Adolescent Girls and Mental Health Treatment Centers

It may be a sign of the times that an increasing number of adolescent girls require admission into various types of mental health treatment centers, yet this fact is undeniable. Fortunately mental health treatment centers for adolescent girls offer several programs. Some treatment centers specialize in one specific mental health issue. Others offer counseling for several disorders. The centers are highly confidential, compassionate and sensitive to the needs of these young women. Therapists are college or university educated and are typically certified.

Typical issues that adolescent girls struggle with include eating disorders, family dysfunction, drug addictions, behavioral problems and anger management, among others. These issues are disturbing yet surprisingly common.

There are many reasons why adolescent girls suffer from such serious disorders. Girls with eating disorders may be affected by media portrayals of women with unlikely figures that are thin yet bosomy. Adolescent girls fail to realize that such pictures are usually airbrushed to attain bodily perfection and they may not be aware that many of their role models themselves suffer from serious eating disorders.

Girls with anger management issues likely hail from abusive or neglectful households. The same holds true for girls with behavioral problems, drug addictions and low self-esteem. Families experiencing divorce, unemployment, poverty and racism also produce unhappy and dysfunctional adolescent girls.

Fortunately mental health treatment centers for adolescent girls are becoming increasingly common and are usually very effective. Their programs directly and openly address these issues, both in group therapy and in individual counseling, particularly for girls with severe problems. Often the girls' families are invited for a number of therapy sessions, since they too suffer from various dysfunctions that need to be acknowledged and treated.

Many mental health treatment centers for adolescent girls are residential. The girls reside within the centers during the week but are often released to their families on weekends. Some mental health treatment centers also offer outpatient programs as an alternative for adolescent girls who are reluctant to live inside treatment centers.

All mental health treatment centers have a set of rules the girls must abide by. Most centers only permit a minimum age of 12 or 13 years old. The girls cannot have any legal problems that will restrict their participation in the program. The girls must abide by the center's rules and they cannot have a history of excessive violence. Most centers rely upon schools, doctor reports and family in order to compile a girl's psychological assessment before admission into the program is granted. These assessments may include information regarding educational, medical, psychiatric, physical conditions, trauma, sexual behaviors and neurological history.

Although it can be difficult for a family to make the decision to enter an adolescent girl into a mental health treatment center ultimately it is a wise route for a trouble child. The acknowledgment that a child is troubled and requires help is a a crucial first step towards her recovery. Many girls and their families experience immediate, positive benefits due to the programs offered in these centers. The programs tend to be highly beneficial to both the child and her family, helping to resolve or at least begin to work through the complex stages of adolescent development and family dysfunction.

Ian Pennington

Ian Pennington is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

To learn more about teen mental health, please visit Teen Girls Health for current articles and discussions.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Adolescents

Obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD starts from adolescence onwards. OCD is feeling of strong obsessions and compulsions which result in intense discomfort and affects daily functioning. Obsessions are thoughts which are persistent and recurrent. They even include unwanted images and impulses which lead to distress and anxiety. These feelings and thoughts are usually irrational or unrealistic. Compulsions are repetitive rituals or behavior such as checking something again & again, or mental acts such as counting. These obsessions & compulsions cause intense distress and anxiety and can interfere with the daily activities, relationships, social activities and academic functioning. The person with OCD thinks that he has no control over his actions. OCDs are relapsing and chronic illness.

The thoughts change as the adolescent grows. Younger children suffering from OCD often have thoughts of harm befalling on them and their family such as thief getting into the house through an unlocked door. This will make the children to recheck the door and windows again and again fearing that they might have left the door unlocked accidentally. Teenagers suffering from OCD fear that they might get fall sick due to germs, contaminated food and AIDS. The adolescent develops certain rituals, such as washing hands innumerable times, in order to get over the fear. These rituals help them to think that they have overcome the problem for the time being and give them temporary relief. If they do not perform these rituals, they become more and more anxious.

OCD is a sign of brain circuitry’s unusual functioning and it involves the striatum part of the brain. The brain activity patterns of such people differ from normal people and people with other mental disorders. Researchers have concluded that OCD is usually a family problem and is a disorder of the brain. Streptococcal bacterial infection can create or worsen the condition of OCD. Adolescents with no family history of OCD can also develop it. Most of the adolescents feel embarrassed to talk about their OCDs. They think that people will label them as crazy and this will make them feel ashamed. This will make it difficult for the parents to talk to their children about their OCD, in order to solve them. Parents need to develop good communication skills for this purpose. Parent’s support is also very important to the adolescent. Cooperation is extremely important along with treatment, because if the problem is not treated the adolescent will grow into a disturbed adult.

