PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychotherapy is a valid approach to the teenage mental
illness though there are other kinds of treatment for this problem but psychotherapy
is the most effective treatment .Let us ask you a Question “How do teenagers
learn to deal with themselves?”
Well common experience tells us that teenagers have to develop
ways to understand, evaluate and accept themselves. This sense of self is
hugely import-essential for every other part of mental well being. Without this
we would be blindly reacting to the world around us without any reference to
who we are. There are two important elements of sense of self which are
important for teenagers: self-analysis and autonomy. Children’s are self –analytical
from time to time .They learn the difference between what is going on in the
world and what is going on in their head. At first ten years of life elapse, children’s
occasionally refer to how they see themselves and how they think others see
them, but these flickering of self-analysis are interspersed with long period
of endearing ignorance of the self.
The changes takes place when we are adolescence .not only do
teenagers spend more time looking inwards, but it starts to become an obsession.
Early-teens may sit for long period mulling over their own hopes, fear, abilities
and defects. This new found self-obsession is of course entirely normal .it s a
sign that teenagers are doing what they evolved to do. One of the key to human success
is that we are able to analyse ourselves-both as individuals and as a entire
species we self-criticize, solve problems and adapt ourselves until we can
achieve what we want. compared to children’s , children’s are poor at self –analysis,
preferring instead for an adult to show them the correct way to do things,
adolescents are the complete opposite .this is why they sometimes aggressively reject
outside advice-thus they can learn how to modify their own thoughts.
Dramatic reconfiguration of the brain takes place exactly at
the time when teenagers are becoming self-analytical. Self –analysis gives
human immense mental flexibility, and it is teenagers who first see the
advantage of that flexibility. They can strip apart and reassemble their own
mental processes until they find a way to succeed. They learn the power of being
able to solve their own problems to develop their own code of belief’s, to
learn how to cope with adversity, to calm themselves and to enjoy
self-reliance. Self awareness opens u a whole new world of mental
possibilities- and a new mature, teenage, personality.
Self analysis brings its own problems. With it comes the opportunity
for excessive, damaging self – criticism. Teenagers are more prone to
self-criticism than adults, perhaps because they are still cognitively
immature, socially inexperienced and often belittled by the adults around them.
Many therapists worry that psychiatrist’s disorders often stem from a failure to
construct a viable, coherent sense of self in the teenage years. The
requirement for teenagers to set their own mental agenda means that,
inevitably, some of them get it wrong. And as a result they can spend the rest
of their lives locked in futile, obsessive attempts at trying to come to terms
with themselves. Many troubled teenagers criticize about themselves to pieces.
They are bright, charming, attractive people who seem to have no way to view
themselves in positive light. They have a self image that they find it painful
to live with, but cannot seem to change .they may not show symptoms severe
enough to be diagnosed as mentally ill, but the flawed relationship they formed
with themselves could stay with them forever.
Now we will speak about Autonomy .Autonomy cannot develop
without self-analysis, and the converse is also probably true. During early
adolescence, teenagers with-draw from their parents both mentally and emotionally.
Although they still need them for occasional material and emotional support,
they start to actively exclude their parents from their lives-a painful process
but is nonetheless entirely normal .if a teenager is ever to be able to
function as normal adult, it is thought that they must pass through this stage
of self-determination to a state where they can stand alone as an emotional
autonomous being. This voluntary act of dislocation from parents is itself empowering,
and by leaving teenagers precariously isolated, it forces a radical review of
their self-image . Maybe this is why parental support is so valuable for teenagers.
The rewards of a teenager’s proclamation of autonomy are enormous a more
profound state of consciousness which was not possible when they where child.
They can glide from childish self interest to teenager’s desire for social
approval to an adult sense of altruism and self sacrifice, gathering the beliefs
and behaviour that will define them as individuals; slowly they start to
develop the confidence to maintain their inner emotional stability without
demanding support from others. They like to experiment with emotional
independence and dependence. When people strikes the wrong balance between
emotional attachment and disatachment during adolescence it leads to emotional
turmoil .Most of the time it is seen that a large number of people react to
relationship problem by trying harder and harder to fight their way into other’s
affection, when the best thing may actually stand back and be an independent
person that others find so attractive.
Thus autonomy has positive side as well; it is a good
example of how conflict and upheaval are a healthy part of teenage life. Active
rejection of parents opens up adult choices about independence and emotional relationships.
It reveals a central emotional dichotomy built deep into human brain. According
to this the right side of the brain accumulated the machinery of emotions, positivity
and attachment, whereas the left side
acquired analysis, negativity and autonomy, as a result the right side
is prone to social obsession and anxiety, while the left side is withdrawn and
antisocial. And this tension between the two sides is claimed to have reached
its pinnacle in humans-the master manipulator of social context, inquisitiveness
and communication.
Thus we can say that self-analysis and autonomy are the two
tools teenagers must develop to create a sense of self that will support them
for the rest of their lives. People can change the way they see themselves
later in life, but it can be incredibly difficult to repair the failing sense
of self so often formed in adolescence. Self –analysis and autonomy is the
cornerstone of teenage development, they can also cause one of the major
psychological problems of adolescence: depression. Depression is one of the
burden some illness in the world, and this is almost certainly the case in the
developed world where it affects perhaps a fifth of population. This mainly
happens during teenage years .
