Teen Anxiety and Puberty Blues – A Parents Nightmare
Has Your Teenager Stopped Listening to You?
Teen anxiety is often the signal that puberty has begun. Has your adorable little daughter or roguish young boy grown-up some and stopped listening to you? Are they becoming defiant? Have they started answering back? Are they refusing to do what you tell them and begun displaying sudden outbursts of anger when they don’t get their way?
“Don’t blame the kid, these are just the normal changes they all go through when they’re approaching puberty.” Many of the other parents will tell you, and most of the time they will be right… because when children begin their journey towards puberty, their developing bodies start producing hormones -testosterone in boys, estrogen and progesterone in girls- and it’s these hormones usually causing the physical and emotional changes in children that parents find difficult to cope with.
Your Interest and Understanding Can Often Produce Miraculous Results..
Children don’t consciously understand what is happening to them as they make the transition into their teen years, so it doesn’t help to blame them or impose tighter demands on them in an attempt to curb their rebelliousness.
Instead, by understanding what they are going through and spending more time with them, discussing their interests (music they’re listening to, how their friends are doing, sports with boys, fashion with girls, and if appropriate, sharing some of your own childhood experiences when you were their age) will often produce miraculous results.
But… if you find your interest shunned and your child’s behaviour becoming more extreme, even over the top and disturbing to the point where you’re concerned they might do something reckless, something they may regret, then it’s time to take a closer look and see if their behaviour matches any of the troubling anxiety symptoms children display when they have an anxiety disorder.
Is Your Teen Displaying Anxiety and Panic Attack Symptoms?
Unfortunately anxiety and panic attacks are far more common in teenagers than most people realise, and because teens usually find it difficult to communicate their deeper feeling, it’s not uncommon for parents to put their unsettling behaviour down to puberty and school and peer pressures, completely overlooking the fact that their child is suffering from an anxiety/panic disorder.
If anxiety symptoms in children are overlooked and children move through their teens untreated, their anxiety driven fear will not only continue to gain strength, but often escalate to the point where their behaviour gets so out of hand they turn to alcohol and drugs, and then, continue on into their adult lives carrying these addictions, along with their anxiety, with them.
“Puberty Blues” is Often a Rocky Road for Parents
It’s rare to find a parent who doesn’t love their child and only want the best for them, but when traversing the trials and tribulations of puberty with their teens, parents often find they need help. If you are a loving parent going through a rough patch, and you’re concerned you teenager might be displaying anxiety symptoms, feel free to visit