I had I smoked away.
Life at home was chaotic. I couldn't go a day without causing some sort of commotion. I spent countless days trying to avoid my problems and felt that I was chained up by the fears that ran me.
Before I came to The Family School my life was full of fighting and heartbreak. I didn't care that I made my family feel unsafe. I slept through the days to avoid the feelings that came with facing reality. I was numb.
Sometimes a drug addict needs to completely ruin his life before he decides to change. That's what happened to me.
My dad used to tell me that it didn't matter to him whether I succeeded or failed as long as I knew that I did my best. Unfortunately, I always settled for what was good enough.
I was doing some of the most harmful things a person could do and it had a terrible impact on me and my family. Nearly all of my problems at home stemmed from my extensive drug use.
My life finally fell apart the day I was caught stealing a laptop and two iPods from students at school and was expelled. It was my seventh expulsion.
- How Do I Decide the Best School for My Child?
- Signs of Teen Alcohol and Drug Abuse
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder Facts
- Understanding Teen Depression
- Teen Girls Depression Problems
- Understanding Eating Disorders
- Understanding Self-Injury
- Teen Substance Abuse and Money
- Educating Your Troubled Teen
- 12 Steps for Angry Teens
- Animal-Assisted Therapy for Youth with High-Risk Behavior
- ADD & ADHD Facts
- Behaviors of ADHD Kids in the Classroom
- Recommended Reading
Understanding Teen Depression
The teen years are typically a time of change and self-discovery, rebellion and self-reliance, increased social expectation and peer pressure, and the development of a new identity. From the ages of 12 to 18, children are expected to push limits and experiment with new people, interests, and ideas, often pulling away from their parents and do so with a degree of moodiness and unrest. However, what differentiates normal teen behavior from underlying, undiagnosed teen depression?
It has been reported that nearly twenty percent of teens will experience depression during adolescence; as many as thirty percent of those with teen depression will develop substance abuse problems. While teen depression is common to both genders, girls are twice as likely to experience and report symptoms of depression as boys their age, possibly a result of social expectations that encourage girls to express their feelings while discouraging boys from showing weakness. It has been estimated that nearly eighty percent of children with teen depression do not receive the necessary treatment. Significant risk factors for teen depression include trauma, loss (parents, friends, and romantic relationships), trauma/abuse, family history of depression, family conflict, long-term illness, increasing social stress and dependence, experimentation with alcohol and drugs, and increasing sexual pressure.
Teen depression does not always manifest symptoms normally associated with clinical depression (social isolation, withdrawal, sullenness, etc.), and instead may present in aggressive acting-out behavior. For that reason, teen depression is many times dismissed as typical teenage moodiness/rebellion, or misdiagnosed as Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder, and goes untreated. Common symptoms of teen depression include:
- has trouble making/keeping friends
- declining grades/truancy
- loss of interest in normally focused activities
- anger/irritability/hostility
- weepiness/sadness
- restlessness/agitation
- excessive sexual behavior
- acting-out behavior (stealing, violence, self-injury)
- declining self-care and hygiene
- negative self-talk/low self-esteem
- disordered eating habits/change in appetite
- pessimism
- somatic complaints (headaches, stomach aches, etc.)
- isolationism/withdrawal
- difficulty with concentrating and/or decision making
- personality changes
- suicidal ideation
- substance use
If these symptoms persist for more than two weeks, contact a medical provider who will be able to screen for depression. Treatment for teen depression comes in the form of a combination of lifestyle changes, psycho-education, activities designed to build self-esteem and increase self-reliance, prescription anti-depressants, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). For some suffering from teen depression, more intensive care in a supportive, therapeutic milieu such as The Family Foundation School is necessary.
