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Sarah Proulx

Professor Moore

ENGL 1302.08

22 April 2017

Solutions Towards Mental Illnesses

Mental illnesses have been a big dilemma for a long time and has been researched by

many people in a wide variety of fields. Giving teens medication over time to treat what they

have has shown that medication is not the best thing most of the time. Instead of treating teens

with just medication adolescents should find better ways to cope with mental illnesses because

some treatments are negatively affecting them over time. Mental illnesses in adolescents are

increasing drastically over time. Some of the problems that has been a factor of increasing these

mental illnesses is sociocultural aspects such as parents. Being a parent is a big responsibility and

if the parent of the teen does not watch out for their child or does not give them enough attention

the teen can then potentially create a mental illness such as depression. Parental characteristics

can contribute towards the development of problems such as depression in adolescents (Agerup,

par.1). Though, it is not only the parents but also teachers and peers. Present technology and the

variety of treatment methods that are being used are also some factors in a teens mental illness.

Sociocultural aspects such as family life has a big impact on adolescents, especially the parents

or guardians of the teen. Technology is an industry that keeps growing worldwide which is very

helpful in our society, but it can also be scary for those people like teens roaming the internet

who are getting cyberbullied. There are also treatment methods such as medication that effect the

adolescent. These three things play a major role in an adolescents life. Though if the guardians

of these teens and the teens themselves alter these lifestyle choices just a bit it can make a
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positive change in their life reducing the teens mental illness. Most of the time people are born

with the mental illness even if they do not start showing signs till later on. If they are not born

with the mental illness than usually the person goes through something traumatizing like people

who get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These three things that have an impact on an

adolescents life are things that can increase their mental illness easily and therefore would like to

reduce the stress these three subjects induce on the teens. Some ways to reduce the mental

illnesses in teens is to have the parents or guardians of the adolescent engage more with each

other, make known of the regulations of online cyberbullying and instead of a vast variety of

medications the adolescent can go through behavioral therapy.

Families have an immense impact on the emotional stability of their teens. Parents who

are overly involved can exert a lot of pressure on a teen. Those parents who are not involved at

all in the teens life can make the teen anti-social which can lead to depression or the opposite of

manic which can lead to angry outburst. Parents should be close to their children and let them

know they care about them if they do not show it as much. When caregivers are loving and

responsive, children develop secure attachments, acquiring a model of self as loved and valued,

and a model of others as warm and loving (Konishi, par.2). The parents of the adolescent should

spend more personal time with the teen, without being over protective they should set a side time

to make sure the teen is okay and let them talk and tell the parent what is going on in their life.

The biggest part a parent can do for their teen is to let them know that they are there for them.

Parents influence the development of their children by serving as role models (Evans, par. 10).

Children usually follow in their parents footsteps. The way parents act around the adolescent and

treat them is who they are going to grow up to be. Being an indulgent parent would be the best

for a growing adolescent and more efficient in helping their teen who is going through mental
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illnesses. Indulgent parents try to remove outside constraints without endangering the welfare of

the child. Furthermore, indulgent parents provide their child with adult rights but not adult

responsibilities (Evans, par. 14). If parents try their best to be indulgent parents it will take

stress off of the parents shoulders because they will not have to worry as much about their

adolescent feeling as though they had to hide their mental illness. It would help the adolescent

with the mental illness they obtain because they will feel as though they are free from

responsibilities but their parents will still be behind them showing them the way and supporting

them with what they are going through. Not all parents know that their teen has a mental illness

and sometimes the teen does not know they have one either. Though if the adolescent has a

mental illness it is most likely to show more in their adolescence. Once shown then hopefully the

parents of the teen will take action towards getting them the help they need.

Technology is over taking adolescents over the generations. Adolescents are depending

on technology such as internet websites to interact with people instead of socially interacting

with them face to face. Although teens are meeting new people and talking to friends more often,

now it can also be dangerous because there are cyber bullies out there that will not stop even

when the adolescent is at their worse with their mental illness. Parents can help decrease the

internet time that the adolescent has but that would be controlling them which will make them

act out in anger. The adolescent themselves need to be aware of what could happen and the

parents need to monitor what their teens are on. Not just parents but teachers are trying to help

out the teens. Due to the negative impact of cyberbullying on students, schools must take action

to reduce incidents both inside and outside of school (Stauffer, par. 10). When the adolescents

are not at home and at school it is the schools job to watch over the students well-being. Davids

law was made newly in 2017 to help prevent and stop cyberbullying. With technology advancing
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not only does the parents and adolescents have to stand up against it but also society. Even if

parents think their teens are not being cyberbullied they should still educate them about what can

happen to those who cyberbullies. Then the adolescents do not cyberbully others and they know

what to do if they are getting cyberbullied.

