Did you know behavioural treatment for teens in Canada and other countries is easily accessible? While mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are more often diagnosed and treated, along with physical health issues, behavioural problems such as teen bullying are sometimes not easily noticed. Some parents or guardians may not even realize that there’s professional help available to help their teens with behavioural problems.
For example, many parents and guardians will know how to spot bullying signs and may already be aware that their teens are being bullied or are bullying other teens. They may talk to their teen about the issue or simply ignore it if it’s not causing social or school problems that affect them. But what if you want your teen to access professional help to deal with the bullying situation? Then you should search for behavioural treatment for teens in Canada; reach out to Venture Academy today by calling 866.762.2211 or contacting our team online.
What Is Bullying?
Everyone should have an idea of what bullying is, as everyone has likely spent some time socializing with peers. Bullying is aggressive and unwanted behaviour, usually first observed in school-aged children. Teens who bully others and who are bullied may both have serious and long-lasting problems. Signs of bullying behaviours, on top of being very aggressive, must include the following elements:
- Power imbalance: teens who bully will use real or imagined power that’s available to them, such as access to embarrassing information, physical strength, or popularity, to control or harm others; this is dangerous because imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people
- Repetition: bullying behaviours tend to happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once
Bullying includes actions such as attacking someone physically or verbally, excluding someone from a group on purpose, making threats, and spreading rumors.
What Are 7 Obvious Signs of Bullying?
It can be difficult to spot bullying signs in your teen, as they may only display those negative behaviours in school or among peers. But it’s easy to spot some warning signs that may indicate that your teen is being bullied, even though not all teens who are bullied ask for help.
Here are seven signs that may point to a bullying problem:
- Changes in eating habits, like skipping meals or binge eating
- Declining grades, loss of interest in school activities, and attendance
- Frequent headaches, stomach aches, or faking illness
- Lost or destroyed books, clothing, electronics, or jewelry
- Self-destructive behaviours, such as running away from home or harming themselves
- Sudden loss of friends or marked avoidance of social situations
- Unexplainable injuries
When Should You Consider Behavioural Treatment for Teens?
If you’ve already observed signs of bullying in your teen, or conversely, if you suspect they’re guilty of teen bullying, you should set aside time to have a serious talk with them. If they’re being bullied, they may need professional help to deal with trauma or emotions like anger or self-loathing. If they’re doing the bullying, they may also need professional help to uncover why they feel the need to inflict aggressive behaviour on certain people.
It seems strange to treat a teen for bullying because the experience of bullying or being bullied is not, in any shape or form, a mental disorder. Rather, bullying can cause teens to develop problematic behaviours and thinking, particularly those that can make them feel less valuable to others. With time, consistent bullying can scar teens and cause them to feel more vengeful and bitter toward others as adults.
Preventative measures do matter, but it’s not always possible to eliminate a bullying situation. Professional behavioural treatment can help teens cope with its effects. This type of treatment can include the following elements:
- Counselling: the first step is to help a teen open up about their experiences. If parents can’t do so effectively, a counsellor’s job is to attempt to gain a teen’s trust and help them figure out an effective way to deal with the bullying situation. Therapists who specialize in helping teens cope with bullying can help your teen speak up without fear of repercussion.
- Psychotherapy: if the bullying situation has greatly impacted your teen, changing their moods and behaviours considerably, talk therapy can help. Psychotherapy helps your teen understand that their negative feelings are detrimental. It can help them build the strength and emotional resilience to reject negative thoughts, embrace healthy coping mechanisms, and take up behaviours that can help them build a sense of self and greater self-esteem.
- Social skills training: bullies will pick on the weakest teen, not physically or mentally, but socially. Therefore, learning how to interact with others, especially in stressful situations, is essential. Not everyone can be talked out of being a bully, and there are times when bullying is unavoidable, so it’s important to have friends to call upon for support and help.
Ready To Learn More About Venture Academy’s Options for Teen Behavioural Treatment?
Needing help does not make you a bad parent; getting help when required makes you a great parent. If you’re looking for behavioural treatment for teens in Canada, contact Venture Academy today. Reach out to our team online or call 866.762.2211.
