Troubled Teens Resources

Teen help that comes in the form of “Self-Esteem” programs has been subject to a great deal of criticism. The current pop psychology suggests that self-esteem can be bolstered by eliminating challenges that the teen might fail at, or by giving indiscriminate praise, no matter what the teen actually does.

Unfortunately, such programs render the teen incapable of meeting life’s demands, crippling his development and allowing for the type of immaturity that can easily lead to teen age drug abuse and other intrinsically selfish behavior.

Teens at risk are far better served by honesty. They so easily detect phoniness and grow to distrust adults, or even friends, who don’t care enough to say what is true or appear unable to recognize the truth.
Click the link below for the article the following synopsis comes from. There are simple and practical ways of helping a teen think well of themselves.

• Self-esteem is indeed important but the way to achieve is isn’t by blurring reality. _ has some very practical advice on how parents can work with their teens in developing authentic self-esteem.
• Provide Opportunities. Get kids involved in tasks that are slightly above their current level of functioning….
• Model Positive Thinking. Exhibiting a negative attitude can easily rub off on kids…
• Model Problem-Solving. Many kids are often uncomfortable when things don’t come easy because they don’t have the skills to manage roadblocks….
• Don’t Rescue. Avoid the urge to jump in at the first sign of frustration….
• Use Praise Properly. Don’t waste praise on simple or effortless tasks..
• Nice try. Despite our best attempts, we don’t succeed at everything….

(Source)

Teen crisis intervention is often simply continuous self-education and an awareness of all the factors creating your teen’s world view. It is devoting time to understanding the behavioral dynamics at play in your home.

It is thoroughly examining your schools curriculum. It is examining different teaching philosophies and the pop psychology that often propels some of these progressive teaching policies currently in play across academia. These are more and more programs that produce rather stunted educational objectives and actually amount to an inappropriate tendency for today’s public school teachers to act more in the capacity of social engineers than teachers of math, literature and the sciences.

Along those lines, a book worth reading is The Dangerous Book for Boys . The author makes a compelling case in describing how some of these social engineering theories are wrecking havoc with young boys in America.

“… I am [a father] myself and I think we’ve become aware that the whole “health and safety” overprotective culture isn’t doing our sons any favors. Boys need to learn about risk. They need to fall off things occasionally, or–and this is the important bit–they’ll take worse risks on their own. If we do away with challenging playgrounds and cancel school trips for fear of being sued, we don’t end up with safer boys–we end up with them walking on train tracks. In the long run, it’s not safe at all to keep our boys in the house with a Playstation. It’s not good for their health or their safety.

You only have to push a boy on a swing to see how much enjoys the thrill of danger. It’s hard-wired. Remove any opportunity to test his courage and they’ll find ways to test themselves that will be seriously dangerous for everyone around them. I think of it like playing the lottery–someone has to say “Look, you won’t win–and your children won’t be hurt. Relax. It won’t be you.”

I think that’s the core of the book’s success. It isn’t just a collection of things to do. The heroic stories alone are something we haven’t had for too long. It isn’t about climbing Everest, but it is an attitude, a philosophy for fathers and sons. Our institutions are too wrapped up in terror over being sued–so we have to do things with them ourselves. This book isn’t a bad place to start.”