Behavioral and Substance Abuse Disorders

Discuss About The International Journal Mental Health Nursing.

Adolescents is one of the most important phase in the life of an individual as decisions taken and activities conducted during this time has the capability to modify the life of an individual for his or her future. The habits developed and the activities conducted have the power to either develop the life of the individual to betterment in the future or destroy the opportunities of living healthy stable life in the future (Hockenberry et al., 2016). Researchers have defined adolescence as the time when individuals become vulnerable to develop different unhealthy habits that have the capacity of growing into huge problems in the adult life. Different forms of psychological as well as behavioral consequences accompany the physical changes that take place in the adolescents that often become a barrier that cannot be easily overcome by parents and other helping individuals (Cowen & Moorhead, 2014).

There has been often an argument o the domain of adolescent health that states  such occurrences usually come as a result of the different physical and physiological changes that occur within the individuals and need to be handled effectively by themselves or by parents. However, another face of the argument states that there are a large number of external factors (Wong et al., 2015). This external factors act as the determinants of the poor health outcomes and different issues faced by the adolescents. Therefore, this assignments will describe about the different issues that are faced by adolescents and will argue on the internal as well as external causes that result in dawning of negative activities within the teenagers of this age.

One of the biggest modifications that are found in them is the changes of their behaviors.  Their ways of speaking and interacting, their dressing styles, their sense of fashion and many others are seen to change entirely when they go through their adolescence period. Often they tend to become aggressive while on the other times, they break down easily. They tend to experience independence in this age and therefore, they are seen to try out adventures that are new to them in their life (Carabez et al., 2015). They are always in the habit of taking risk for which they often engaged in various types of health hazards.

A huge number of teenagers are seen to get engaged in different types of substance abuse disorders where they get depended upon the use of substance. Such use of substance and alcohol consumption thereby increase further threats on the health of the individuals (Chiappetta et al., 2018). Often different articles have shown those individuals who are highly exposed to alcohol and substance abuse disorders in the adolescent periods are more vulnerable to the face accidents while driving. Moreover, exposure of adolescents to the substance abuse as well as alcohol consumption are seen to engage in violent activities at home and even outside of house in social gatherings, schools, colleges and others (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2015). These type of behaviors are not accepted which exposes the individuals to heavy losses either by rustication, suspension or police cases. Such issues have huge indirect effect on their emotional and mental health. Researchers are of the opinion that different types of factors play a major role for making the adolescents develop this disorder. Binge drinking is found to be quite common among the adolescents that in turn is seen to put adolescents at risks like accidents, injuries, unwanted or unwise sexual activities as well as different other unfortunate situations. All these affect both their physical and mental health that in turn causes very poor quality of life (MMckiney et al., 2017).

Academic Pressure and Educational Challenges

Another one of the biggest issues that adolescents face is the educational challenges. Often adolescents are found to have a very tough time to conduct their academic assignments and perform well in the schools activities and examinations during the time of adolescence. With the increase of interest in trying out new entertainments and risky adventures in life, they spend more time in venturing new aspects of life, society and other interest. Most of the individuals are seen to spend more time in discussing about fashion, parties, friends, gazettes and others that leave them with very less time for their education (Taffa et al., 2017). Therefore, they are seen to face pressure academically. Again, most of the adolescents have to go through strenuous situations to take admissions in colleges. They have to develop multitasking abilities that often becomes hrd for many adolescents. They have to juggle schoolwork, extracurricular activities as well as different home chores that make them tired and drained out. Besides, various kinds of distractions in schools result in poor academic performance (Gray, 2017). All these result in creating a poor quality life due to occurrence of depression, anxiety and frustration. Most of the adolescents are seen to suffer from pressures within their houses only due to severe demands of their parents that affect their emotional stability. Therefore, they suffer from huge stress and pressure for which their mental stability s lost and they lead a poor quality life.

Researchers are of the opinion that adolescents are already vulnerable physically and emotionally. In such situation, improper nutrition and healthcare make the adolescents vulnerable to illness. Reports shown by world Health organizations in the year 2015 have shown that there are about more than 1.3 million adolescents who have died in the year of 2015 and maximum among this death were due to preventable disorders. Researchers after conducting studies on their diet and nutrition styles have found out interest facts. Teenagers are seen to have very busy schedules as they always need to skip from one activity to that of another activity and therefore they get very little time to eat or to rest properly. Therefore, such pressures have very negative impact on their health (Wu et al., 2015). They are also seen to develop unhealthy eating habits that in turn prevent them from getting any kind of nutrition that are required by them. Most of the girls of the teen age are seen to develop high level of consciousness about their body that in turn made them develop eating disorders.

Unhealthy Eating Habits and Obesity

Most of the adolescent girls are seen to become worried about their weight and appearance and therefore their weight and appearance makes them develop different disorders like anorexia as well as bulimia. Moreover, most of the individuals are also seen to be indulged in unhealthy eating habits as well as a less active lifestyle that in turn leads to obesity (Crawford et al., 2015). Consumptions of huge amount of calories through fast food can result in the gaining of weight that makes them depressed. Often obesity has been identified as a cause of bullying in institutions that me such individuals upset and anxious. Such depressed individual makes himself or herself socially excluded that affect their social life. They go though severe depression that makes them loses their stability of their mental health making them exposed to various threats (Huang et al., 2016).

