By Curstie Konold
MPH, CSW-PIP, QMHP
The start of summer brings a sense of excitement for many teens. Take a moment to reflect back to your teen years. As we reminisce, we can likely all say that our adolescent years were a unique and informative time of our life. Mental wellbeing habits are often formed during this time as teens strengthen their social and emotional skills, laying a foundation of habits for the rest of their life. Consider what habits you perhaps formed during this time and what supports you had or needed when you were a teen.
There are a variety of important skills that can enhance positive mental wellbeing, and by encouraging teens to practice them, it increases the likelihood of them utilizing them throughout their life. Mental health and physical health are interconnected, so when we encourage physical self-care, we also encourage mental self-care. Healthy nutrition, exercise, and staying active help to maintain positive mental wellbeing. Emotional self-care can also impact mental wellbeing, and it can be practiced through staying active in enjoyable hobbies, music, journaling, play, or spending time outdoors.
Another important factor impacting mental wellbeing that teens face today is the growing use of social media. Having open conversations with teens about their social media use and how it can impact their mental health is crucial to supporting positive mental wellbeing. The Family and Youth Services Bureau guides parents to educate themselves on social media platforms, have an open-minded conversation about the benefits and risks of social media use, establish rules about privacy and boundaries, model healthy social media use to teens, encourage a balance of social media use with other activities, understand critical thinking and media literacy skills, and provide a safe space for teens to come to parents about managing difficult situations like cyberbullying.
One of the most impactful things adults surrounding teens can do to support positive mental wellbeing is allowing themselves to be vulnerable enough to talk openly about mental health with teens. Mental health stigma is a large influence in deterring individuals from seeking help, and in order to combat this stigma, open and truthful conversations can encourage teens to not fear discussing their own mental health challenges. These conversations can open the door to understanding what is going on in a teen’s life, providing opportunity to practice healthy skills to promote positive mental wellbeing.
Understanding brain development can also help adults recognize how to support positive mental health for teens. The pre-frontal cortex in the brain allows us to critically think, make sound decisions, and control our impulses; however, this part of the brain is still developing during adolescence and into early adulthood. This helps us understand why impulses and risk-seeking behaviors are common among teens. Having open conversations with teens allows for discussion of harm reduction strategies to reduce risk-seeking behaviors. Harm reduction seeks to meet teens where they are at in a nonjudgmental way. An example of this might be helping a teen access professional support services to manage mental health concerns and learn healthy coping skills.
As you think of teens in your life and reflect back on yourself as a teen, consider what type of supportive adult would have positively impacted you during that time. You have the ability to provide a sense of connection and hope for a teen. You have the choice to be a caring adult in the life of a teen that guides them to practicing healthy skills to establish positive mental health for years to come.