Most of the adolescents with OCD can receive effective treatment. The treatment can include psychotherapy and intake of medications such as fluoxetine, clomipramine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, sertraline and other serotonin reuptake inhibitors. When OCD is caused due to streptococcal infection, the adolescent can be administered with antibiotics to kill the bacterium which is causing it. Exposure and response prevention behavioral therapy is very useful in solving OCD. In this therapy, the adolescent is wontedly exposed to his/her fears which give him/her obsessive thought. After that he/she is trained to avoid these thoughts and the rituals which he/she carries out to tackle the anxiety.

An adolescent having OCD can also have depression, substance abuse, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders, and other types of anxiety disorders. When a person with OCD and other mental illness, is treated, OCD becomes more difficult to treat and even diagnose.

Krishan Bakhru

Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Adolescents

Sexually transmitted diseases are transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse and are highly infectious diseases. Unprotected sexual contact risks the lives of the young by afflicting with sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV infection and even unwanted pregnancy. Every year, nearly nineteen million cases of sexually transmitted diseases are reported in the United States alone and out of these, half of the cases involve people from the age group of fifteen years to twenty four years.

The best way to make sure the adolescent doesn’t contract sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from all types of sexual activities. In spite of this, if the adolescent becomes sexually active, he/she must be advised by the parents to take precautionary measures to reduce the risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease. The best precautionary measure is to use a condom every time the adolescent has sexual intercourse. Only when other sexually transmitted diseases are prevented and controlled, HIV infections can be prevented.

It is best when the adolescent delays and abstains from sexual relationships, because the younger the person, the more susceptible he/she is to get a sexually transmitted disease. Having sexual contact during menstruation is also risky. It is good to avoid anal intercourse and if it is performed condom is a must, even when having oral sex. Every person should get STD checkups as frequently as possible, irrespective of being sexually active or not, after they turn into adolescents. Precaution must also be taken when getting injected by an intravenous drug, that the needle used to inject must be sterile. The adolescent must be educated about the symptoms and risks of sexually transmitted diseases.

Adolescents must be thoroughly informed even if they say they know it all. They must be asked to indulge in only safe sex, if doing so. Parents should talk honestly and calmly about safe sex and must answer all their child’s queries. Topics such as STDs, birth control methods, having sex because of peer pressure, and date rape must be discussed in detail. Most people think that kissing is safe, but it can spread the sexually transmitted disease, herpes and many other diseases. Condoms do not provide hundred percent protections for genital warts, AIDs and genital warts. Females shouldn’t douche as it can make the infection go deeper into the reproductive tract and can also wash off spermicidal protection. At a time, sexual intercourse must be provided with only one partner, who isn’t involved with any other sexual partner.

The sexually transmitted diseases are Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS, Human Papillomaviruses or HPVs, chlamydial infections, pelvic inflammatory disease or PID, Gonorrhea, Genital Herpes, syphilis, and genital warts. The symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases take time to surface. Some of them are also symptom less and even these diseases can be contagious. Especially in the case of female, the symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases can be confused with the symptoms of other diseases. But females get severe symptoms and get it more frequently. Sexually transmitted diseases can harm the fallopian tubes and uterus. It can even lead to inflammatory disease, which in turn can cause ectopic pregnancy or infertility. Cervical cancer, in females, can be associated to sexually transmitted diseases. If a female gets a sexually transmitted disease during her pregnancy, the disease can pass onto her child. Sometimes the newborn’s infections can be treated successfully, but at other times, the child can be disabled for life or die.

If an adolescent is diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases, his or her treatment must start immediately. The early the sexually transmitted diseases are diagnosed, the easier it is to treat them successfully. The other sexual partner must be informed so that they can get themselves diagnosed and can undergo treatment. The adolescent must be instructed to stay away from sexual activity while the treatment is going on. The checkup must be followed after the treatment. Tests such as pelvic examination, Pap test, and test for STDs should be taken periodically.

