What’s Troubling Teenagers in the USA? 6 Causes You Need To Know-Namaste Pharmacy

Teenagers are the future. To build a good future is to nurture and protect our teenagers well. In today’s world, numerous aspects can deeply affect a teenager’s well-being, it’s no longer limited to falling, getting heartbroken or failing. In today’s age, the life of a teenager has gotten quite complicated, along with increased risks of well-being hampering. 

A lifestyle consisting of supportive guardians, constructive mentors, healthy and ambitious peers, productive and harmlessly fun ways of killing time and good food can most certainly help teenagers achieve self-actualization. Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality for most teens in America, instead, most teens reportedly feel like outcasts and just wish to fit in which leads them into the wrong friend circle, wrong influence and then illicit activities and the worst part is that most of these kids wholeheartedly believe that what they are doing is justified which is an even bigger problem. Well now let’s do what we are here for in the first place.

Let’s study some of those aspects of teenage life and well-being in the USA, which will help you in taking care of teenagers’ overall well-being. 

 

Mental Health

It is widely believed that a teenager’s life is way more carefree and merciful than an adult’s life, however, research has shown approximately 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness will develop before the age of seventeen.

Proving that even though a teenager might seem like a good and happy period of one’s life, it is quite difficult to get through. Unfortunately, the mental illnesses of teenagers were actively minimised and were called by adults “just teenagers being teenagers” or “..ugh the teenage hormones and adrenaline rush”. 

In recent years teenagers have felt safe enough to come forward and seek help, which has recorded the spike in reported mental illness cases among teenagers.

TW: Suicide Another stat which has heightened and is quite intertwined with mental health is suicide among teenagers who struggle with anxiety, depression and the competitive and merciless nature of the system. It’s the second leading cause of death of American teenagers, as heart-wrenching as it is, we must look at it for what it is and make sure that we provide a space for our teens to talk about their issues, consider, and keep checking on them.

Substance Abuse 

Substance Abuse in America is skyrocketing at the moment, and the most unfortunate part of it is that this is happening the most among teenagers. 

This is also related to the issue of teenagers feeling the desperation to find a sense of belongingness and ending up being a victim of wrong influence. A lot of teenagers start substance abuse because they genuinely believe that it’s cool and makes them liberal and free and opposing drugs, alcohol, cannabis et cetera means that they are conservative and are living in the old ages. 

Another common reason for teenagers doing substance abuse is bad mental health and life problems that they just are hopeless about and want to ignore as much as they can. The euphoria they experience for a nick of time is all that they start living for. 

Nora Volkow, M.D., director of NIDA said, “…screening adolescents for drug use is extremely important for early intervention and prevention of the development of substance use disorder. This is critical especially as the transition from adolescence to adulthood, when brain development is still in progress, appears to be a period of high risk for drug use initiation.” 

Body Image Issues

A healthy body image is essential for a functional and strong self-esteem, especially for teenagers as they are pressured from all directions to meet unrealistic and harmful beauty standards. The media is misleading teens into believing that they must look a certain way or else they are not beautiful or desirable. This issue manifests even more deeply as it also sets high standards in teenage minds for what kind of person they desire to be or be with. 

“The quest for a “perfect” body or appearance can take a heavy toll on a teenager’s confidence and physical and mental health.” 

It also leads to eating disorders. One out of every hundred young girls is starving themselves just to fit a beauty standard and feel worthy. Just imagine how bad the situation has gotten when starving oneself and feeling worthy are related and are being used in the same sentence. 

STDs/HIV and Unwanted Pregnancies

Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention have reported that half of all new STDs reported each year are among young people 15 to 24.3 and nearly 46% of sexually active high school students did not use a condom the last time they had sex. This starkly demonstrates how exponentially exposed teenagers are to STDs and Unwanted Pregnancies.

Keeping in mind the overturn of Roe v. Wade, it’s about time that we educate our children about contraceptive measures and encourage them to adopt them. It cannot be stressed enough how important providing a safe space for the discussion and education about contraceptive methods is for the present and the future of this generation of teenagers and young adults. 

Academic Pressure 

“Academic stress has been a part of my life ever since I can remember,” wrote Bretta McCall, 16, of Seattle. “This year I spend about 12 hours a day on schoolwork. I’m home right now because I was feeling so sick from the stress I couldn’t be at school. So as you can tell, it’s a big part of my life!”. 

The most interesting part of the above-mentioned statement by sixteen-year-old Bretta McCall is that she gave this statement back in 2013. It has been nine whole years ever since, and the world has only gotten more and more competitive in the past two years, teenagers all around the world have faced a global pandemic. They have dealt with disconnection, grief, anxiety and whatnot. And now inflation.

Imagine what it is like being an American teenage student in 2022. It is extremely difficult to balance a decent social life, good grades, college applications, arranging finances, upskilling every day and maintaining good health. Academic Pressure is only making things worse for students and parents need to understand that there are so many things beyond academic success that a teenager will have to achieve to be healthy and realise their worth and place in this big, competitive world. 

Bullying 

I do not even need to tell you this, you already know how bad and common the act of bullying has gotten. 

Statistics show that over 83% of teenagers get bullied at some point in their high school experience and over 10% get bullied regularly. Victims of bullying face serious issues in their emotional and social development and well-being. About 62% of teenagers have faced cyberbullying in their school years, that’s very telling of how likely it is that your child right at this moment might be getting bullied.

Teenagers who bully thrive on dominating or controlling others. Studies show that most of these kids are themselves victims of physical or mental abuse. Bullies may also be the damsels in distress. So authorities in schools and localities must keep their eyes on such behaviours and look out for both the parties as both sides are often in such cases the victims and the ones in need of serious help.

Things are bad for teenagers but we can work together and make the tables turn. Opening up more conversations about mental health and not shaming teens The first step towards change or prevention is empathy and awareness, with these we can strategize the most useful plans and protect the young souls who are to become our future. 

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