Adolescent’s mental health (Part 3)

This year’s (2020 – 2021) mental health theme is " Mental Health for All: Greater Investment--- Greater Access". Part 3 of this mental health week (10th October) is dedicated to adolescents. They are the ones exposed to maximum challenges in their developmental years in all facets biological, emotional, social and cognitive. This phase is a critical foundation for the rest of the life development.  Also, this population is the future of the nation and world. Best of both nature and nurture are utmost important during this phase. They have to be handled with care, love and affection!! Pray that this pandemic has repairable and less negative impact on them.  Preventive and preserving mental health is utmost important.

This issue onwards, covers

·         Challenges, mild to medium range problems affecting daily life and solutions. 

·         The role of parents

·         Untreated, ignored issues that could lead to severe mental health issues,

·         Causes for those mental disorders and more on interventions to overcome the negative impact.

 Why is my growth different from that of my classmate?

Differences in growth rates are normal. Adolescents do not all begin puberty at the same age. -  Girls (8 to 13yrs); Boys, on average after 2 years. The physical changes vary from person to person at different rates and different times based on genetics, environment, nutrition, physical activities etc. All these lead to lot of discomfort both physically and emotionally.

1.       The physical parts also grow variedly and at different times ex: Hands and feet may grow faster than arms and legs. This disproportionate growth often leaves these youngsters in a clumsy and awkward situation. They may drop things frequently, their movements in sports, dance etc may be impacted, this creates lot of stress.

2.       Sometimes, young girls are unable to cope up with the physical changes and managing menstruation with all the associated discomfort, pains etc is too big a challenge till they get adjusted.

3.       Blame it on raging hormones for mood swings, sulking, a craving for privacy and temper tantrums

4.       Some may worry excessively about: school performance; appearance/ body image (too short, too tall, too fat, too skinny or too pimply); popularity; not having friends; drugs and drinking; Oversensitive - (Belief: “Everyone will laugh at this baseball sized boil on my forehead.” Reality: The pimple is tiny and hidden by hair.)

5.       Thoughts far from reality can contribute to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Teens’ emotions often seem exaggerated. Their actions seem inconsistent. It is normal for young teens to swing from being happy to sad and from feeling smart to dumb. They are similar to the “terrible twos toddlerhood. “They want to be treated and taken care of like a small child in next minute they are pushing adults away, saying, ‘Let me do it.’ Or their earlier enthusiastic greeting hugs can turn into a wave or a smile or pulling away from the parent.

6.       Mental changes or cognitive changes happen in this phase.  Their logical reasoning, ability to solve complex problems and understand abstract concepts are higher. They are able to think better through problems and see different points of view or actions. Their application ability which is very high, again varies, they may not apply many things on themselves. That’s exactly how they begin to anticipate how their parents will react to something they say or do and are always ready with an answer or explanation.

 Who am I ?

Ability to identify themselves also called identity formation starts beginning, accompanied by identity confusion as well. This is one of the most essential phases where they explore range of identities. If this exploration is hampered, then all possibilities that they develop depression, anxiety related disorders later. It is best to allow individuals to discover themselves even if it means allowing them to falter. Lot of emotional clashes and adjustment later in life is a result of over protection in this phase.

My friends are everything

Adolescents have more affinity with their peers or cohorts. They are more likely to have greater association with peer group, want to be recognized by peers, want to emulate them. This is one of the reasons why good set of friends with good habits become important.

They seem to have lesser association with parents, since they are in state of identity confusion. Is my friend correct? or my father/mother? They are likely to try out the friend’s way rather than any advice from a parent.

They detest interfering parents. However, peers do not replace parents. Parents are still most important influence in their life. Hence parents need to be more like friends, overview if the peers have good influence, get to know the friends & their families, discuss with them about good company and bad ones.

What are the problems that I am facing? How do I solve them?

Habits get developed in 21 days. 100 days are required to set habits as life style.  Positive self-talk is the most essential mantra for the solution options listed.

1.      Health Problems

Having seen the development challenges and emotions that have not been expressed to anyone, health problems are bound to spike with mental health issues also.

·         Read books on physical development or talk to people, approach any counsellor if you are hesitant to speak to family member instead of holding on to assumptions and fears.

·         For both underweight and overweight, eating nutritious food with proteins pulses, grains, eggs etc, fruits & vegetables.

·         Move your body to keep healthy mind.  Walking, Jogging, Cycling, Swimming, Yoga. Play outdoor games for 1 hour. You need to sweat. This helps balancing the growth hormones, body weight and keeps mind happy

·         Cleansing mind and body – breathing, daily bath, keep yourself and surrounding clean are most important activities.

Just do:  Eat right, Move More, Breathe Easy

2.      Poor Concentration, Slow learning and Poor Memory

Some of the symptoms are:  No Motivation, Attraction and Distractions TV/Mobile Friends,

Worries and Tension, Emotional Distress, Ill Health

        The rays of the sun, when focused upon an object with a sun glass, produce heat many times greater than scattered rays of same source of light and heat. This is true of attention. When you focus your attention upon an object, your every voluntary and involuntary action, is to obtain that object. If you can focus your energies upon a thing, excluding everything else, you generate the force that can bring you what you want. Refer to Part 2 of how Subconscious mind works.

Some of the exercises that you can do:

1.       Mindful breathing - Begin with 5 mins. Focus on breathing in left and exhaling through right. Be aware of the air flow.

2.       Controlling Desires: Treat yourself after you have achieved a set goal, until then stick to the schedule of accomplishing the goal. “ಹುಚ್ಚುಕೋಡಿ ಮನಸು ಅದು ಹದಿನಾರರ ವಯ್ಯಸ್ಸು” Smartly and diligently tutor the mind to divert the desiring thoughts to later time.

3.       Sleep: Adequate 6-7 hours’ sleep will help the mind to relax. Relaxing mind will help retain the required information in the memory.

4.       Techniques for retention:

a.       Mnemonics – creating meaning full word of list of things to be remembered. VIBGYOR (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red)

b.      Create a story/poem by linking all key points ( Ex: Mother Saw Father Wearing The Turban Suddenly– for the Rahu kala time 1.5 hours calculation starting with 7.30 am on Monday, Saturday, Friday etc)

c.       Chunking – group related key points in a group. Ex: remembering 10 numbered telephone number 3-3-3-1 (944 662 062 9)

d.      I hear I know; I see I remember; I do I understand – Audio, Video, Practical. Listening to teachers, audio recordings. Create colourful images in notes to remember (Geography, Biology). Some of the experiments, doing practically will never let your memory down or teaching someone is a way to remember.

e.      3 R : Read, Rehearse, Recall-  Read for 45 mins and write notes of key points. Within 48 hours, rehearse or re-read the key points and Recall them. Sometimes do read aloud. Discussing with a friend is another way of rehearsing and re-enforcing concepts into the memory.

f.        Mirror Talk: Recall or teach an imaginary student in front of a mirror. That is the best way to learn-correct the reading method. You will understand your learning errors.

g.       Use both left and right brain – While studying for academics do forget to draw, paint, sing/listen music, read nonacademic books. Keeping both active is most important for rewiring the brain network and encoding the new learning.