Sexually transmitted diseases can affect people of all economic levels and backgrounds. Half of the cases of sexually transmitted diseases involve young people below the age of twenty five. The more sexually active the person is the more risk he/she is. And multiple sex partners at a given time are very dangerous too and must be strictly abstained from.

Krishan Bakhru

Depression in Adolescents

Depression in adolescents is a disorder which occurs due to persistent sadness, loss of interest, loss of self worth and discouragement. Depression is normally a temporary reaction towards situations of stress. Depression is a normal part of the maturation process of adolescents. It is even induced due to production of sex hormones. Adolescent females are depressed twice more than adolescent boys according to a study.

Adolescent behavior is normally marked with good and bad moods. The transition from a good mood to bad mood and vice-versa, can take minutes, hours and even days. That is the reason why true depression is very difficult to find out. Depression in adolescents can be caused due to bad school performance, break up with boyfriend or girlfriend, and failing relations with friends and family. These causes can lead to persistent depression. Other serious causes are chronic illness, obesity, child abuse, stressful lifestyle, poor social skills, unstable care giving and depression in family history.

Symptoms of depression in adolescents are eating disorders, weight change, irritable mood, excessive sleeping in daytime, excessive temper, criminal behavior, memory loss, fatigue, self preoccupation, sadness, difficulty in concentrating, worthlessness feelings, loss of interest, self hatred, obsession with death and thought & attempts of suicides. When these symptoms are being noticed for more than two weeks, it is important to get treatment for the adolescent. Depression not only affects interpersonal relationships, but school performance as well. Depressed adolescents are more prone to take onto drugs and alcohol as an attempt to overcome their depression. Such problems require intensive treatment.

The doctor will take blood test and perform physical examination to determine the cause of depression. The adolescent can also be tested for substance abuse such as smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, marijuana smoking, and usage of other drugs. After the physical examination, psychiatric evaluation is also done to understand the cause of sadness, loss of interest and irritability. Depression can also lead to the development of other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, mania and anxiety. It is also important to determine whether the adolescent poses a risk for himself/herself and others. Family and school personnel can provide valuable information about the adolescent to the doctor.

Treatment for depression for adolescent is similar to the treatment of depression for adults. Along with the treatment, the adolescent are given antidepressant medication and psychotherapy. Antidepressant medications include tricyclics, Prozac, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRI. Some of the medicines increase the risk, so it is a good idea that parents discuss the possible risks with the doctor. Only some of the antidepressant medications are meant for children and adolescents. Adolescents with severe depression need to be hospitalized as they are more prone to kill themselves.

Family and school support is necessary to tackle the depression of the adolescent. Parents can get their children admitted in emotional growth schools, boot camps or wilderness programs, to solve the behavioral problems. These programs consist of non medical staff and confrontational therapies. But care must be taken as some of the programs can in turn harm children who are depressed and sensitive. Adolescents, who get caught due to criminal offense, should be taken special care of by their parents. It is best that the child face the consequences and learn a lesson from it. Depressed adolescents respond well to treatment if they are treated comprehensively and early. More than half of the adults are known to have depression when they were in their teens.

Krishan Bakhru

Tests and Examinations for Adolescent Girls

Adolescence is the time when girls face many changes as they not only become physically mature, but sexually, too. In order to maintain good health, they need to consult gynecologist, adolescent medicine physician and obstetrician. Adolescents who are sexually active need to get some test done like pelvic examination, Pap test and test for checking sexually transmitted diseases. This helps the early determination of conditions that can affect reproductive, gynecological and sexual health.

Schiller test is conducted where the iodine solution is used to cover the cervix. In colposcopy, colposcope is used to check the cervix and the vagina. Cancer is checked by biopsy. In this a small quantity of cervical tissue is removed and a pathologist checks the tissue for abnormal cells.

The most important test is the Pap test or a pap smear. The cells from the mouth of the womb or the cervix are collected to check for cancer, abnormal cells, infection or inflammation. The detection of abnormalities shows signs of cancer. Therefore it is recommended that every female must take Pap test regularly to check out for invasive cancers in the early stages itself. And if invasive cancer is detected, it can be successfully treated in the early stages. Apart from detecting invasive cancer, other changes, such as cancer cells or dysplasia and inflammation, of the vagina and cervix can also be determined. Inflammation can be caused by pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, hormones, trichomoniasis infections, viruses, bacteria, yeast infections, and other medication.

