Although the anxiety and depression issues occur in everyone but the Teenage years especially for girls stays at the maximum amount of risk as it gets accelerated during this time. And anxiety and depression are definitely the main causes for any type of mental Health disorders for adolescent girls. The teenage girls are more than twice as likely to get diagnosed with mental disorders, especially mood disorders, than the boys and the rate of prevalence is 14% to 20%.
Reasons for mental health disorders
The process of emotional stimuli is very much different for the teenage girls as they mature out faster during the time of puberty in terms of the emotional recognition than the boys, so their high-sensitivity makes them become more vulnerable towards the mental disorders.
Some common types of symptoms noticed in teenagers prior their mental illness:
- Growing social phobias- There might be some high levels of self consciousness and insecurity among them in particular social settings it might be because of their social group with which they are growing up or it might be due to the social atmosphere.
- Generalized forms of anxiety- You can notice that your daughter is getting absolutely awkward about silly things which happens everyday.
- Signs of getting depressed- You might observe them getting persistently sad or anxious which day would not be wanting to share.
It has been noticed that more than 1 in every 10 teenage girls mostly between 12 and 17 years old experiences episodes of major depression every year and it means that for more than 2 weeks your daughter becomes depressed due to the situation or they losts pleasure in some activities. And also she might not be functioning normally as she is facing trouble with her concentrating power, food habits and sleep cycles.
Significant warning signs of mental illness
For maximum of the teenage girls, the most telltale symptom is definitely a degradation in their grades but definitely there are some other signs as well.
There are different kinds of warning signs, and the ones which falls under anxiety disorders are:
- Getting irritated in maximum situations
- Becoming tired or getting fatigued with minimal physical work
- Observing her to feel restless in maximum situations
- She might be experiencing muscle tension, so keep an eye to understand if she is really getting so
- Getting serious struggles with sleep cycles, like falling asleep quite often or staying asleep for long time or might not be sleeping at all
- Losing self control often, because they must be having great difficulties in keeping their tension levels under control.
The social disorders or social phobia that acts as the symptoms are as follows:
- Getting anxious or tensed about any social event or get together that is scheduled after a long time ahead in the future
- Feeling extreme levels of self consciousness along with embarrassment or rejection and that is why, they are ending up in either offending people or avoiding people because they themselves have the fear of humiliation
- Avoiding public places or social events as they feel very tense on the thought of staying around public and teenage girls also tend to have struggles in talking to other people.
- Having serious struggles in making new friends are keeping the old friends.
- They become so concerned with social events that they might tremble, blush or sweat while they are around other people.
- The teenage girls, if they become mentally disturbed, can grow some more social habits like pulling away from their friends, school or any activities that they have seriously enjoyed participating in during the past days and it is really one of the most important warning signs.
The warning signs to notice and understand if your daughter is having terrible depression or suffering from any mental disorder due to severe depression then the following signs are very crucial:
- Either feeling worthless or helpless in any given situation, besides feeling guilty even if they have not done anything
- Getting persistently anxious or sad about everything or everyone around
- Talking or moving in a very slower manner then they usually did
- Experiencing sudden changes in their weight or appetite which goes unexplained
- Having constant struggles with concentration power besides facing problems in making decisions and struggling with their memory.
- Having suicidal thoughts as they become detached from everything and sometimes also their guilt ridden mind forces them to take some serious steps.
Importance of a healthy mental health for teenagers
Definitely adolescence is a crucial period for every girl's life as this is the time they develop and maintain their social and emotional habits throughout their life and that is why mental well-being is very much important at this period. For a proper mental well being, they are in need of adopting some healthy behavior patterns like, incalculating timely sleep schedules, doing regular exercises, developing interpersonal skills besides intrapersonal skills, having the ability of problem solving and there is also need of learning to manage the self care self emotions. Coping up with difficult situations can be incorporated in them through various supported environments that can be created in family or in school and also in some wider communities as for the individual requirement. On an estimate only 10 to 20% of the teenage girls experience mental health conditions globally but in real life the situation is much more complicated although it stays out of our data as the maximum of them remains undiagnosed and that is why they stay untreated or undertreated. But it is very important to identify and diagnose their mental problem otherwise it might create bigger issues in the future.
Ways for managing mental disorders in Young Girls
- Firstly, identifying the stressors or the symptoms, that is if they are skipping meals, not getting enough sleep, any sudden changes or any general lackings taking place during their day to day routine.
- Initiate a conversation with them and talk to them. Having a proper conversation with them is definitely going to identify their problem.
- Please do not think that your child can't be having any mental disorder! The situation gets worse as most of the parents feel that their child is absolutely fine and such things can never happen to their child. In maximum cases, the parents do not bring their child for treatment before the issue prolongs for several months as they are in denial. So acceptance is very much important.
- Then contact a psychiatrist or you can even visit your daughter's pediatrician or family physician at first. As they are familiar with your child's medical history, so they can catch it faster and it would be easier to start the diagnosis. But counselling is very much important which is often paired with the medicines.
Thereafter, adolescent period that is from 11 to 19 years of age is a formative and unique time especially for girls. There are several emotional physical and social changes and sometimes violence or abuse also tends to make the teenage girls vulnerable to different mental health problems. That is why, it is very important for the parents to promote their psychological well being and to protect the teenage girls so that they do not face any adverse experiences besides the risk factors which might be causing serious impacts over their mind.
References:
https://childmind.org/article/mood-disorders-and-teenage-girls/
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health
https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/health-and-wellness/2017/may/teens-mental-health