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Challenges Adolescents May be Facing
Adolescence is a tough time in life with changing bodies, hormones, emotions, feelings, and friendships and, at times, relationships. In this age group, it is natural for a teenager to not want to spend time with his/her family. This age frame is generally associated with more separation from family and more closeness with friends. For them, this phase of self-isolation has led to increased face time and lack of physical and mental space from their parents, grandparents and/or even siblings.
“She seems like the average teenager but she’s 5’ 10” and sickly thin at 50 kg. What everyone doesn’t know is that she won’t eat more because she is afraid to eat. She is scared of what will happen if she gains weight. She feels that all the love and adulation she gets right now, because of her being thin, will all go away.”
Our relationship with our ‘self’ is influenced by our self-value, which is dependent on our self-worth, self-respect and self-esteem. These aspects determine how we feel about ourselves, what we think we our capable of, and what we feel we deserve. When these aspects exist in the extreme – too much self-value (self obsession: to only consider your own feelings and not consider anyone else’s feelings) or too little self-value (devaluing self: to only consider others’ feelings), an imbalance is created in our psyche. When you have low self-value, you constantly feel slighted, upset, anxious, or unhappy, and may start to think that that is all you are worthy of. If you constantly doubt yourself and have negative experiences, then it is time to change how you define your self-value.
Losing a loved one is never easy. It is even harder when the death is untimely or due to unnatural or traumatic causes. But as Paramahansa Yogananda mentions in his autobiography, death is only the transition of a soul, which ensues “…when the breath-link between the soul and body is severed by evolutionary karma..” (pg 473, Autobiography of a Yogi). So, though it is natural to grieve, one needs to learn to acknowledge grief, accept death and to move on.