Every teenager feels stress. But for teens with attention-deficit disorder or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, it can be especially difficult. A tough assignment, a family get-together, or even a social interaction can become overwhelming. Stress management can become dramatically easier with the right ADD/ADHD Treatments For Teens.
Stress and ADD/ADHD
Before going the treatment phase, an explanation of why stress is more intense with ADD or ADHD is critical. A person with ADD or ADHD may have difficulty with emotional regulation or organization. What one person may view as an inconvenient situation, like forgetting the homework or missing the bus, can place high amounts of stress and worries for another. If stress continues with no solutions, burnout, low self-esteem, and even depression may occur.
Most parents and caregivers hate to see their young ones suffer from stress, especially during difficult transitions like changing schools or taking exams. Although every teenager is different, the connection between ADD/ADHD and stress is visible. This becomes even more vital with focused attention.
How Stress Affects Everyday Life
Stress goes beyond mood changes; it also affects how a teen thinks, behaves, and learns. Teens who have ADD or ADHD may feel even more stressed, and it can become a never-ending cycle of frustration. They may become more forgetful, impulsive, and distracted. While parents perceive more tantrums and emotional outbursts, teachers tend to stress and report declining classroom performance caused by something more than learning.
Stress also affects the body, and it especially targets the strongest, most developing organs. In the case of teenagers, stress can result in tension headaches, sleep disturbances, and even stomachaches. All of these symptoms result in unproductive attitudes toward learning and social activities. Identifying these behaviors and symptoms allows families to implement appropriate strategies.
Why Early Actions Matter
When a teen is cared for, it focuses on more than just improving the decline. It also provides a teen with the proper skills to cope with stress and other frustrations in a healthy manner. This is why taking an early approach is highly suggested because the unproductive and stressed habits developed from a lack of early support tend to carry on into adulthood. Unmanaged stress can lead to other, more serious issues, such as substance abuse, risky behaviors, and a lack of interest in learning.
The good news is that integrated holistic treatment options are available. Physicians and Psychologists are combining treatment options from the medical, behavioral, and lifestyle pillars, and are showing favorable efficacy that assists adolescents under psychosocial pressures.
Common Stressors for Teens with ADD/ADHD
All adolescents have pressures, but for teens with ADD/ADHD, some additional and more common stressors include:
- School pressures, specifically copious amounts of homework and/ or being assessed.
- Trouble with time, being their own systems to order problems, and with organization for tasks.
- Issues in the social domain, particularly being excluded, rejected, or bullied, and in some cases being the bully.
- Strain and/ or burdens from the family.
- Being disrupted from their routines or having a change in their surroundings.
Realizing stressors makes it easier for planners to specify treatment in a way that considers the relief of symptoms.
Working on Strategies for Stress Tackling
Recognizing that the pillars for ADD and ADHD interventions are extensive shows that treatment is individualized. Crossing activities from different approaches is the most effective. Integrated stress management should be a primary goal of an intervention plan.
Behavioral Therapy
Most medical professionals suggest behavioral therapy as the first option. This is because it addresses the most important issues and provides the first elements needed for therapy. It teaches the skills needed for stress management, organization, and self-control. Teens learn task-patience coping mechanisms, planners, and practice steps for calming methods when their emotions escalate.
Most therapists work with the teens’ parents and include them in the steps. This way, the families can help support positive behavior and changes in the teens. The teens positively reinforce their behavior when parents praise them, and they learn to manage stresses and challenges with ease.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is less focused on emotions and is meant to treat the issues of thinking that accompany them. For teens with ADD or ADHD, it is meant to help with the negative, stressful thinking that is often in a feedback loop. For instance, instead of “I’ll never get this right,” CBT wants the thought to change to “I can take this one step at a time.”
These changes directly decrease the stress and help build resilience. The focus on thoughts isn’t negative. It allows them to change their thoughts, making it more positive to help gain control of stressful situations at school and while interacting with friends and family.
Support with Medication
Teenagers’ treatment often includes the use of medication. Methylphenidate and other amphetamines are stimulant prescriptions that help teens focus and decrease impulsivity. With therapy, these prescriptions help children manage stress and self-control.
