Therapy is often seen as only for people with major mental health issues.
According to Orlando Treatment Solutions, a website for substance abuse recovery and mental health treatment, “a popular belief that therapy can only be needed for severe mental disorders.” But those are only misconceptions and myths about therapy. Therapy is, in fact, very diverse. There are many reasons why teens and grown-ups alike seek therapy.
According to Psychotherapy Today, therapy is “a form of treatment aimed at relieving emotional distress and mental health problems.” Many well-trained mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists, offer therapy services. “Therapy sessions refer to structured meetings between a licensed provider and a client to improve some aspect of their life.” Therapy helps you improve yourself and develop strategies and treatments to enhance your self-understanding.
As teens, we deal with a lot of stress and anxiety. It can be from school, extracurriculars, or just growing up. And sometimes we don’t know how to express ourselves. But sometimes some people seem to have it all together: good grades, a lot of friends, and confidence. But I doubt if any of us teens have it all together. Even the best of us have our struggles.
Here are five reasons why we teens should consider trying therapy.
1. School is Stressful
The homework, the multiple assignments, all those projects that come from all your classes, left to right, can be exhausting. Every day, it is something new.
Heavy workloads in school can be the most overwhelming challenge for teens because they combine academic expectations, time pressures, and emotional strain. When multiple teachers assign projects, essays, and tests within the same week, teens often feel buried under a mountain of responsibilities.
The stress of juggling assignments can trigger unwanted anxiety and burnout. According to Sunshine City Counseling, a mental health service for online or in-person therapy sessions for everyone, “Many students struggle to balance assignments, exams, and extracurricular activities while maintaining a healthy social life. As a result, stress and anxiety have become common experiences among young learners.”
14-year-old Carter Akai-Windham believes that therapy can help teens find perspective to face heavy workloads.
2. Hormones
Becoming an adolescent comes with perks, like boys’ voices deepening and girls getting taller. But one thing that will definitely affect adolescence mentally is hormones.
Hormone changes come with mood swings, increased sensitivity, and often insecurity. The list goes on from there. And it all comes with getting older. But some handle it differently than others. For some, puberty can be seen as complicated and overwhelming. Coming into adolescence means experiencing adult-like emotions and feelings 10 times harder than when you were five.
13-year-old Lola Stevenson states, “I think that especially as a teenager, due to hormones, all of our mood swings have increased a lot over time, causing us to be more irritable.”
According to New Harbor Behavioral Healthcare, an outpatient treatment center that provides mental and behavioral health services, “The increased levels of hormones which cause puberty, also have an effect on the neurotransmitters and neural pathways involved in emotional processing.” Going on to say, “This effect on the brain is responsible for a number of emotional changes in teens, including increased stress, mood swings, and irritability.”
Stevenson goes on to say, “It’s a little frustrating having to put up with these emotional changes due to my hormones because it kind of makes me feel a little out of my body or that I don’t really understand myself sometimes.” She says it’s almost like she’s just an observer of her own body.
Hormones affect the brain and regulate mood. And for some teens, the emotional roller coaster can be exhausting.
3. Mental Health Struggles
Teens can have an intense change in anxiety and loneliness. But minor, untreated mental health issues that occur between childhood and adulthood could lead to long-term consequences. According to Saint Simons by the Sea, it has treatment services for mental health and substance use for all age groups: “Early intervention can prevent long-term consequences and improve a teen’s quality of life.”
Social isolation is an example of the mental health struggles of teens. It isn’t a mental health issue only designed for teens, but adults as well. According to Independence Health System, a nonprofit health care organization, “The time between childhood and adulthood is also a period when many mental health disorders begin to emerge.”
Adolescence is a critical time to build social and coping skills. But waiting to address the minor issue some adolescents go through can, according to Advanced Autism Services, turn into a long-term problem, with effects that can follow you into adulthood, like loneliness, anxiety, and depression.
Stevenson states, “I think that therapy can build coping skills to deal with those mental issues in the future so that they don’t struggle and take their feelings out on people they love by doing and saying things they’ll regret and/or can’t take back.”
4. Family Conflicts
At times, speaking to your family can come across as if you’re both speaking a different language.
Communication breakdowns with parents can be highly harmful to youth. According to Julia Albores, a licensed clinical social worker and member of NASW, “Typically, family communication issues get noticed when one member, often a child, starts to show signs of stress.” Then goes on to say, “The not so subtle signs of stress show up as anger, irritability, yelling at other family members, breaking house rules, and/or fighting at home and in school. These children are waving a red flag that things are not quite right.” The signs of communication breakdowns with families come in all different shapes and sizes. And shows differently in everyone.
Adolescence is a stage when youth need guidance, reassurance, and open communication from families. When open communication isn’t being had, teens can feel unheard or even emotionally neglected.
Akai-Windham states, “Maybe you’re just worried that they might react the wrong way. And instead you keep it all down, afraid of upsetting them.”
When child-to-parent communication shuts down, the silence can create emotional distance. Over time, these patterns of avoidance of unresolved problems can lead to anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal, while damaging trust between parents and children.
Stevenson states, “I think that when a parent/guardian neglects their child’s mental health, [it] causes the child to lack trust in for their parent/guardian because if they do not feel heard or seen by that person or those people, then what reason do they have to trust them?”
Therapy can offer a safe environment to rebuild communication, teaching both teens and families healthy ways to express feelings and resolve conflicts. According to Maple Leaf Counseling, “Improving communication is an investment in the future of the family. When families develop the tools to understand and support each other, they create bonds that can withstand life’s ups and downs.”
Despite the positive effects that can come from therapy, a lot of parents don’t send their child to treatment. Some parents worry others will think they’ve failed as a caregiver, or that their child is “broken.”
Stevenson says, “I do think that some parents avoid therapy for their child because they are in fear of being judged as a parent, because they may not want others to think of their child as a strange or unusual individual.”
Akai-Windham states that some parents can even feel insecure about their parenting style.
5. Social Media
Social media’s unrealistic standards have become one of the most pressing challenges for teenagers today, shaping how they see themselves and how they measure their self-worth. Teens can easily fall into the comparison trap. Constant exposure to influencers can lead to a distorted sense of self, as they begin to care more about likes, comments, and followers.
According to Start My Wellness, “Scrolling through social media makes it easy to compare ourselves to others. But here’s the truth: most of what we see online isn’t real. Many influencers and celebrities post only their best moments, using carefully curated angles, professional lighting, and even digital alterations to create an illusion of perfection.” Then goes on to say, “When we compare ourselves to these unrealistic images, it’s no surprise that we start feeling like we don’t measure up.”
Stevenson says that she has compared her appearance to those online. “It makes me feel insecure but also ashamed that I’m comparing myself to other women on social media—feeling insecure about my flaws that other women have too, because me, judging my own self, makes me feel as if I’m judging them as well.”
