Many doctors recommend a combination of therapy and medication for signifi cant stress-related problems, such as depression or anxiety.
In fact, a recent study by the National Institute of Mental Health, a division of the governmental agency the National Institutes of Health, revealed that a combination of therapy and medication was more effective than either therapy or medication alone when treating teens suffering from moderate to severe depression.
If a doctor or psychiatrist prescribes medicine for you, he or she probably will suggest that you work with a psychologist or other type of counselor to determine the best course of action for your treatment.
Conversely, if you begin treatment with a psychologist or other type of therapist who does not prescribe medicine, the therapist might request that a doctor or psychiatrist review the potential benefi ts of medicine with you.
If your doctor or therapist recommends that you take medication, it’s important to fi nd out everything you can about the medicine pre-scribed and follow your doctor’s directions as to how to take it. Make sure the prescribing doctor knows about any other medications—
including vitamins and herbal supplements—you might be taking. If you take asthma medicine, for instance, it’s important to make that known. Ask how often you should take the medicine, if you need to take it with food or milk, if it is likely to cause any side effects, what happens if you feel better and think you no longer need the medicine, and how long you might expect to take it.
If paying for medicine is a problem for you or your family, there are some options for getting it at a reduced cost or for free. More informa-tion about that is available in chapter 11, “Paying for Care.”
A variety of medicines are used in treating teens who suffer from stress-related disorders such as depression and anxiety. You’ll notice that some of the same meds are used to treat both of those conditions.
Drugs commonly used to treat anxiety include the following:
M Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) M Tricyclic antidepressants
M Benzodiazepines
Drugs commonly used to treat depression include the following:
M Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) M Tricyclic antidepressants
M Serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) M Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
It’s important to know that you might have to try more than one course of treatment until you fi nd a medicine that is effective for you.
Sometimes a doctor will prescribe of combination of meds, and often, dosages need to be adjusted.
If you are prescribed medicine and, as is hoped, start feeling much better, don’t stop taking your meds without consulting your doctor.
And, because some studies have suggested a link between certain drugs used to treat depression and teen suicide, it’s important to tell someone right away if you begin feeling hopeless, overwhelmed, or have thoughts of harming yourself.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
M It can be extremely diffi cult, or impossible, to handle an ongo-ing, highly stressful situation on your own. If you feel that you’re unable to do so, the smartest thing to do is to ask for help.
M It may be time to ask for help for your stress-related problem if you’ve tried lifestyle changes and they didn’t work, if you were unable to implement the lifestyle changes you wanted to, if the cause of your stress is ongoing and never stops, or if the cause of your stress has stopped but you still feel anxious and overwhelmed.
M If you feel like you need to talk to someone about the circum-stances that are causing you great stress, look fi rst to your sup-port system, which may include parents, grandparents, trusted neighbors or other relatives, friends, a school nurse, youth group leader, pediatrician, and so forth.
M If you don’t get the relief you’re looking for from members of your support system, consider contacting a mental health pro-fessional, who is specially trained to treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, and will be able to assess your situ-ation and provide treatment.
M Cognitive-behavioral therapy, either by itself or combined with medication, has been proven to be an effective method of treating stress-related problems in teenagers.
M Mental health professionals include psychiatrists, psycholo-gists, clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors, pastoral counselors, and psychotherapists.
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M Once you’ve located a mental health professional, you can usually look online to learn about his or her educational cre-dentials, clinical training, years of experience, licensing status, and so forth.
M You’ll be asked to fi ll out a lot of forms and provide a lot of information before actual therapy begins. It’s important to cooperate and provide accurate, complete information.
M It may seem like your doctor or therapist is incredibly nosy, but he or she needs to obtain a wide variety of information in order to be able to assess your situation and help you over-come your stress-related problems.
M A cognitive-behavioral therapist will work with patients to help them evaluate destructive automatic thoughts and to change their core beliefs.
M Various medications are available to treat stress-related prob-lems in teens. If you’re prescribed medicine, be proactive and learn all you can about it, how it works, possible side effects, and so forth.
110
C
Chris had always been a friendly, well-liked kid. He was a member of the student council, swam backstroke on the swim team, and sang in the school chorus. He had a younger sister with whom he seemed to get along pretty well, and he and his mom and sister went to church most Sundays. When Chris was in the fi rst half of 11th grade, however, his friends noticed that his personality seemed to change. He became withdrawn, and often seemed angry.He didn’t laugh much anymore, and he was hanging out with a dif-ferent group of kids than he used to.
His friends were concerned and tried to talk to Chris, but he just kept on saying that everything was fi ne; he just felt like being with different people sometimes. His friends noticed that Chris was act-ing different in school now, talkact-ing back to teachers and gettact-ing into trouble. His grades were in trouble, too, and it seemed like he just didn’t care.
One Friday night after a school football game, two of Chris’s friends saw his car in a parking lot across from the stadium and went over to say hello. When they got there they discovered that Chris was in the car with two kids they didn’t know very well, smoking marijuana and drinking beer.
Now Chris’s friends were really concerned, and kind of angry, as well. They thought Chris was acting like a jerk for no reason and turning his back on those who’d been his friends since fi fth or sixth grade. Chris didn’t return any of their texts that weekend and didn’t