Stress is the body’s way of rising to a challenging situation. Everyone experiences stress at times and it can’t be avoided entirely. Learning to manage stress is what makes all the difference.
Stress can be positive and motivate us to prepare for events. But when we have too much it can seem as if it’s taking over.
Too much stress can make teens or young adults feel panicked or overwhelmed. When this happens, managing it becomes a challenge
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When communicating with a young person, it’s important to listen. This sounds obvious, but it can be difficult not to jump in and offer your point of view.
Listening more than you talk is a good starting point. Being a good listener takes skill and a lot of effort. It doesn’t necessarily come naturally.
Give young people time. It’s critical to really give young people time and attention if you want them to experience you as a good listener. We have all, at one time or other, tried to say something important to someone who was not really listening.
They may give this away by fidgeting, looking at something over our shoulder, checking their watch, or interrupting us. Can you recall how this made you feel?
It likely wasn’t a particularly pleasant feeling. You probably didn’t really feel listened to, understood or even important at that moment. If you’re not in a position to listen attentively to a young person, tell them and try choosing a better time for it.
One of the reasons young people might not open up is due to fear of being judged. Convey to the young person in your life you’re not here to judge them, but simply to listen.
Assure them no matter what they say, you will still care and be there for them. You are not going to think any less of them, regardless.
Separating a person’s behaviour from the person themselves can help manage our tendency towards judgement. Another trap we can fall into is jumping to conclusions. Once we do this, we stop listening, rather than truly hearing what the young person is saying.
Young people can often feel embarrassed or ashamed about their struggles. They often feel very alone, as if they are the only one experiencing these challenges. By normalising a young person’s feelings, you can reassure them.
Make sure you really listen to what is going on for that young person, and ask how they feel about it. Let them know that they are not alone.
There are countless media stories about the perils of young people being online. Ironically, a lot of these stories are good ‘clickbait’ and give a false sense of what they are actually doing online.
Young people are online earlier these days communicating through many different devices. Even if you don’t live in a ‘connected’ household, they could be accessing the internet with friends or elsewhere.
Increasing reports of the negative impact of social media on young people’s self-esteem cannot be ignored, but are they true?
A number of popular social media platforms with different functions are now used by young people in Ireland. We are connected more than ever before and that connectivity causes concern for some parents.
Technology, as they say, is neutral, these are really tools to enable communication and entertainment.
The evidence to support the negative impact on young people’s mental health seems to come in thick and fast. Though there is plenty of evidence to say the contrary.
Social media allows people to connect with like-minded people, no matter where they are. This can be of great comfort and an outlet for young people. It can also allow a platform for self-expression.
Unfortunately, it has also become a place where young people can continuously compare themselves against a benchmark. Some young people can get caught in the trap of gaining their self-worth from a numbers game of likes, shares and follows.
The term ‘screen time’ gets bandied about quite a bit. When the phrase is linked with young people, reports are often negative.
Recently with restrictions due to the pandemic, it is likely that screen time has increased across the board. However, the term itself is quite misleading as not all screen time is equal.
The media often covers studies linking teen depression and screen time, or young people’s use of social media and anxiety.
However, recent studies have challenged the way these studies were conducted. Researchers from the University of Oxford have stated that the use of phones, tablets and laptops is no worse for teenagers’ mental health than eating more potatoes.
That’s not to underestimate concerns you may have if there are huge fights about turning the Wi-Fi off. Being on the receiving end of grunts from behind a phone day in, day out can cause a lot of frustration for parents.
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Anxiety is an uncomfortable feeling of fear or stress. It’s quite a common feeling we all experience at some stage.
Many young people accessing Jigsaw face-to-face services report feelings of anxiety as one of the things going on for them.
In this article, you will find:
At Jigsaw, we know early intervention can make a huge difference to a young person’s mental health. Offering support early on can prevent a young person’s mood from deteriorating and possibly avert a crisis.
To act early, you need to know what to look out for. And how to tell if someone is beginning to struggle with their mental health.
We have all had those moments where we recognise a young person not quite seeming themselves.
It might be something they say or do, or something they fail to do, that lets us know they may be struggling with their mental health. We all have our off days. It is important to acknowledge and to talk about this.
However, there are some changes in how a young person is acting, thinking or feeling that can be first signs they are struggling.
Often as parents, all your focus and attention can go on making sure your young people are alright. Understandably, they are your first priority. But with this focus, it can be easy to lose sight of your own self-care needs.
Looking after your own mental health tends to come last on the long list of things to do. While this is understandable, it isn’t sustainable or useful in the long run. To be able to support young people effectively, parents need to be in a good place themselves.
Lockdown has been very tough due to Covid-19. As restrictions ease, self-care really needs to be part of your weekly routine.
Jigsaw clinicians looked at a number of changes that young people commonly experience and then took questions from parents about their current situation. This is a recording of the last in this series of webinars for parents.
Launched in 2019, Jigsaw and UCD’s My World Survey 2 asked young people if there was a special adult in their lives. This was an adult they could turn to when they were in need.
76% of young people had at least one adult they could talk to when they needed support. Having this person in their lives was linked to better overall mental health.
Young people who reported having one good adult tended to have:
Not having One Good Adult was linked to higher levels of distress, anti-social behaviour and increased risk for suicidal behaviour. One Good Adults are crucial to helping young people do well and to flourish.
