Adolescent Counselling & Parent Child Counselling

Adolescence is a development stage occurring from 11 to 21 years of age. It is the time span from where the child moves toward its adulthood and this is the time they want to build their place in the world. So they try becoming independent as there is social, emotional and intellectual growth happening in them. It’s a tough time for children and their families too. They start questioning parental authority and show rebelling behaviour, creating tensions in the family. Due to non-approval from families they tend to spend more time with their friends than family. They may also face peer pressure of indulging into sexual intercourse or experimenting to try alcohol, drugs or smoking.

These indulgences may become habit incase of unhealthy family background, inadequate education, living in poverty or highly criminal areas. Stressful feelings, depression related to family problems, academic failure or non- acceptance from the society may affect the teenagers. Disobeying adults, not abiding by the rules, stealing and being permanently angry is also an indication of their suffering. They may at times lead to self- destructive behaviour such as bunking schools or at times they can even run away from houses out of frustrations, at times it even leads to suicides.

Symptoms of alarm that your child is suffering:

• Changes in appetite or weight
• Appearing depressed, irritating or tearful
• Low energy levels
• Difficulty in concentration
• Changed sleeping habits
• Feeling of worthlessness
• Worsening school performance
• Withdrawn from friends or overindulgence into friends
• Decreased interest in once most loved activities
• Changed behaviours
• Constant failures

It’s not necessary that all these are the only symptoms which denote that they need help. This can be understood by constant observation. Parents understanding and support is very important to treat who are in depression but if challenges are faced please do not ignore and consult the therapist.