Troubled Teens Resources

“Can you tell you have depression without diagnosis? I can’t even begin to explain things in my life. I’m so stessed, from everything. In the back of my mind, even though I’m not actually thinking of killing myself or anything, I really honestly always, even when I’m happy, believe that I would be better off dead. It’s not unhappiness as much as it’s a wish to rather not be living. I mean, idk. I can be having the best time of my life, and I still wish I wasn’t alive, and I’d wish I didn’t have to go through it, because I have it in my head that it’ll eventually get worse, because it ALWAYS does. It’s where you come to this realization that you’ve worked so hard to get through so many bad things that have already happened in your life, and you just want it to be over and you want there to be happiness and you don’t want to have to worry for the rest of your life, but I know this is only the beginning, because I’m a teenager. I don’t want to go on. I really just wanna die and get it over with and idk how to deal with it. What do I do?”
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This from a depressed teenager reaching out to other teens on a message board. If you take the time to read various teen boards, you will find that these type of inquiries, unfortunately, are not unusual.

Studies indicate there is typically a constellation of factors that will push a teen into a suicidal crisis. Interestingly enough, even though the internet has spawned such sites as Myspace and other virtual venues for communication, technology has been seen as an additional factor in a troubled teen’s sense of isolation and loneliness.

Combine that with the unrealistic images of the fabulous lives enjoyed by celebrity teens and movies celebrating out of control teenagers wrecking havoc with little consequences, the teens sense of unreality and marginalization increases.

Teenagers may commiserate with each other, assured of anonymity, on a teen board, but they are unlikely to approach an adult for comfort. It is the responsibility of the parent or teacher to recognize the signs of teen depression and devise an intervention.

Here is a partial summary of risk factors inherent in a possible suicidal teenager:

• Previous suicide attempts - If a youth has attempted suicide in the past, he or she is much more likely than other youths to attempt suicide again in the future. If a male teen has attempted suicide in the past, he is more than thirty times more likely to complete suicide, while a female with a past attempt has about three times the risk. Approximately a third of teenage suicide victims have made a previous suicide attempt.18
• Mental disorders or co-occurring mental and alcohol or substance abuse disorders - Research shows that over 90% of young people who complete suicide have a diagnosable mental or substance abuse disorder or both, and that the majority have depressive illness.19 In a 10- to 15-year followup study of 73 adolescents diagnosed with major depression, 7 percent of the adolescents had completed suicide sometime later. The depressed adolescents were five times more likely to have attempted suicide as well, compared with a control group of age peers without depression.20 Almost half of teenagers who complete suicide have had a previous contact with a mental health professional. In addition, aggressive, disruptive, and impulsive behavior is common in youth of both sexes who complete suicide.21
• Family history of suicide22 - A high proportion of suicides and attempters have had a close family member (sibling, parent, aunt, uncle, or grandparent) who attempted or completed suicide. Familial suicide can be a function of imitation or genetics. Many of the mental illnesses which contribute to suicide risk appear to have a genetic component.
• Stressful life event or loss - Stressful life events often precede a suicide and/or suicide attempt. Such stressful life events include getting into trouble at school or with a law enforcement agency; fighting or breaking up with a boyfriend or a girlfriend; and fighting with friends. They are rarely a sufficient cause of suicide, but they often act as precipitating factors in young people.23, 24
• Easy access to lethal methods, especially guns - As mentioned above, firearms are the most common method of suicide by youth. The most common location for the occurrence of firearm suicides by youth is in their homes, and there is a positive association between the accessibility and availability of firearms in the home and the risk for youth suicide. The risk conferred by guns in the home is proportional to the accessibility (e.g., loaded and unsecured firearms) and the number of guns in the home.25, 26
• Exposure to the suicidal behavior of others, whether that of a peer or in the media 27 - Suicide can be facilitated in vulnerable teens by exposure to real or fictional accounts of suicide, including media coverage of suicide, such as intensive reporting of the suicide of a celebrity, or the fictional representation of a suicide in a popular movie or TV show. In addition, there is evidence of suicide clusters, that is, local epidemics of suicide that have a contagious influence. Suicide clusters nearly always involve previously disturbed young people who knew about each other’s death but rarely knew the other victims personally.
• Incarceration28 - Although there are insufficient national data regarding the incidence of youth suicide in custody, information suggests a high prevalence of suicidal behavior in juvenile correctional facilities. One study found that suicide in juvenile detention and correctional facilities was more than four times greater than youth suicide overall. According to another recent study, more than 11,000 juveniles engage in more than 17,000 incidents of suicidal behavior in juvenile facilities each year.

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Also see Mental Health Sanctuary’s list of suicide hot lines and online communication resources. Crisis intervention includes being prepared before the crisis, in hopes of ultimately preventing one.

Which boarding school or residential treatment program or wilderness therapy that you choose for your troubled teenager is predicated on many factors. Not the least of which is correctly assessing how deeply troubled your teen actually is. There is quite a bit of difference in temperament and severity between the rebellious, moody, bored teen who perhaps only needs guidance and esteem builders and the depressed, angry, substance abusing teenager.

Residential treatment programs are tailored for the teenager that has an addiction, is in a deep depression, suffering an eating disorder or other serious behavior problems. Some treatment programs will allow the teenager to remain at home in the community and with more severely troubled teens, a hospital environment may be necessary.

Therapeutic-based boarding schools “offer social, emotional, physical, and spiritual guidance, in addition to educational enrichment for troubled teens. While scholastics play a significant role in their curriculums, emotional growth boarding schools are designed for the student with a history of under performance, both personal and academic, whose acting out behavior is compounded by issues including poor self-esteem and a negative self-concept.”

Wilderness programs typically are directed towards teenagers who are not considered high risk and many such programs are designed to serve as “a rite of passage”, bringing a less confident youngster into the realm of their own powers and skills.

It is terribly difficult to choose which boarding scool or treatment is appropriate for your troubled teen but after some initial investigation you will be equipped to better decide which program best meets your teen’s psychological and emotional state.

National Youth Networks is a site that can help you distinguish between the various boarding schools, wilderness schools and treatment programs and guide you in your preliminary investigations.