Parenting a Problem Adolescent: Resilience
Tunmore (cited in Regel & Roberts, 2002, 73) outlined various mental health promoting factors (based on evidence) that are relevant to adolescent kids and to parents alike to reflect upon. They include: »
In the preceding discussion it was established to some extent that social and community values, attitudes and beliefs have a major impact on the way that adolescent children are portrayed and how parents are also portrayed. Even so there is still a lot of contradictory evidence out there (Eckersley in Rowling, Martin & Walker, 2001, 73) about the perception of youth – their own views ver... »
There are so many possible situations that it would be difficult to even briefly describe them here. ‘Problem’ adolescents may have a variety of different health and learning related needs, problems or issues. The most significant sorts of problems for parents and their children during early to mid adolescence relate to differences in the way the world is perceived and ways of coping w... »
“Youth is not a time of life – it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; vigor (sic.) of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life.” (Samuel Ullman) »
A client comes to you having had to quit work due to a degenerative visual impairment. He has a 3 year-old child and his wife is expecting another baby. His sight may continue to deteriorate or it may remain at the current level. He is suffering stress, feelings of grief and loss and anxiety about the future. »
The essential features of Bulimia Nervosa are binge eating and inappropriate compensatory methods to prevent weight gain at least twice a week for at least three months. The self-evaluation of people with Bulimia Nervosa is excessively influenced by body shape and weight. A binge is defined as eating in a discrete period of time (usually less than two hours) an amount of food that is significantly... »
MacLeod (1981) states people with anorexia are notoriously difficult persons who are determined to hang on to their symptoms at all costs. This is a common view throughout the medical profession and related fields, possibly due to the ego-syntonic nature of eating disorders – the person is comfortable with the disorder and views it as consistent with their goals and wishes. »
One of the most important advancements in the understanding of eating disorders is the recognition that many of the symptoms once thought to be primary features of anorexia nervosa are actually symptoms of starvation. An experimental study, conducted and published 50 years ago by Ancel Keys and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota (Keys, Brozek, Henschel, Mickelsen & Taylor, 1950) is ... »
Lemberg (1992) also proposes a model of development whereby a person moves from voluntary dieting through a number of stages to reach a fully entrenched eating disorder. »
There are many environmental, cultural, psychological and biological factors which combine in different ways in the development of an eating disorder. These factors can be divided into three factors, as seen below in Figure 1. »
Eating disorders are complex, multifaceted physical and mental health problems. Their development usually involves a number of different contributing and perpetuating factors. The exact processes are unclear and is it uncertain how they interact to develop or maintain an eating disorder (Fairburn & Harrison, 2003). »