Mental Health

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Dealing with teen is never an easy task, and as a tired parent, just in from work, we don’t always check our emotions and react well – particularly when we’re arguing with an articulate “mini-me”!

Last night’s episode of Raising Teens discussed Kicking Off, and our brilliant guests gave their top tips for dealing with an angry teen. 

🔊 Listen to Raising Teens: Kicking Off

The thing that stood out for me most from all the great advice was to take a breath and not to react in the moment. Walk away if necessary. And then find time to listen when things have calmed down. 

Our four guests ended the show with their top tips for dealing with an angry teen. If you have any good tips, please share them in the comments below.

Ed Hallwood from Room To Rant at Audio Active

“Respect the opinions of your teenagers. Be calm, listen and remember that they are an individual. You can’t change them. They have to change for themselves.”

Carl Scott, Reboot project worker for YMCA in Hastings

“Just let them know you’re there for them whenever they need to talk. Concentrate on the positives, not the negatives. Children often make 50 steps forward and 10 steps back and a lot of us concentrate on the 10 steps back. Try and get them to understand and take responsibility for their actions.”

PC Joe Davies from Sussex Police working in the youth prevention team

“Listening to these teenagers is going to go such a long way because if you create that safe environment for them where they can talk to you, they will tell you what’s wrong…. It’s really hard to stay calm when they’re angry, but get angry with a partner or a friend, vent to them, and try and stay calm and listen.”

Donna Peters-Lamb from Make Sense Psychotherapy

“Anger gets a bad press and it shouldn’t. It’s often just a sign-poster. Sometimes you don’t know why you’re angry and that’s what’s so confusing about it because it is often just the symptom of something and not the actual cause. So, don’t act on the symptom. Try to listen. Acknowledge their feelings and your own. Don’t react until you’re both ready.

“It might not be about you as a parent, so don’t take it personally. Don’t enter into that ring ready for a fight because you think your young person is angry with you. It may be nothing to do with you. But they are putting it on you, because you’re a safe place to put it. Be aware with that and don’t just pick it up and run with it because then you’re moving away from the original feeling that the young person was trying to communicate to you. It’s a lot of self-reflection. A lot of self-awareness. And breathe, breathe, breathe…”

Help & Advice

Audio Active’s Room to Rant A space for young men to be themselves, talking and exploring their struggles and life experiences through spoken word, rap and hip hop.

NHS advice on teen aggression and arguments 

Young Minds’ advice for teens on anger 

Young Minds’ advice for parents on anger

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We’ve spent the last few weeks listening to teens and it’s been an eye-opening, sometimes shocking, sometimes heart-warming experience. They’ve spoken to us about anger, home life, alcohol, self-harm, eating disorders, grief… their experiences in part shape who they are, as do the reactions and support of those around them.

Raising Teens, our radio show for BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey, starts back tonight and is on every Monday at 8pm up until Christmas. This series we’ve invited more experts and parents to join host Guy Lloyd to talk about how we can support teenagers, parents and everyone who works with, lives with, cares for and interacts with young people.

And whilst we’re dealing with difficult subjects in this series, the feeling we’re left with after listening to the teens, who’ve given up their time to share their stories, is one of hope. It is also one of immense gratitude. These young people really want to help their peers. They want to give them an insight into how to deal with difficult emotions, how to be more resilient and how to support each other.

Do join us Monday nights at 8pm from now ’til Christmas on BBC Sussex, BBC Surrey and online.

Catch up on series one here.

Raising Teens radio show


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We think every day should be World Mental Health Day. Because more needs to be done to help those who need it. We’re working with teens to highlight their wellbeing and to give them a voice. We’re also giving parents support in our brand new series of Raising Teens, starting on Monday 4 November on BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey. This series we’re looking at teen anger, alcohol, grief, self-harm, family breakdowns, eating disorders, loneliness and the teenage brain. Each episode includes the voices of teens, interviewed by our teen reporter Lola, and advice from parents and experts. 

Raising Teens radio show promotional image

On World Mental Health Day, we’re calling for more should be invested in our young people – from a better education system – one that feeds our children’s minds and creativity and doesn’t exclude those who don’t fit – youth clubs and out of school support, all of which has seen a huge cut in funding over the past decade. The number of teenage suicides has risen 67% between 2010 and 2017 in England and Wales according to the Office for National Statistics. We think there should also be more support for parents and carers, teachers and health workers dealing with the rise in young people with mental health issues.

You can catch up on all of series 1 of Raising Teens which covers social media, school stress, sleep, resilience, body image, relationships, the teen brain and teen language. 

Plus, here are a ton of really useful links that we’ve collected along the way from all the amazing experts we spoke to.  If we’ve missed any really good organisations from our list, let us know in the comments below. Thank you!

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We’ve just signed up to Natasha Devon’s brilliant initiative, the Mental Health Media Charter. Launched in 2017, it is a set of seven guidelines for reporting and talking about mental health in the media and online.

Mental Health Media Charter badge

You can read the guidelines in full here – they’re not just good standards for the media, but for anyone talking about mental health.

Signing up to the charter means that we will do our best to talk responsibly about mental health – for example recognising the difference between mental health (which we all have) and mental ill health.

If you haven’t come across Natasha Devon before, she’s a campaigner for better awareness of issues around mental health, body image and gender and social inequality. Her book: A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental is a great read and full of insights and tips on everything “from Anxiety to Zero f***s given”.

We’re delighted to announce that Natasha will be a guest on our upcoming series of Raising Teens, due to air on BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey this autumn.

⭐️ Find out more about the Mental Health Media Charter

⭐️ Find out more about Natasha Devon

⭐️ Listen to series 1 of Raising Teens