"Anxiety Disorders among 15 - 19 - year-olds have almost doubled between 2004 - 2016"as stated in June 2017 Alberta Health study related to emergency department visits for anxiety disorders. This was in the Herald January 15, 2018 under the heading "technology is exposing our kids to a lot, and not all of it is good" Susanne Heaton stated. Susanne Heaton is marketing consultant with the Canadian Institute of Natural ad Integrative Medicine (CINIM).
Getting calls from parents with younger than 15 - the age ranges from 8 and up is indicating the issue is expanding. I am wondering what the stats are for this. The pain and emotions surrounding the pain are overwhelming and relief needs to happen sooner than later.
Everyone 's voice needs to be heard, understood and validated. Families are feeling the pain of frustration as they don't know what to do different, kids are struggling to express themselves and having good old fashion conversations at the dinner table are not happening. Everyone does their best to do what they can but if you don't know what to do different, your are spinning your wheels.
It is more than having a child talk to a psychologist, it is about how do parents approach this difficult situation? The complexity of the situation is in the hands of the families. Schools are struggling to have enough psychologists (Jeannie Everett, superintendent of learning with CBE says "yes, there are wait lists" confirming that 83 mental-health therapists and psychologists are spread over 245 CBE schools serving 122,000 students. This was stated in the Herald January 15, 2018.
Let's be real. The gap will continue to be the problem if families are not part of the solution. The families are needing the attention. The schools, psychologists, Health Care System are the places for the help however the families need the "HOW TO" tools to continue at home on a daily basis. If the approach to the situation doesn't change at home, nothing will change. If you don't know how to approach the situation different without some understanding how, everyone gets more anxious, young people isolate themselves in their rooms and the parents are standing outside the door struggling what to do.
A mom of a 14 year old had the same concern when she was desperate to prevent another suicide attempt. The outcome of this, the mom and her husband changed their approach with how to engage their daughter in conversations. Today this 17 year old is sharing whatever is on her mind and the family are relying on their tools to address other situations that appear. Suicide and cutting have disappeared. Anxiety can be managed when the whole family get involve in the process and work together. They are not on a wait list suffering and having the situation getting worse. Taking charge of their situation, was more about the family learning what to do different, put the phones down and start having conversations.This mom now shares with other families how they changed the anxious dynamics at home to having open honest conversations. When one family learns how, shares with another family, a ripple effect of relief starts to happen.
Who wants to be part of the problem? No one. You feel good inside when you are part of the solution, and not having fingers pointing at one person needing help. It is a family affair. When you have the tool LUV to have honest conversations, situations change. When everyone's voice is HEARD, UNDERSTOOD AND VALIDATED, things change and it can happen in your family. Listed somewhere on a wait list is allowing anxiety to compound and have more rippling of anxiety throughout the family.
Stop the anxiety, start having family conversations and step into the strengths within the family to change anxiety. Other families are doing it, you can do it too. Do something different today.
Join a group of families to learn the tools together.