Mental Health Issues Affecting Teens and Young Adults

As high school seniors, many of you will be heading off to college this fall.  It’s an exciting time, but also a time of anxiety and stress arising from many sources.  An academic workload that is more rigorous than high school along with less parental support can result in stress for many students. Learning to live with a roommate, creating a new social network, and balancing time with friends and school work can easily cause anxiety.  Being away from home for the first time may bring about feelings of homesickness. 

Everyone deals with stress in unique ways.  For many people, stress evokes feelings of being overwhelmed.  It’s important to recognize that the consequences of stress can range from mild to severe and realize there is help available. 

Here are some resources for helpful information on:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Eating Disorders
• Addiction
• Suicide

http://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/top-5-mental-health-problems-facing-college-students/

http://collegelife.about.com/od/healthwellness/ht/Stress.htm 

Healthy Relationships

Trust, honesty, and compromise - all components in healthy relationships.  Here are some excellent resources on promoting healthy relationships.

Center for young women's health - information about healthy relationships with friends, family, and dating partners -  http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/healthy_relat.html 

http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/teen/dating-sex/pages/Expect-Respect-Healthy-Relationships.aspx - Expect respect for a healthy relationship

http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/DM_Overview-a.pdf - Promoting Healthy Relationships

 http://www.violencepreventionworks.org/public/recognizing_dating_violence.page - recognizing dating violence