For children and teens who do not respond to stimulant medications, non-stimulant medications are a great option. As a result, families can create a more tailored plan to meet the child’s needs, which improves flexibility and cooperation.
Relaxation and Mindfulness
For ADD and ADHD, care includes the use of religion and other mindfulness practices. Breathing exercises, meditation, and guided imagery are great ways to relax the mind and relieve stress. Mindfulness improves concentration and helps with emotional outbursts.
Despite not taking the place of other forms of treatment, mindfulness provides a unique form of stress relief. Mindfulness can help with stressful activities often associated with school, such as giving presentations and taking tests. Mindfulness techniques help teens manage stressful situations.
Adjusting Your Lifestyle
Small lifestyle changes can sometimes become big game changers. Regular movement, adequate nutrition, and healthy sleep patterns determine how people will experience and manage everyday stress. Exercise helps substantially, as it increases the dopamine levels, which helps attention and mood for teens with ADD and ADHD.
Families can help by creating consistent and predictable routines and schedules. Such predictable lives will give teens a sense of balance and order, which helps lessen stress and provide healthy consistency, independence, and resilience over time.
Family Support
Family involvement is not one part, but the entirety of the treatment. When the whole family, which in addition to the core unit of parents and children may include siblings and caregivers, is in communication, the stress burden of the whole house is lessened. Open communication, positive reinforcement, and setting realistic expectations go a long way in creating a supportive environment. Parents can join their children in support groups, which makes them less stressed about the family unit and generally helps the family as a whole. Such a thriving environment enables the teens to build self-efficacy to manage their struggles.
School Stress Management
For teens with ADD and ADHD, school is the most stressful environment. Academic pressure, social interactions, and classroom expectations are a few elements that can add pressure and anxiety, which is why it is useful to have open dialogue between families and schools.
Accommodations like extended time on tests, preferential seating, or breaking assignments into manageable parts are some strategies that teachers can use. Counselors and school psychologists are also integral to aiding the emotional wellness of teens. When there is active participation from school staff, teens feel more empowered and less stressed.
Building Emotional Resilience
An important, long-term goal of ADD/ADHD treatment will be to build the emotional resilience of the teen. Emotional resilience is what people need to help them bounce back, be flexible, and keep a constructive view, even in times of high pressure. This type of progress takes time; it won’t happen at once, and is the result of steady treatment and positive reinforcement.
Resilient teens self-advocate, problem-solve, and control/cope with their emotions. They also learn to manage stress, a critical life skill that will be important in adulthood.
Creating a Personalized Approach
There is no more a “one size fits all” when it comes to strategies for the treatment of ADD/ADHD and stress management. Every teen has differences in strength and challenges that need to be considered. A more tailored plan is likely to include the collaboration of more than one professional, like a doctor, a therapist, a teacher, and the family.
Asking questions and tracking progress are vital. Parents need to remain involved so that their teen gets treatment that targets the symptoms of ADD/ADHD and the anxiety that comes with it.
Looking Toward the Future
Teens with ADD and ADHD are not only able to learn to manage stress but also learn to improve in other areas. They are able to receive modern treatment also gives them what they need to improve their relationships and self-esteem, do better in school, and feel good about what is to come in their life.
Resource availability has increased the treatment options available to families and the positive carryover to stress management and resilience building. These treatments include therapy, medication, mindfulness, and other evidence-based practices.
Final Thoughts
Working on and managing stress, ADD, and ADHD is challenging and time-consuming, but it is worth it for families that are able to stick to a comprehensive plan. Families focusing on holistic ADD/ADHD Treatments For Teens are likely to see meaningful changes in their teenagers. With the right support, teens will not feel as burdened by daily challenges and will instead be able to discover their positive attributes and passions.
Hillside Horizon is here to help families that need personal attention. Our specially designed programs help to manage not only ADD/ADHD symptoms, but also the accompanying tension. With help, adolescents can shift their focus from just getting through the day to actually flourishing.
