Ep. 30: Adolescent mental health issues with Dr Adelita Segovia
In this show you will hear a useful discussion for parents regarding the issue of adolescents and mental health, which I hope will help parents get this stage of their child’s life in a healthy, happy way. My guest for this discussion is Dr. Adelita Segovia, a board-certified psychiatrist at the Clayton Behavioral Center in St. Louis. Dr. Segovia focuses her practice on issues having to do with adolescent mental health and is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Washington University.
Our conversation starts with the biggest risks parents often have to deal with regarding a teenager’s mental health. Dr. Segovia talks about several studies that have been done in recent years that analyze the biggest risks, including depression and a number of other troubling statistics that make consideration of a child’s mental health a very important factor in their lives.
You will hear the most important signs of depression and other mental problems and how they differ from standard adolescent emotional problems and adult emotional problems. She explains why parents should be attuned to a teenager’s behavior, so that they can recognize the behavioral changes that serve as signs of a potential problem.
You’ll then hear about the potential triggers of such concerning behavior and Dr. Segovia explains some of the greatest stressors, such as bullying, academics, social problems and how they can affect a teenager. One of the biggest risks is substance abuse, and Dr. Segovia explains why that is the case. You’ll hear her discuss the biological tendencies of the adolescent brain and how these risks can affect their mental health.
The next portion of the show turns to treatment. This includes the use of therapy and medication, including some of the most common therapy modalities, like cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy, which she explains in great detail. She also explains why it’s important to help families understand and change some environmental factors that contribute to the mental health problems experienced by adolescents.
We also discuss the importance of modeling behavior for adolescents and to deal with environmental factors that may be contributing to mental health problems or to prevent them from happening in the first place. These include setting clear rules and boundaries in their day-to-day life, and the importance of positive reinforcement. This leads to a very freewheeling discussion of how parents, even those from broken families, can help teenagers make good choices and how that can contribute to good mental health. She explains why it’s important to place the child’s well-bring first, no matter what.
Communication with teenagers is often very difficult, and Dr. Segovia will give you some great strategies for bridging that communication gap. Understanding teenagers involves a lot of listening and less reacting. There is a reason why teenagers act the way they do and you have to engage with them to a greater degree, and Dr. Segovia explains how to do that.
The show concludes with a discussion of how parents can know they need to get professional help for their teen and how to go about doing that. There are specific steps to take and you should take them in order.
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