Bitesize Hacks for Teenage Mental Health Support
Quick hacks to help with teenage mental health during lockdown
In this bonus episode of Teenage Kicks – my podcast about teenage mental health – I talk to Lee David, a GP with a specialist interest in young people’s mental health. Lee uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help with anxiety and depression, and has created a free online programme for teenage mental health support during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Why is the Coronavirus lockdown especially difficult for teenagers?
I chatted to Lee about how distressing the Covid 19 pandemic is for teenagers and young adults; many have had the rug pulled out from under them, missing exams, proms, and important rituals of moving on from school. Lots more are missing education at an important stage of their lives, and worrying about what their next steps – university, 6th form, or job security – are going to look like.
There’s so much that’s unknown for our teens right now, and to add insult to injury they’ve lost their social freedom, and control over their own lives. That’s incredibly unsettling at an already quite stressful point in their lives. They’re also at a loss for something to do – teenagers aren’t as easy to entertain as toddlers, so if you need inspiration here’s a list of ideas to entertain teenagers stuck at home.
How can CBT offer mental health support to teens?
Lee talked me through her free online programme, and what parents and teens can do to conquer any difficult emotions they might be feeling due to the lockdown and coronavirus pandemic. Best of all, Lee’s strategies can all be completed in 10 minutes or less – totally bitesize! I tried the programme myself and found it really easy to run through, and I’ve added some of Lee’s tips in to my daily stress-management.
Additionally once you’ve listened, if you’re interested in finding out more about how to start a journal, check out this post to help your teens explore their feelings. And if you have young teens or tweens, this life skills journal review could be good for them.
Head over to listen to the podcast now for Lee’s really relatable tips.
Where to listen to the podcast episode
You can find the episode in your usual podcast app, or if you prefer, you can listen online below.
About Dr Lee David
Lee David is a GP with an interest in mental health and young people. She also provides one-to-one therapy using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness via video consultation.
Lee is a director of 10 Minute CBT, an educational organisation that provides training to help GPs and other health professionals use bite-sized skills from evidence-based psychological therapies in their routine consultations. She’s the author of a textbook for GPs and is currently co-writing a new book for adolescents on 10 Minute Steps to wellbeing, to be published later this year.
You can find out more about Lee here:
- Lee’s Website www.10minuteCBT.co.uk
- Introductory video programme 10 Minute Steps to Survive Lockdown for young people and parents to understand emotional wellbeing and ways to encourage positive mental health.
Subscribe to the podcast
Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe now to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear all my new episodes. I’ll be talking to some fabulous guests about difficult things that happened to them as teenagers – including losing a parent, becoming disabled, and being hospitalised with mental health problems – and how they overcame things to move on with their lives.
I’d love it if you’d rate and review the podcast on iTunes too – it would really help other people to find it. You can also find more from me on parenting teenagers on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.
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Join me in the Teenage Kicks Facebook group!
If you’re a parent of teens it can be difficult to know where to go for advice, to vent, or just to talk. So I’ve made the Teenage Kicks Facebook group, for all parents of teenagers to chat in a safe space. You can request to join by clicking the button below. It’s a private group and everyone in there will be a parent of teenagers.