Adolescents: How To Recognize Risky Behaviors

Between the crisis of adolescence and the search for identity, it is sometimes difficult to understand the adolescents. If these behaviors are normal, they often worry the parents.

Adolescence, it is not a disease! Admittedly, there are psychopathological disorders, as for other ages in life. But one should not confuse the kinds of blues of some teenagers and authentic serious problems which can lead to serious illnesses or even suicide.

However, it is true that the teenagers of today changed. Their behaviors have evolved, not necessarily in the good direction.

What is new, and becomes pretty common, are dangerous behaviors, going from sexual behaviors, sports, driving dangerous motorized vehicles, to the famous binge drinking i.e. drinking until falling into coma…
In fact these behaviors were occasional in the past, and become extensive nowadays, in the same way than “attacks” against the body, piercings, scarifications, all these are risky behaviors.

How to explain these risky behaviors and in particular the consumption of drugs or alcohol? One can distinguish several phenomena.

In certain case, this consumption reflects a true suffering and they “heal” themselves like that. But there are also risky behaviors from the teenagers, which are the “to make like the others”, to belong to a group.
Facing this risk-taking from the adolescents, the answer of the parents is not always adapted.

Many parents say it is not serious, it is the crisis of adolescence. This is the way to neglect serious situations, and not to notice when a young person is really depressive. Yet depression is a true disorder, which can lead to suicide. To think, for a young girl who begins a diet, “it is a small whim” while she loses 10 kilos, 15 kilos, and flirts with death.
Admittedly, let's not dramatize the situation, the majority of adolescents are well, but that if an adolescent shows signs of discomfort, it is necessary to ask ourselves about what this hides.

Difficult to distinguish a crisis of normal adolescence from more serious disorders. Certain signs are however evocative.

A young who is not interested in anything anymore, whose school results drop, a young person who smokes cannabis… Of course, a young person who smokes cannabis from time to time might not be too serious. But if he remains locked up in his room, does not go anymore to school, does not have anymore social life, or is anorexic, does not eat anymore, does not see his girlfriends anymore… It is also wise to worry when there is a repercussion in the scholar, social, and familial environment. And thus to say “it is the crisis of adolescence, it is normal”, it is not normal!

To be present and always listening, is the principal advice which one can give to the parents to accompany their child through adolescence, and to help them to become responsible adults.

By: Nicholas Fersing

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