Troubled Teens Resources

Boot camps of a different sort, but none the less valuable, are fitness boot camps. A fitness boot camp directed at teens can benefit in numerous ways, but for the purposes of this post, we’ll focus on the emotional and psychological issues pertaining to body image.

Teen girls are very susceptible to the absurd and unreal images of waif-like creatures that the media parades in front of them. All troubled teenagers can suffer greatly from obesity and there are no end to the stories of overweight teens who have compensated for rejection and low self-esteem with drugs. Any teen help for getting fit is extremely beneficial.

Joyce Hoffmann has put together an excellent program directed at teen girls. Inspired by her own emotional eating as a teen, she has dedicated her life to working with overweight kids. She teaches teens to take control of their body and image via exercise, nutrition, yoga and counseling.

And all of that goes a long way towards circumventing the potential for teenage drug abuse. If you feel good physically, emotionally and mentally, getting “high” will bring you down. Not to mention the value of the physical and mental discipline that comes with exercise.

” Ms. Hoffmann customized a summer weight loss program for teen girls that was equal parts boot camp, phys-ed class and Dr. Phil therapy session…

“None of the girls missed a day, and they were never a minute late…After working out, the girls and Ms. Hofmann had group counseling, where they just talked — about themselves, dieting, body image, boys, whatever was on their minds….
[…]
Many of the girls realized they were emotional eaters, meaning they made a beeline for fattening foods, whether they were happy, sad or any mood in between.”

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A recent study reveals data about teen age girls that professionals at girls boarding schools or troubled teen boarding schools would most likely agree with. What may surprise some parents of troubled teenagers is that girls appear to be twice as aggressive and combative as teen boys and equal with boys in their drug and alcohol consumption.

“Girls in U.S. juvenile detention centers face different psychological issues than average teen girls and perhaps more severe issues than incarcerated boys.

In a four-state survey, girls were found to be twice as likely as boys to be aggressive, and just as likely as boys to have problems with alcohol or drug use, findings that surprised psychologist Elizabeth Cauffman, who has worked for years with troubled teens in California and Pennsylvania.”

Though in general girls tend to internalize their problems, incarcerated teen girls were more likely to erupt in fights. In addition to marked hostility and aggression, female prisoners experience higher degrees of anxiety, sleeping problems and depression than do boys.

“One helpful change, Cauffman said, would be to evaluate the mental health issues of teens – both male and female – when they enter the correctional system. The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument, Version 2, which Cauffman used as the evaluation tool for her study, was designed specifically for juvenile offenders and can be administered by staff at juvenile detention centers. The screening flags areas for concern – such as depression, drug use, or aggression – that may require further evaluation by a mental health professional.”

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Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder appears to have different ramifications for girls than for boys, new studies suggest. Both teen boys and teen girls are beset with hormonal changes and standard teen age confusion and angst. But researchers feel that teen girls react differently than their male counterparts.

“Through these new studies about teen girls with ADHD, we know that there appears to be a much higher risk for mental illness by the time the girl reaches 17. This Harvard Medical School study is alarming. As you can imagine, early diagnosis and treatment are essential. The sooner your daughter can be diagnosed and provided with the best treatment option, the better chance you have to head off full-blown mental illness. With this particular study, 140 teen girls with ADHD were followed, ranging in age from 12 to 17. Then, they were compared with another group of 122 girls without ADHD. The study showed that when the girls reached age 17, the group of ADHD had higher levels of clinical depression and greater problem with anxiety disorders.

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Parents with teenage girls who have a constellation of behavior problems in addition to ADHA are often better served through programs available at schools for troubled teens that are designed to address these issues along with offering a complete academic program.. Specialty schools are becoming the preferred option by many parents of troubled teenagers.

Troubled teenagers at risk for commiting violent crimes today seem increasingly to be girls. Perhaps you are aware of the spate of reported beatings and assaults by girls that have recently surfaced in the news.

“In just a year, Schenectady County saw criminal complaints involving girls double in 2006 to 162. That exceeds national statistics compiled by the FBI that also show more arrests of girls. From 1980 to 2003, arrests of teenage girls for aggravated assault rose 9 percent, while simple assault counts increased some 11 percent, according to that agency’s Violent Crime Index.”

This has professionals grasping for ways to handle the influx of teen girls, necessitating reviews of current procedures and the development of behavioral approaches that experts deem necessary, citing that the differences between out of control teen girls and their male counterparts demand new tools and evaluative processes.

“All of a sudden you have a justice system dealing with more and more girls and they don’t know what to do with them,” said Shari Miller Johnson, a Duke University researcher. “Girls’ dynamics are difficult to maneuver, and we still don’t know to what extent what we know about boys applies to girls.”

As is often the case, alternative education is a viable option, such as troubled teen boarding schools or private boarding schools. Behavioral problems don’t just simply go away, but often devolve into teen age drug abuse. Alternative education may seem overwhelming when first contemplated, but can save the troubled teen a lifetime of heartache.

“Jessica, a 17-year-old who ended up in the probation system for fighting, landed at St. Anne Institute, a residential home in Albany for troubled girls. She fought so much on her arrival in May 2006 that she ended up in a special unit. Through counseling, she is managing to control her anger and is expected to leave St. Anne in August.

“When you don’t have that right guidance from parents or adults, you really don’t know which way to go sometimes so you just go the way you know and for me that was fighting and getting upset and expressing myself through fighting,” Jessica said.”

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“…We don’t talk much about is the way our culture encourages girls to compete with one another at the expense of developing true, meaningful relationships with other girls, and how that simple arrangement can contribute to the way girls mistreat each other, even within so called “friendships”. I’m not talking about competition in academics or athletics. I’m talking about competing against one another for status, popularity, and the attention of boys. We train our girls from an early age, marketing make-up and sexy clothing to girls beginning in grade school, stuffing teen magazines full of articles on how to “get the guy”. Certainly our girls are not missing the message here.

What would it be like if we lived in a world where girls spent their time, energy, and talents working together instead of working against each other? Just imagine what they could accomplish….
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Indeed, just what would healthy friendships and smart relationships mean for today’s teen girls? The writer correctly points out that today’s teenage girls view each other via competitive roles instead of viewing each other as friends and allies.

Increasingly, the role models for teen girls have deteriorated into that of a teenage vamp, instructing girls in sexual one-upmanship instead of pride in achievement. Instead of respecting and encouraging each other in academics and sports, they vie for superiority in the dating scene, often being cruel to those teen girls who do not achieve popularity with the opposite sex and who show little fashion savvy.

All-girl teen boarding schools and academies are often the option concerned parents choose when discouraged and fed up with the public school’s continuing inability to influence teenagers to pursue positive paths and role models.

Girls’ academies teach a different sort of value system that can’t be often found in public schools. A system where pride of achievement and the discipline of hard work is considered meritorious, not the latest pop star styles.