Protecting Your Mental Health: For Teens

Teens face many challenges and obstacles that their parents never faced. Your thoughts, emotions, and behavior impact your well-being as a teenager. How you react to others or perceive the world around you can influence your mental health. Good mental health for teens does not mean you will never face any opposition; it simply means you are equipped with coping mechanisms and emotional resilience to carry on despite challenges.

Why Their Mental Health is Critical

Good mental health for teens is critical for their overall well-being. They must be able to process emotions, flip negative thoughts, adopt healthy habits, and be productive at home, school, church, and community. If they choose Christian counseling as a resource for learning coping skills, you can use these strategies for the rest of their lives when they feel overwhelmed.

Tips to Protect Your Mental Health: For Teens

Protecting your mental health should be a priority. Although parents try their hardest to help, as a teen, you need to practice healthy habits and learn how to cope physically, mentally, and emotionally. Your mental, emotional, and physical health are all connected. For example, if you feel depressed, you may become fatigued and have unexplained body aches or headaches. If you are chronically ill, you may be more susceptible to depression and anxiety.

The following list includes several tips to protect your mental health. Choose a few to try, and skip the ones that don’t fit in with your life. Give yourself a few weeks to develop the habit and see an impact on your mental health. If you seek counseling, share your new healthy habits with your counselor, so they know what worked and what you haven’t tried yet.

Carve out me-time

School, sports, extracurricular activities, church, chores, family time, the list can seem endless. The caring adults in your life want what is best for you, but sometimes this can place too much pressure on you, leaving you overwhelmed. Speak to your parents and other adults about cutting back on activities so you have more “me” time.

You can think of this as self-care. Maybe you sit and enjoy a movie or listen to music. Perhaps paint your nails or read a book. Maybe it is just sitting outside on the porch listening to the birds and looking at the sky. Whatever activity refreshes you counts as me-time.

Take a break from social media

Exposure to social media has been shown to increase the risk of developing mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, body image issues, and cyberbullying. Not all social media is bad. People use social media to reconnect with old friends, classmates, and long-distance family. It is when social media usage is abused that it can cause a problem for your mental health.

Most devices allow you to study the usage analytics. Are you spending too much time on social media platforms? How do you feel after you scroll through for a while? Do you feel like you might be missing out on something (Fear of Missing Out, also known as FOMO), or does it feel like an addiction (you absolutely must check your notifications)?

Take back control by minimizing your social media usage. Maybe take a break every evening after five or not log in on Sundays.

Socialize

Depression, anxiety, stress, and overwhelming responsibilities can make you want to isolate yourself from the world. Spending more time in your room is normal for a teen, but when you rarely emerge to connect with family or only leave to go to school or church, your mental health can suffer.

Make it a point to check in with your family. Call a friend, invite them over, or go to their home. Take walks in your community. Ask how you can serve in your church and your community. Not only will you feel happier, but you will make new friends too.

Set boundaries

During the teen years, you begin to get a sense of who you are, the things you like and dislike, what you will tolerate, and what you absolutely will not tolerate. You won’t know it all, and you’re not expected to. People can spend decades learning these things about themselves.

But once you know some of these things, set boundaries to protect your peace. For example, if you are a Christian, you should practice abstinence because the Bible teaches you to wait to have sex until after you are married.

This is a clear boundary for you, but you must set boundaries for others, so they understand and respect your decision. You may experience resistance from people when you set a boundary. That is okay. These boundaries are critical for inner peace, mental health, and self-respect.

Participate in activities

To avoid the isolation trap, participate in activities. This is not to say that you should keep your schedule packed and not allow for self-care and rest. Instead, find meaningful activities and tasks you enjoy and join in the fun.

If you like to sing, join the church choir. If you like to act, check out local stage productions. Play an instrument? Join the band. Ask your parents to help you find groups for teens participating in activities you enjoy. Don’t forget to engage in activities with your family. Hikes, picnics, game nights, and movie nights all count.

Eat well

You must maintain a healthy body to maintain a healthy mind. The best way to do this is to ensure that you eat as healthily as possible most of the time. You can still have your favorite snacks and desserts, but balance these treats with healthier options, like lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats.

Get involved in dinner time at your home. Ask a parent or grandparent about their favorite meals. People love to share what they like with the younger generation. Learn to make a few dishes and offer to cook one or two nights a week. Help with the grocery shopping to suggest fresh fruits and veggies.

Make exercise a habit

If you dread P.E. class, you are not alone. A lot of people do. However, what you learned in Physical Education is the foundation for a healthy physical life. Keeping your physical body healthy will decrease the risk of developing some mental conditions.

Speak to your doctor before starting any fitness regimen. Once cleared, aim for 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise weekly, less if you do high-intensity workouts. The best type of exercise combines cardio, strength training, and flexibility training throughout the week.

For example, you could run on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, lift weights or do bodyweight exercises on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and add a stretching session in the evenings or on Sundays. Talk to your doctor about the best program for your body and health.

Trust God

There are different aspects to consider when staying healthy. Your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health depends on each other. For example, if you become chronically ill, you might develop depression and become irritable with the people you love most. If something bad happens to you or you lose a loved one, it may feel as if your emotions are all over the place with grief, and your body may respond by feeling weary and fatigued.

But when you put your faith in God, you will find that your spirit remains strong even if your body, mind, and emotions fail. The Bible states, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalms 34:18, NIV) God will not allow those who love Him to fall. Trust Him and ask Him to guide you in maintaining a healthy body, mind, and soul.

Finding Help for Mental Health for Teens

Help is available to learn the necessary coping skills for good mental health for teens. Reach out to our office today to schedule a session with a Christian counselor. Your counselor will bring proven psychology methods combined with faith-based principles to help you navigate the teen years.

Combine the tips above with strategies you learn in counseling to improve your mental health for teens. Call to get started today.