Interventions for teens may be necessary to safely address a mental health disorder, substance abuse, and severe behavior issues you are observing in your teenager. A teen intervention can help to point the way toward getting them the professional care they need and deserve. Under the care of our therapists and experts, families like yours can safely and effectively begin this conversation and take the first steps in a recovery journey together through our teen mental health treatment programs. If your teen is struggling, reach out to Imagine Fort Collins online today or call us at 888.291.2309 to learn more about how a crisis intervention can help you get your child back.
Mental health awareness is essential for understanding and intervening in early signs of trouble. This July, we invite you to learn more about the warning signs of mental health concerns in adolescents and how to get help if you’re concerned about your teen.
What Is a Teen Intervention?
The parenting books couldn’t have prepared you for this. No mom or dad thinks that they will need a teen intervention, but the reality is that depression, anxiety, and substance abuse are on the rise in American kids. These struggles can often lead a teen to self-medicate with harmful and addictive substances, which poses additional problems and risks as one-quarter of all American teens who begin to use drugs and alcohol will develop an addiction later in life. Before the issues reach this point, anxiety interventions for teens can help kids understand and get help for their troubles.
If you believe your teen is struggling with a mental health disorder or behavior issue, or if you’re worried they are turning to drugs as a way of self-medicating, you are not alone, and a troubled teen intervention might just save your child’s life. A teen intervention with the help of compassionate professionals is available today at Imagine Fort Collins.
10 Steps to Prepare a Teen Intervention
If you are worried that a mental health condition like anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder is causing your teen to suffer at home, school, work, or in their relationships, a teen intervention can help. Here are tips for preparing to have a teen intervention:
1. Observe
The first step in interventions for teens starts long before the actual teen intervention. You must observe your child, keenly paying attention to any usual behaviors, changes in appearance or personal habits, or alterations in their health and effort at school. The teenage years are rife with changes in their physical and emotional life, so no single change is a surefire indication of anxiety, depression, or drug or alcohol use. But, if your teen has swapped their long-term friends for a new crowd of kids, is letting their grades slip, or stopped caring about their looks, these could be signs that your teen is struggling.
2. Take Notes
Observing is one thing but you need to chart your teen’s descent. By tracking their dangerous path toward mental health disorders and/or substance use, you will be ready to present your finding as fact instead of getting into a he/she said battle. For example, if your teen comes home past curfew, make a note of the date and time.
3. Search for Drugs and Drug Paraphernalia
You want answers and need to have as much evidence as possible to make your case that your teen needs help right now. Collect concrete evidence of substance use before your intervention by looking for drugs and related paraphernalia in their drawers, backpacks, car, the back of closets, corners of bed sheets, and under their mattress or bed. Additionally, be cognizant of any small boxes, unusual books, makeup cases, over-the-counter medicine bottles, and empty candy wrappers. These are common hiding spots for teens and their drugs.
4. Build Your Case for the Teen Intervention
By preparing yourself and your family, building the evidence of the harmful words, actions, and behaviors you have observed, and establishing the points, your teen intervention will have a better chance of success.
Some questions to ask yourself as you build your case for staging a teen intervention:
- What are the reasons for the teen intervention?
- What are the actions or behaviors that have you concerned?
- How are your teen’s issues negatively impacting them at home, school, work, or in their relationships?
If you need help in learning how to stage a troubled teen intervention, our teen intervention team is ready to assist you.
5. Prepare How You Will React
It is difficult to watch your child struggle, retreat into a shell, or lash out at you, family members, and friends. Your immediate reaction may be anger, but a heightened emotional response will not help you get the outcome you want for your teen.
To get your important points across to them, a teen intervention must be approached delicately. Our compassion intervention team has years of experience and can help you find a successful way to stage an intervention. Prepare how you will react during the teen intervention:
- What will you do or say if your child gets defensive during anxiety interventions for teens?
- What will you say or do if they attempt to talk their way out of telling the truth?
This kind of preparation will help you stay even-keeled and not get emotional during the conversation.
6. Understand the Risks
There are risks involved in interventions for teens. Your teen could rebel against the evidence you’ve collected, retreat in fear or embarrassment, and even act out in more dangerous ways. You must understand and mitigate such risks. A professional teen intervention program can help you safely address your concerns with your child.
7. Get Buy-In from Your Partner
You can’t and shouldn’t attempt to have a troubled teens intervention on your own. Their other parents, and/or your current partner, can play a vital role in helping you gather evidence, be a sounding board for ideas, and comfort and care for you when you need it most. Parenting a teen with anxiety or a substance use disorder can take a significant toll on your own mental health. Having regular, open conversations with your partner is one way to care for yourself throughout this process.
8. Learn How to Steer the Conversation
With the help of Imagine Fort Collins, your interventions for teens will have the chance to be more successful because you will learn how to steer the conversation in a positive, productive, and healthy direction. This is critical to get your teen into a better physical, mental and emotional place. Listening openly and without an immediate reaction is key because an intervention should not be a lecture.
9. Know the Outcome You Want to Reach
What do you hope to accomplish with anxiety interventions for teens? Before you start this process, you should establish what a successful teen intervention looks like for you and them. Ask yourself:
- What do I want to achieve from the conversation?
- What happens if my goal is not achieved?
- Do I need professional help to manage this conversation safely and effectively?
10. Get Professional Help from a Teen Intervention Program
Experts who care, have compassion, and want you and your teen to succeed can help a teen intervention be more successful. Our team at Imagine Fort Collins helps parents like you every day. Because early intervention is key for teenagers, we will help guide you and your child in the right direction toward getting the care and treatment they need and deserve. The sooner you intervene, the more pain and danger you will save your teen and your family. Don’t hesitate to seek out our crisis intervention program to get your teen the help and the treatment that can help them get through this challenging time.
Learn More at Imagine Fort Collins
Now that you know how to prepare for a teen intervention and who you can rely on for help, your family can begin the journey towards recovery. To learn more about interventions for teens, contact us today online or call us at 888.291.2309.