The repetition Pap test will be suggested by the gynecologist. When a girl becomes sexually active, she will have to test for cervical cancer after three years of becoming active because it usually takes many years for the significant development of cancer or abnormality. Usually there are some cervical cell changes and transient human papilloma virus infections or HPV infections which are very common. Therefore, a Pap test for cervical cancer is recommended every three years. But women who are under thirty years are at a higher risk of getting HPV infections of higher risk. It would be more feasible if every individual takes advice from her doctor about when she can begin screening, the frequency of the test to be taken, and when she can discontinue the tests.

In a Pap test, if abnormal cells are determined, usually more tests are recommended to detect abnormalities which will require treatment. Abnormal Pap test will be handled differently for adolescents when compared to adults. Usually the low grade cervical lesions will not require any treatment and will go away on their own. That is the reason why the Pap test is repeated after a gap of six to twelve months, after the original Pap test which identifies abnormalities. But this repetition will vary from individual to individual depending on her health status and kind of abnormalities found.

A replacement of the Pap test is thinprep test. It involves new technique for testing cells from the cervix for abnormalities. But the cost of getting a thinprep test done is double the cost of getting Pap test done. The advantage of getting a thinprep test is that it requires to be re-done less number of times and detects lesions in initial stages itself. The cervical cells, instead of getting smeared on a slide, are introduced into a liquid vial. After the filtration of the liquid, the cells from the cervix are examined by being placed on the slide.

Krishan Bakhru

Smoking Related Health Problems in Adolescents

moking is the cause of many diseases and kills about four hundred and forty two thousand people every year in the United States. In spite of anti smoking campaigns and billboard warnings, more and more people are joining the bandwagon of smokers every year. Out of the total number of new smokers, ninety percent are children and adolescents, replacing smokers who have quit or died early due to a disease caused by smoking. Smoking is the top cause of preventable and premature deaths, followed by obesity.

Smoking not only increases the risk of lung disease, but also increases the risk of contracting lung cancer, oral cancer, emphysema, stroke and heart disease. Certain statistics by the American Lung Associations show alarming results. Over five thousand adolescents smoke their very first cigarette every day, out of which over two thousand turn into regular smokers. Presently there are nearly five million adolescents smokers. Twenty percent of the twelfth graders smoke cigarettes regularly.

Smoking has many harmful affects on the health of a human being. It damages the cardiovascular system, causes high blood pressure, increases heart rate, increases the risk of ischemic stroke, increases the risk of formation of blood clot formation, and decreases the oxygen amount which reaches the tissues in the body, reduces coronary blood flow & cardiac output, and damages the blood vessels. Smoking not only affects physical health, but mental health too. It causes psychological distress and depression.

Smoking not only affects the person who smokes but also other people who surround him/her. According to the American Heart Association, nearly thirty five thousand passive smokers die of smoke inhaled from a lit pipe, cigar or cigarette. People who do not smoke directly and inhale smoke from a cigarette smoke by his/her neighbor is known as passive smoker, secondary smoker or indirect smoker. Among the passive smokers, women, children and infants are at a higher risk. Infants and children who are exposed to smoke develop asthma, frequent ear infections and may even experience infant death syndrome. The symptoms experienced by secondary smokers are coughing, excess mucus formation in the airways, chest discomfort, chest pain, and lung irritation. They even feel irritation of throat, nose and eyes. If the passive smokers experiences chest pain, it can be an indication of a heart disease. Sometimes the symptoms of secondary smoking can coincide with the symptoms of other medical conditions. Hence, it is recommended to contact the doctor immediately after the surfacing of the symptoms.

In active smokers, smoking, apart from building up high cholesterol in blood, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, high blood pressure, physical inactivity and diabetes. So smoking cessation will not only reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, which is top of the list, but also decreases the risk by fifty percent of heart attacks and deaths caused by it. But quitting smoking undertakes lots of physical and mental efforts. The person should be made mentally relaxed and stress free. In case of adolescents, they can be asked to exercise regularly and sleep adequately. The American Lung Association and The American Academy of Otolaryngology have developed certain tips which can be of great help to the smokers who are thinking of quitting. The smokers must first be made to understand the reason for quitting. Stress only makes even more difficult to quit smoking, so a stress free period should be chosen to quit. Family and friends’ encouragement and support are extremely necessary to persuade the smoker to quit. If the support isn’t sufficient, smokers can join a smoking cessation program or a support group to attain their goals. A balanced diet is a must, along with lots of rest.