Besides adolescents being on a wide variety of medications the better thing to do would

be to do behavioral therapy. When being put on a lot of medication, especially at a young age, it

does a lot of harm to the body mentally and physically. Physically when teens take a wide variety

of medication they can gain a lot of weight or vice versa become skinny. Numerous effects can

happen when taking multiple medications at once. Even correctly prescribed and correctly used

medicines can harm through side-effects or unanticipated allergic reactions, ranging from minor

to potentially fatal (Reynolds, par.1). All medication has side effects and usually those are

precautions that do not end up happening. Though if each medication has a side effect those

mixed together the person is bound to have something severe happen to them. Besides the body

being effected and damaged by the multiple medications being used, the brain is also effected.

When starting many medications all at once like some adolescents have to go through what

happens is they start to depend on the medications. Then every time the adolescent feels a certain

way that they are told they should not be feeling such as depression they take another dosage of

medication. When adolescents start doing this and start medicating themselves with all the

medication that was prescribed to them it often leads to an addiction or they overdoes. What

behavioral therapy will do for these adolescents is that instead of taking medication after

medication they can learn how to deal with the emotions they are trying to hide. There are many

types of behavioral therapy that an adolescent can go through it just depends on what their

situation is. Behavioral therapy is the best thing an adolescent can do instead of being prescribed
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and taking medications. Behavioral therapy is something that the adolescent can use the rest of

their life and use during any situation that they are in. This technique helps them get to know

who they are and how they react to things along with how to deal with an emotion like

depression in a healthy manner when they start to feel that way, rather than feeling an emotion

like depression and acting manic upon it. Adolescents should go through behavioral therapy if

admitted to a psychiatric hospital instead of being prescribed more medication. Behavioral

therapy is better for the adolescent physically and mentally, it also has no side effects and can

help them with situations the rest of their lives.

By taking these three steps adolescents can easily get most of the stress off of them and

be able to resume a better stress free life. If the parents are there for them and work with them

and also the teachers and peers in their life then the teens will know that they have someone to

turn to if anything is bothering them and not feel self-conscious or scared thinking they are

alone. Monitoring technology is an important thing that is going on and again if the guardians of

the adolescent watches over them and what they are doing then the guardians will know more

about what their child is going through. Also, teens will not being getting bullied as much

because if the parents of other children are watching what they are doing then the parents of the

bullies can put a stop to it. Then there is behavioral therapy which will comfort the teen and help

them the rest of their lives. Behavioral therapy teaches the teen how to deal with their emotions

in a positive way without relying on medication. If they all work together and keep up these three

things being proposed it will create a better and more relaxing life for the adolescent as well as

for the family and friends of the teen.

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Works Cited

Agerup, T., et al. "Maternal and Paternal Psychosocial Risk Factors for Clinical Depression in a

Norwegian Community Sample of Adolescents." Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 69,

no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 35-41. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3109/08039488.2014.919021. Accessed

10 April 2017.

Evans, Nathaniel J.1, nevans4@utk.edu, et al. "Coddling Our Kids: Can Parenting Style Affect

Attitudes toward Advergames?." Journal of Advertising, vol. 42, no. 2/3, Apr. 2013, pp.

228-240. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00913367.2013.774602. Accessed 10 April 2017.

Konishi, Chiaki and Shelley Hymel. "An Attachment Perspective on Anger among Adolescents."

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, vol. 60, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 53-79. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=94839230&site=ehost-live.

Accessed 14 April 2017.

Reynolds, Matthew, et al. "A Descriptive Exploratory Study of How Admissions Caused by

Medication-Related Harm Are Documented within Inpatients' Medical Records." BMC

Health Services Research, vol. 14, no. 1, July 2014, pp. 290-308. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1186/1472-6963-14-257. Accessed 14 April 2017.

Stauffer, Sterling, et al. "High School Teachers' Perceptions of Cyberbullying Prevention and

Intervention Strategies." Psychology in the Schools, vol. 49, no. 4, Apr. 2012, pp. 352-

367. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/pits.21603. Accessed 17 April 2017.