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The teenage years is termed as the adolescence stage (a combination of being an adult and being innocent) . It is a stage characterized by turmoil owing to the transition from childhood to maturity with a number of physiological changes.
Teenagers face real concerns, between 13 and 19 years of age, on a daily basis as this is the most awkward growth stage of their lives. During this time, teens are exposed to some overwhelming external and internal struggles they go through, and are expected to cope with hormonal changes, puberty, social and parental forces, work and school pressures, and so on. Many teens feel misunderstood.
It is vital that their feelings and thoughts are validated and that the validation comes from their parents. Parents need to approach their children, who have been dealing with teenage growth issues, carefully and in a friendly manner to discuss the concern(s).Not surprisingly, all of these common teenage problems are connected to one another, in some way. However it does not mean that having one would lead to the other.
The great advances in today’s social technology have definitely amplified some common generational struggles while also creating unique issues that no previous generation have ever had to deal with.
For instance, teens today struggle more with their interpersonal relationships than any previous generation and a lot of this dysfunction can be linked to the overuse of technology.
In fact, the average teen spends over nine hours each day using their electronic devices. Consequently, their social media habits and media consumption are changing the way they communicate, learn, sleep, exercise, and more.
This got me thinking that what we need today is to look at the problem in a different light. I took a survey and
here are replies from Teenagers about the problems teens struggle with every day.
What are the problems teens face today?
As a teen, I can easily tell you the largest problems among teens. Drug addictions. Kids everywhere are experimenting with everything.
There are kids who used to be my friends. They were all innocent at some point, but have turned to MDMA, heroin, and cocaine for comfort. Not going to lie, it’s usually the kids who start drinking in their teens that experiment with drugs.
Another problem I’ve seen in a majority of teens is depression. This is kind of where the drugs and alcohol come into play. Adults are constantly telling these kids that they mean nothing to society.
Because of this, kids believe they’re worthless. From this, there are only 4 outcomes:
Suicide
Drug addiction
Alcohol addiction
And the 4th outcome is the least common outcome
Becoming a stronger human being in hopes of changing the minds of those who called them useless.
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Only being able to understand teens and children and not adults. You can easily confide in friends who are in your age range or help a younger sibling out, but not adults. I find this really painful because some of the adults around me are the most stressed out people ever with the wackiest problems, and when a situation arises where they need comfort and you're more than willing to help, you can't. You probably have no idea what they're going through. And there's a chance that they'll laugh at or pity your offer to help.
Having little freedom in the places that you get your only personal freedom. For example, being forced into sports, religion, clubs, friend groups, etc. It's understandable when a teen proposes that they want to do [X] sport or and their parents can't financially support them (and other similar situations like that) but when parents force their kid into a sport, church group, school club, etc when they don't want to do it, I find it absolutely destructive in every way possible. Basically what the parent is doing is putting these high expectations on a kid that can make these own decisions for themselves because the things that I've listed are OPTIONAL. They are going to erode at their kid's self esteem, happiness, health, etc. If a parent has the ability to force their kid into an optional or recreational activity, they also have the ability to take them out of it. So if a kid is begging their parents to take them out of an optional activity because they're becoming unhealthy and the parents refuse simply because they'd have the power to, what's the point? Do you enjoy watching your kid break down and unnecessarily fail at what they're doing? Do you enjoy wasting money and time? Do you enjoy constant arguing? If you answered no to at least one of these questions, here's a tip - don't force your kid into something they don't have to do.
Being taught that we're bad because of our age. Yes, there are some absolutely awful teens out there that do things worthy of unthinkable punishment, but please, I'm begging you, to not tell a child that they will turn out to be exactly that the moment they turn 13 (fun fact - my parents instilled hatred for teenagers in me from such an early age that I planned to commit suicide on my 13th birthday because I thought my parents would start hating me). The words "teenager" and "teen" have been used as insults on me and it baffles me because I can't help but be a teen. My age doesn't determine anything but how many times I've orbited our sun. I absolutely hate it when I'm put down, laughed at etc by adults because I'm a teen. I've been told that it's a bad thing to grow and its work at my self esteem so badly but I remain fearful of telling anyone about it. Moral of the story - don't tell kids that teens are bad because they're teens. They'll end up hating or killing themselves.
Having parents that don't accept your physical growth because they either treat it like a negative or overly sexual thing (or both).
The riskiness with the topic of sex. This branches off into many things.
(1) You want to ask your parents or other adults questions because you're interested or need to know for health reasons but shot down and told that the school system will take care of those questions...then the school system doesn't do anything.
(2) You ask, and then immediately assumed you're a slut that's having premature sex. And your parents can't talk about one of your friends of the opposite gender (regardless of whether or not you're attracted to them that way) without a lecture about sex. Some parents go as far as putting their single, virgin daughters on birth control. Yikes.
(3) Being told that it's inappropriate to talk about when it's actually appropriate. All you wanna do is have a healthy conversation and they think you just want material to masturbate to later that night. Like dude, I was asking for the brochure, not the official tour, thank you very much.
(4) Getting sheltered answers because they think they're protecting you. They're still willing to tell a 14 y/o about the stork or that babies magically appear in mommies "tummies". They won't tell you about AIDS or what attraction is or emotions or anything that you asked about. It's more harmful than helpful in the end. PSA - answer your teens about sex questions, please. Yes, they are old enough to know and can handle it.
COMPARISON IN EACH AND EVERYTHING!!
STUDIES: Studies are damn important to our life but studies do not value our intelligence…
LOOKS:Stereotyping and body shaming with a few taunts said just to light up the mood and for fun… Like seriously???
PEER PRESSURE: Engaging in relationships at such a young age and playing games which you don’t like but just because of peer pressure!!
LACK OF IMPORTANCE TO MENTAL HEALTH
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Teenagers can be a tricky stage to navigate since adolescents are simultaneously treated as both children and adults. further, teenagers may find it hard to cope with all the physical and emotional changes they experience during this stage. as a result, they may face and have many questions about adulthood such as menstruation, anxiety, depression, and friendships. the best way to help them cope with these situations is by ensuring them they can rely on you for help. though they may try to resolve some issues independently, knowing that you have their back can make all the difference.