Sometimes taking nicotine replacement products, such as nicotine chewing gum, nicotine inhalers, and nicotine patch, are a great help to smokers who want to quit. By using these products the smokers can satisfy their nicotine craving. The good thing is that these nicotine replacement products can deduct the poisonous gases and tars emitted by the cigarettes. But nursing and pregnant women should consult a doctor before trying nicotine replacement products. For such people non-nicotine alternative is available in the market.

Krishan Bakhru

Adolescent Sleep Disorders—could School Schedules Be To Blame?

More and more, adolescents have been diagnosed with adolescent sleep disorders. Most commonly, adolescent sleep disorders prevent teenagers from receiving the proper amount of sleep. Most experts agree that teenagers need about nine hours of sleep; however, the average teen gets about six and a half hours of sleep on a school night, while some get even less.

Adolescent sleep disorders are thought to be caused by irregular sleeping patterns. Most teens are forced to wake up early to attend school, which conflicts with their natural tendencies to stay up later at night and wake up later. To compensate for this, teens try to catch up on their sleep during the weekends, oftentimes sleeping well into the afternoon. But experts agree that teens need to establish regular sleep patterns in order to avoid adolescent sleep disorders.

Sleep Deprivation Effects

Teens with adolescent sleep disorders are often deprived of sleep, which has many negative effects. Sleep deprivation could hinder both memory and creativity, which in turn could cause issues with learning abilities. Lack of sleep can result in mood swings, stress, and difficulty controlling emotions, depression, and a weakened immune system. A weakened immune system could cause many other long term problems as well.

What Can Be Done to Fix the Problem?

The solution to reducing adolescent sleep disorders is by no means simple. Because studies have shown that teenagers have a natural inclination to sleep late and go to bed late, the best solution would be to change the schedule of when students attend school. Currently, in many school systems throughout the world, high school students attend school, beginning as early as 7:25! This means that many high-schoolers are required to make it to the bus stop by 6:45 or earlier. Middle schoolers begin school next, with elementary schoolers beginning school the latest. But many people have expressed their support for reversing this schedule, allowing the high school students to begin school last.

There are problems with this solution, however. It would cost a lot of money to change the schedule that the busses run on. Additionally, many students have pointed out that a potential schedule change would interfere with extra curricular activities. Many students don’t leave the school until 4:00 already—with the new system, many high school students that are involved in clubs and sports would not arrive home until 7:00 or later.

Simon Peters

Father's Involvement Reduces Adolescent Problems

A strong and healthy father-child relationship can be closely associated with the lack of behavioral and emotional difficulties in adolescence, and a good academic motivation as well, according to a research done by the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford.

According to Ann Buchanan and Dr Eirini Flouri, co-authors of the research, girls whose male parents are closely involved in their upbringing are unlikely to develop any sort of mental health issues in their later lives. In the case of boys, they tend to be more disciplined and ordered and are less likely to get involved in law and order problems as they grow up.

The research authors defines an 'involved' father as a person who understands the child, reads his/her mind, take him/her for outings, concerned about the child's education, and willingly takes an equal role as the mother in managing the child. According to the research team, whether or not he is living with the child's mother or whether or not he is the biological father of the child is totally immaterial. Only the depth of the father-child relationship is what matters the most.

The study further observes that more the father's educational attainments, the better will be his involvement with his son or daughter. Other key findings include:

1) the father involvement at an age of 7 is strongly linked to the child's later academic achievements and

2) father involvement in the childhood shields the children against adult experience of homelessness in sons of manual laborers.

The research was conducted on around 17,000 children, born in 1958 and brought up in United Kingdom. The children were followed up periodically at the ages 7, 11, 16, 23 and 33, and their lifestyle and mannerism were noted down meticulously each time, before finally arriving at the conclusion.

To conclude, the study results clearly points to the fact that the quality time a father spends with his children has a very decisive effect in the shaping of his/her psychological and emotional side. The findings also draws attention to the role of education in shaping the character of fathers themselves, so that they become more children friendly and attentive to their behavioral and emotional needs when they require it the most, in the teen ages.

Jessica Moore