“…choose a few effective and tolerable interventions and then stick with them.”Your teen is cooperating by attending therapy, participating in a teen support group, taking medicine, practicing yoga, swallowing fish oil pills, and maintaining a journal of their feelings. A friend tells you that a gluten-free diet might help and a family member urges you to try the healing touch therapy.
Can too many interventions be risky?
I think so. It is easy to forget that teens are freshly out of childhood, unaccustomed to doing much more self-care than dressing and brushing their teeth. Throw too many rigors at them and they may rebel completely, especially if progress has already been discouragingly slow.
But there’s an even greater risk. Some teens may welcome all the interventions you can offer, filling their lives with ever more treatment and leaving little time to simply be a teen. Your son or daughter may become a “professional patient,” whereby they are defined by only their illness. This is not what you want for your growing teen who still has the task of developing friendships, creative outlets, academics, and career goals. Too many interventions can actually keep a teen dependent upon the illness.
Keep in mind that most interventions take time. Therapy has a cumulative effect. A month of therapy is only a start, but six months of therapy begins to make a difference. Two years of regular therapy produces substantial results, but is still not a lot. Avoid jumping from one intervention to another. Instead, choose a few effective and tolerable interventions and then stick with them, while letting your teen get on with the other important parts of life. I am not knocking a gluten-free diet or touch therapy by any means, but consider the impact of introducing a new strategy if the current plan is working.
“…if we want our teens to grow up, we have to allow them to figure out how to manage the tough times.”