Troubled Teens Resources

There are many sites available to help families working through the challenges associated with raising a troubled teen.  There is a new site that may be helpful for parents to check out.  It is called OnLine-Family-Help there are products featured there that can assist virtually every member of your family. There are baby products, educational toys, and specialty products to assist parents struggling with a troubled and defiant teenager.

The site also offers helpful hints on how to do many little things that can help parents.  Parenting skills are discussed and suggestions on how to not only parent a troubled teen but get closer to them are highlighted.  If you are having trouble with a teenager or are having your first baby Online-Family-Help may be able to offer you some practical advice. Having a baby can be a traumatic experience for a young couple.  The stress of caring for the child is made more complicated by the lack of sleep that usually accompanies the new arrival.  If there are two parents it is easier but definitely an adjustment for all involved.  The new parents may have some extended family to assist.  The help of a loving Grandma at this critical time can be a life saver for the new parents.  Many hospitals offer new parent training, but there are many websites and resources available online that can help. 

The new baby will change the dynamics of the family for the remainder of the parent’s lives.  They will need to learn how to find time to still nurture their relationship.  It is easy for a new mom to become so consumed with the new arrival that she neglects or forgets her husband.  It is also common for the new father to spend more time away from home rather than trying to assist with the new added responsibilities.  Both parents will need to increase their level of commitment to make the relationship survive.

In this day and age of text messaging and virtual gaming, many teens aren’t able to develop the social skills of yesterday. This thought begs the question: Is technology crippling the upcoming generations of teens? Some say it is so.

Text messaging is a great way to notify someone if your running late for a meeting or for a simple reminder to take out the trash, but to many teens, it has become their main form of communication. Have you ever tried to call your teenager to talk to them, they don’t answer but respond with a text message of “what do ya want?” Instead of the common courtesy of a call back, they use this crutch form of communication.

Virtual gaming is a big influence on teenagers and adolescents. You can become anything you want to be and you can be successful with enough practice on the screen. Many teens who struggle with social skills find they’re comfortable with a more virtual world. Instead of working on their ability to communicate in a social setting, they opt to completely phase out reality and become a virtual warrior or soldier. School shootings and other adolescent tragedies and crimes can and have been linked to virtual gaming.

There is an epidemic in today’s America; there are more troubled teens than ever before! Technology has aided in causing this epidemic. Parents are struggling to maintain control over their defiant teens. With laws that limit a parent’s ability to discipline, some parents don’t know what to do or where to turn for help in their family crisis.

If you are struggling with a defiant teen and need help contact Troubled Teens’  at 1-866-495-840.

That drug abuse among troubled teens is rampant and an ongoing problem certainly isn’t news though it still has the simple power to stun. You wonder when and if it will ever end. How can any one person staunch the flow of pain and loss that stems from addiction and teenage drug abuse?

One program and one person at a time.
One teenager at a time.
All that we can do is what is before us.

Parents can look out over at their own small circle of neighbors and family. Engage in conversations with your at-risk teenager’s friends. Be genuinely interested in their lives. You may, sad as it is, be the only adult to recognize them, to acknowledge them.

An individual with clear, uncomplicated concern and simple well spoken advice can, and often does, make an impact on a troubled teen’s life.

Influencing a teenager’s life and helping them navigate a path away from drug abuse can be likened to the efforts of a tug boat nudging a huge ship into safe harbor. It is not accomplished in one sweeping maneuver but in a combination of several strategic nudges. Your touching an at-risk teen’s life constitutes such a nudge.

Read below about a single gentleman who has spent his career providing passage to safe harbor for at-risk teens, one teen at a time.

“Sit up. Look me in the eye. I’m going to tell you where you’re headed if you don’t straighten out and make better choices.

Those words, or a close proximity, come from Mike Force, Lake Saint Louis police chief.

Three or four times a year he speaks them to a young man, typically 14 or 15, brought to the police station by a parent.
Usually it’s a single mom. Sometimes it’s a father. Recently, it was a grandfather doing his best to raise a grandson.

The problem might be fistfights at school, a bag of marijuana under the bed or money missing from mom’s purse.

Parents come to see Force because they’ve glimpsed the future, or at least one version of it, and as a result lie awake at night.

When they arrive, they are led to Force’s office in the inner sanctum of the Police Station/City Hall.

Why Force? There’s no listing in the Yellow Pages.

Parents come because he’s been holding these meetings since he started as chief 15 years ago. Word gets around.

He does it because he believes it’s important; because he knows how easily his own life could have turned out differently; and because helping people is at the core of law enforcement.

Here’s what happens.
…continue reading at The Suburban Journal

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.