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| Mood Swings | There exist the myriads psychological factors, which influence the development of every individual personality. There are no two exactly the same people, as well as there is no experience, which would be the same for everyone. Every single person’s reality is filtered through the unique psychological makeup of each individual human being. To everything, which is mentioned above the fact, that each person is irredeemably contextualized within some specific environment peopled with family members, friends and all kinds of other variables that react synergistically with one another. Now, after all that, would it be difficult to imagine mood swinging? This is why the first thing, every parent is to remember is that mood swings are just a normal part of the teens’ course of life. However the challenge is to understand when there is a necessity for a parent to keep tolerance and when there appears a real problem, which requires immediate attention.
Mood swings are considered to be vacillations between euphoria and depression. People, who live with someone of teenagers, knows well that this describes the whole scenario, as in them the extremes predominate with the more moderate variations, coming in between are practically absent completely. This is why it is necessary to investigate what falls under this rather inadequate term “normal” for all parents of teens. In accordance with some investigations, conducted recently, they show that, contrary to the generally accepted theory, the brain keeps developing long after it has reached its full size.
It had been considered before, that the brain, which reaches about 90 percent of its full size by the age of six, had also hit so – to – say “ceiling” in its development. Though, what these investigations reveal – is that the brain of a teenager is still much under construction. Moreover, it is during this life period when one of the most evolved parts of the brain, which is called the prefrontal cortex, is still developing during the teen years. These parts are extremely important, and they are responsible for everything, associated with the maturity, such as judgment, planning and self – control.
It is practically impossible to believe, but still, there are parts of the brain, which keep on developing up until the person’s twenties. And this makes to news: one good and one bad. As for the bad news – there is not much a person can do about these teenagers’ mood swings, only check acting out and trying to practice tolerance. As for the good news, it is far outweighs the bad one – it is that every parents can look forward into a future, when the children will become normal adult people, and this is quite a reason for celebration.
Those parents, who have already labored under this impression that they had somehow failed in their job, get a reprieve and those teens, who occasionally ponder on their alarming capacity for insanity, can rest assured that they are only visiting the lunatic fringe. And this is one of the cases, when the discovery literally requires a complete change of the whole approach.
In accordance with the facts of the nowadays, immaturity, present at this period of life is not only the phenomenon to be expected, it is de rigueur. However, there is hope, that this would put a stop to those disturbing number of teens, who are being diagnosed with all kinds of forms of mental illness and who are slapped onto all kinds of serious psychotropic drugs, which in reality only act by interfering with that crucial development of the person’s brain part, called frontal cortex. Thus, now, when the goal posts are being changed, when there comes high time to ring all those alarm bells?
Here come some pointers:
- Depression, which seems to be persistent and which is immobilizing, is considered to be quite a serious condition, and it needs somewhat close attention. The same goes about casual enquiries and possible comments about suicide. None of those mood swings, which are usually associated with the teen years, includes any protracted depression, which can even become disabling or any suicidal though.
- Acting out always requires some boundaries to contain it. Of no doubt, these possible teen moods swings would make the young people prone to some extravagant displays of their emotions, though any of them, which bear either destructive or aggressive character, are to be dealt with in the firmest way. The parents of such a teenager will have to take charge in much the same years they did when this teenager was a two years old kid. There are cases, when the teen can be helped only by anger management courses, which also teach some useful life skills.
- Any eating disorders should become the reason of an immediate concern. The statistics, which has to do with such conditions, as teen bulimia and anorexia are simply alarming. This is why it is extremely important to watch the child’s eating habits, as well as to pay attention if there is too much weight lost and monitor the child’s exposure to the destructive aspects of the media, which constantly proclaim that stick insects are much more desirable than real people. In addition, every parent, as being a model for the child, should make sure that he or she is in a healthy and empowered relationship to eating and body image.
- In case if any drugging or drinking becomes noticed, it is a reason of alarm. Although for an average teenager this may seem an obvious avenue, it is a definite reason of being concerned for every parent.
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