Adolescents: A Case Study

The first step in taking action against adolescent suicide is by recognizing the warning signs. Some of the warning signs are (a) rage, anger, seeking revenge; (b) acting reckless or engaging in risky activities, seemingly without thinking; (c) feeling trapped, as if there is no way out; (d)

Teen’s behavior is a major warning sign of suicide or suicidal thoughts. Many factors play into an adolescent's behavior and attitude determining the way they

It’s no surprise that adolescents tend to withhold some of their personal information from their parents for a variety of reasons. When the health of the adolescent in concerned, on the other hand, how should the situation be handled? Teenagers are an extremely vulnerable population due to the many changes, stresses, and difficulties that they experience during their everyday life. This is the time in which adolescents value their privacy the most. The same goes for how they handle their medical situations. When they are just going in for a yearly checkup, a vaccine, or a common illness, most teenagers have no problem sharing the information with their parents to ensure that they are well taken care of. Also, teens typically rely on

Suicides and attempted suicides have also increased among adolescents at an alarming rate in recent decades. Research findings suggest that the suicidal adolescent has usually had, since childhood, a history of stress and personal problems. Attempts to resolve these problems such as running away from home or an increasing social isolation, withdrawal and acting out, may precipitate an attempted suicide. Early professional help is often needed to prevent this drastic action. Sadly, when the signs are clear it is usually too late.

We have taken note of how often they feel concerned or nervous, how many headaches or stomachaches that has no explanation. They can’t seem to sleep or they have frequent nightmares. They harm themselves and others. These are just a few to name. The complete list is located on the online article NIMH: Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

What were the Research Questions or Hypotheses in the article? Copy them directly from the article. Then, using YOUR OWN WORDS, briefly paraphrase what these mean. 5 points

Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism published an article by Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis and Daniel Klink titled Adolescents with gender dysphoria in 2015. The article discusses the increase of youth diagnosed with gender dysphoria and receiving medical treatment and possibly surgery as well. The authors stressed the importance for psychotherapy and/or family therapy. The article also discussed the factors that influence gender development psychological, social, and biological. There are not many studies on determinants of gender dysphoria, and no epidemiological studies in children younger than 15 exist at all. Although, more recently research has focused on histological and brain imagining studies on individuals diagnosed

“Research shows that teen depression is on the rise and suicide is always a risk during the course of a major depressive episode.” (Katie Hurley, LCSW). Signs of depression/suicidal thoughts vary in reason because there are many reasons as to why teens have those thoughts. For example, a teen can be thinking of suicide because of the overwhelming feeling of stress, feeling of emptiness or loneliness. “About 45 percent of all suicides had symptoms of either depression or alcoholism” (Gale Group, 2018). Suicide can come from drug abuse but the thought of taking away a life could also come from depression. There are many known causes of depression such as family issues. This feeling can lead to taking their own life because they may feel like they don’t want to go through what they are going through and that they do not want to live any

Adolescents/Teenagers (13 – 18 years) – this stage is referred to as the “identity vs confusion” stage by psychologist Erikson. Basically, this is the period where children ask “who I'm I?” and “what can I be?” in a quest to develop an identity and to fit into society. It's important that a solid foundation was laid in the previous stages and children have a support system in place that they can trust. Sexual body changes are rapid, inducing feelings that can evoke confusion; therefore, sex and reproductive education is important at this stage. Career guidance is also vital.

Suicide is a major problem worldwide; especially for teenagers. Self image plays a big roll in American society today, especially in enabling someone to make a wrong and destructive decision like suicide. Self image and low esteem effect the chances of a teenagers suicide greatly. There are many events that lead up to a young persons suicide, for instance a little problem that seems inescapable which manifests themselves into overwhelming burdens. Detection and prevention are both key for adults and young people to stop suicide from happening.

The mental health of adolescents is fairly considered to be one of the major prerequisites of the country 's sustainable development in economics, culture, and social life. Subsequently, the easy and nondiscriminatory access to the psychological treatment appears to be a matter of top priority for the federal government. Nevertheless, the recent statistical data indicates the substantial problems in terms of providing the adolescents with the necessary medical support. In accordance with the US Department of Health & Human Services, in 2014, less than 50% of the country 's adolescent population were provided with a required treatment (US Department of Health & Human Services). Moreover, the data on the minorities ' access to the mental health treatment demonstrates that, for instance, African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to be prescribed a treatment from schizophrenia (American Psychological Association). Undoubtedly, such a trend may be primarily explained by the insufficient efforts of both federal and local health care institutions in terms of providing the minorities ' representatives with the necessary psychological treatment. Consequently, in order to understand comprehensively the problem of the adolescent mental health in the US, it is necessary to define the issue-related objective and subjective concerns as well as to analyze the peculiarities of a potential corrective to the

Usually, the first theme that arises with the thought of adolescence is puberty, which can be a tumulus time. Puberty is a time of rapid physical maturation including hormonal and bodily changes. These changes include menarche, weight gains, height gains, and hormonal changes (McGraw Hill Education, 2015). Personally, puberty was a time of rapid growth; I went from kids sizes to adult sizes in the matter of a few months. As an early-maturing girl, I was confused and surprised when I started to notice the changes occurring to my body; I started to form breasts and my figure began to change drastically. I no longer had the body types of my friends who were boys. Nevertheless, these changes began to occur and I wasn’t prepared for one of the markers of “womanhood”; my first menstruation. I went through lectures with my mother and she gave me “talks”, but when it came to reality, I wasn’t prepared. However, with a little patience I have survived the most difficult parts of puberty but this isn’t the only thing adolescences have to deal with.

Teenage is a fundamental stage of life that each human being passes through. Some people face this period of their life strongly and positively, while others face many problems and difficulties. This depends on the environment these young adults live in, their parents, their friends, their living conditions, their education, and many other factors. Teenagers face many problems such as becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol, being influenced negatively by their peers, self-image and weight, or even arguments with their parents

The DSM states “having five or more symptoms present during the same two week period and represent a change from precious functioning at least one of the symptoms is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure” (American Psychiatric Association:, 2013). Some other “behavioral patterns are running away from home, accident-proneness; aggressive acting out; temper tantrums; self-criticism; social withdrawal and loneliness; extreme sensitivity to criticism by others; low tolerance of frustration’ sleep problems; dark fantasies, daydreams or hallucinations; marked personality change; and overwhelming interest in death and suicide.” (Comer, 2014) This is why depression and suicidal behavior is harder to recognize and are not treated. “Depression can be difficult to diagnose in teens because adults may expect teens to act moody. In addition, adolescents do not always understand or express their feelings very well. They may not be aware of the symptoms of depression and may not seek help” ("DEPRESSION IN TEENS"). Therefore, when a teen is suffering from depression and feeling suicidal it is important to help them seek help by just asking them if they are feeling suicidal and then help them take the appropriate steps to find and receive help. “About 5 percent of children and adolescents in the general population suffer from depression at any given point in time” (Shaffer,

So first, let me tell you some of the possible causes for teens being suicidal. There are plenty of other reasons a teen might feel suicidal but these are some that I could think of. So because of where we live, and drugs being a growing problem here, I thought I’d focus a little on the living environment, focus also on another environment that the teen might encounter, and lastly on the mental health perspective.