Many of us experience anxiety and stress as part of our busy lives, and teenagers are no exception. To add to their problems of school pressures, changing hormones, and growing up, they have to deal with a significant amount of peer pressure, or even bullying, and this can be overwhelming.

The suffering I see in teenagers nowadays seems to be unparalleled. Anxiety and stress cause so many problems. Young girls and boys both suffer with anxiety, depression, withdrawal and suicidal feelings when life gets really difficult, but with girls I also see anorexia, bulimia or self-harming, and with boys I see a lot of anger issues.

Often as parents we see what is happening, and long to help, but our help is rejected. I’ve had mother’s apologetically make an appointment for their teenager who is obviously reluctant to come, but once they are here they are very articulate about their problems which helps me enormously.

Sometimes they’ve challenged me and I’ve known they haven’t wanted homeopathy to work for them, they’ve lost hope and are wallowing in their misery. One young patient said during the consultation,

“I’ve been seeing doctors for years, tried hundreds of different medications and nothing worked – and you think you can help me with a couple of pills?”

Although that young man clearly felt this was a waste of time he explained his problems surprisingly well and I was able to find him a good remedy. He was a little sheepish on his return visit and told me he was “well impressed”. I took that as one of my best compliments!

On the whole I’ve found that teenagers and children with problems open up really well when they are really listened to, but sadly, the people who could help them most are the very ones they are unwilling to open up to. Being a parent to a troubled teenager is a tough job! Many parents have phoned me back after a consultation quite amazed, and even a little emotional to hear their child talk so openly about their problems and how they are affected by them.

I have found it an honour to hear their stories and get a glimpse into their lives – and their suffering. One beautiful young girl, suffering from anxiety and depression talked about the bullying she was receiving and how her friends had somehow taken a picture of her on the toilet at school and put it all over social media. These were her ‘friends’ so now she was going to school with a smile on her face pretending she found it amusing, when she was actually devastated, and now felt totally friendless.

Another moody teenager was quite flippant with me for a while at our first consultation, but as we talked, she then got tearful when she started to have a little hope that this just might work – and it did, and she was helped enormously.

If you have a son or daughter who is struggling with anxiety, homeopathy can help. I can help. Give me a call on 07725 520476.