Teen trauma Treatment can be challenging to process and deal with delicately and adequately if you’re the teen’s parent. That’s why teen trauma treatment programs exist. The effects of trauma can impact both parents and teens. Sometimes, teen trauma may even be related to their relationship with their parents. Professional help to handle trauma and its side effects can be life-changing for a teen and their parents.
No matter what your relationship is like, a parent should always want the best for their teen. It would be best to protect your teen and ensure their health, safety, and happiness. If you’re looking for professional help to deal with teen trauma, contact Foothills at Red Oak Recovery by calling 866.300.5275 or reaching out to our team online.
Causes of Teen Trauma and Effects on Body
A traumatic experience is an event that threatens a person’s life or the safety of the people around them. As a result of this situation, a person experiences high emotional, mental, and physical distress. The effects of trauma can temporarily disrupt their ability to function normally.
Teenagers can also be deeply upset by local, national, or international tragedies. They may also be affected negatively by trauma that affects their friends. In some cases, teenagers may face personal traumatic events – such as:
- Getting bullied
- Being in an accident
- Freezing on stage during a school recital
- Being attacked
- Suffering from abuse
Teens will handle trauma differently compared to children or adults. A child will depend on family to support their deep emotions, while teens may seek support from their peer group. They may find it challenging to deal with their strong emotions even with help from their friends. Parents need to recognize and understand how their teenagers manage distress to determine if their teen is experiencing trauma side effects.
What Are the Physiological and Physical Effects of Teen Trauma?
Every teen is different, but trauma side effects are often distressing and can include:
- Having strong feelings of anger, anxiety, guilt, or sadness
- Overreacting to minor irritations
- Thinking repetitively about the traumatic experience and talking about it often
- Disturbed sleeping patterns
- Withdrawing from both family and friends, wanting to spend more time alone
- Being very protective of family and friends
- Caring only about themselves and what is immediately important
- Having a pessimistic outlook on life or feeling sad and hopeless
- Having difficulties with concentration, short-term memory, and problem-solving
- Returning to younger ways of behaving, including giving up responsibilities or returning to previous rebellious behavior
If the traumatic experience happened recently, your teen could feel confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, or dissociation. Trauma can also sensitize the body’s central stress response system. This condition makes a person more reactive to stress and more likely to increase the stress hormone cortisol. Increased exhaustion also comes with worry and stress because trauma can make muscles tenser and constricted. Over time, the muscles become exhausted and ineffectual.
When Should You Consider Teen Trauma Treatment?
Did you know that more than 60 percent of teens have experienced at least one traumatic experience in their lifetime? Almost 20 percent have experienced three or more. Teen trauma is not rare and a teen shouln’t be embarrassed about it, but it can only heal once they recognize it and face it.
Traumatic stress can cause extreme reactions in some teens. Side effects like this may become chronic, and teens can carry them onto adulthood.
As parents, you should know how to look for signs that your teen should seek professional help. Here’s what you need to watch out for:
- Dangerous, harmful, or reckless behavior
- Behavior that’s completely out of character
- Persistent anxiety or depression
- A sudden or dramatic increase of substance use
- Lack of communication when it comes to their feelings and actions
- No signs of recovery from trauma
If you’ve noticed the signs of trauma in your teen, we recommend finding treatment at an adolescent mental health treatment center, such as the one at Foothills at Red Oak Recovery.
Learn More About Foothills at Red Oak Recovery
Contact Foothills at Red Oak Recovery by calling 866.300.5275 or reaching out to our team online if you’re looking for a trauma treatment program for your teen.