While caring for the health of the adolescents, nursing professionals need to develop good amount of knowledge about the psychological health of the adolescents. Researchers have stated through their experiments that teenagers have low self-esteem as well as confidence issues. They have feelings of inferiority as well as superiority which may arise in them from their appearance as well as acceptance of their body with skin, color, beauty and figure. Poor performance in schools and colleges and lack of inability to find interest or able to grasp the flow of education also makes them demotivated and they develop low feelings on themselves (Salamone et al., 2015). Depression is one of the most common forms of poor psychological problems that remain associated with adolescence. Nursing professionals should have an idea that stress and pressure may result in creating anxiety related issues. Mood swings can lead to conducting disorder as well as oppositional defiant disorder.

Adolescence can be defined as the time when teenagers are seen to experience their first intimate contacts through different forms of touch and different sessions. In most of situations, the adolescents are found to be improperly guided. Most of the teenagers are seen to have engaged in engage in different sexually acts even before they are ready with proper knowledge and different idea about the safety procedures of lovemaking. Unwanted pregnancy is one of the most negative outcomes of these forms of act that affects their life (Turner et al., 2016). Unwanted pregnancy is not only the negative outcome that occurs from such acts but unprotected sex can also result in sexually transmitted disorders like HIV, syphilis and many others.

Psychological Issues

It is extremely important for the nursing professionals to develop knowledge and enhance their skills while caring for the adolescents and developing their intervention plans. Treating adolescents is quite a difficult task, as nurses need to be very careful about their psychological status as well as their mental health condition before treating their physical ailments. They may be expressive of their concerns or may not reveal the issues as individuals in this tender age may not develop enough trust on the professionals who treat them. They may not reveal important information that might help in identifying various disorders that they are facing die to their own complex thoughts and principles (Hogue et al., 2015). Therefore, a number of initiatives are important for the nursing professionals to undertake so that they can successfully treat the individuals and thereby help them help them to develop better quality lives. Although there are many professionals who believe that adolescent care can be provided with the same set of skills as that of adults nursing, arguments can be justified which would show that adult nursing skills may not prove to be enough competent to handle the sensitive issues of adolescents (Hoeve te al., 2015). Unlike the adult nursing skills, adolescent nursing skills first require the nurses to understand the turmoil that are faced by individuals in the adolescent stage that is not faced by adults.

All the above set of disorders mentioned in the previous paragraphs occurs among the adolescents and the nursing professionals need to be quite aware with the different difficulties and issues faced by the adolescents due to such disorders. A person who treats adults may not be well accustomed with various disorders and issues that the adolescents go through and thereby cannot relate them with any interventions that they can propose for their betterment (Kaltiala et al., 2015). The adult nurses may also not be able to tackle the sensitive emotions that are displayed by adolescents. Therefore, even if the adult nurses want to handle adolescent cases, they need to have detailed ideas about the disorders and the external and internal factors that result in causing such disorders. The nursing professionals need to develop relevant skills along with the important skills for proper filtering and using of information. WHO has stated that nursing professionals who are treating adolescents should have proper information about every issue that are influencing their health as well as the environment (Dardas et al., 2016). The nursing professionals also need to advocate for the development of services that would be intricately associated with betterment of the health, education and different types of opportunities for fun as well as relaxation. Also developing a safe as well as supportive environment is important for proper counseling of the adolescents as counseling is considered one of the most fruitful strategies for the teenage patients.

Sexual Health Challenges

The professionals should develop respectful as well as trusting relationships with adolescents and families when developing health care plans as this would ensure the patient’s adherence with the treatment interventions. Moreover, another very important aspect of the nurse’s responsibility would be to identify the requirements and needs of the adolescents in the domain of safety, privacy, connectedness, confidentiality, information as well as support (Mohammadariszi et al., 2015). The nursing professional need to identify the environment of the adolescents in which they reside and thereby develop innovative primary health care strategies within the community of the adolescents so that they can develop high quality lives. Besides, advocating for legislation and policies for their care, they also need to develop evidence-based interventions that are developed keeping in mind of the adolescents only. Therefore the argument that is often provided by healthcare organization higher authorities that adult nurses can easily tackle cases of adolescents to conceal their strategies for short staffing of children and family nurses get nullified with the discussion.

Many of the professionals are of the ideas that all the issues occurring in the adolescents are mostly due to hormonal imbalances and that proper controlling of the hormones would help them in overcoming the various negative outcomes they are facing in lives. They have stated that not only girls face issues from hormonal imbalances but also boy are seen to suffer from the same issues. Researchers are of the opinions that when the physiological systems of the bodies enter in the adolescent periods, the body starts secreting certain new enzymes. This new enzymes when work for the first time, tend to make various kinds of imbalances in the body leading to different types of actions and alterations of physical and mental activities. All these result in the sufferance of the adolescents as the effect of those hormones may make them vulnerable to different forms of disorders (Angley et al., 2015). Headaches, irritability, anxiety s well as oversensitivity, depression are all the symptoms of such hormonal imbalances that result in development of very poor quality life.

Researchers have also stated that teenage hormones and mood swings are intricately associated with different types of hormonal disorders. Some individuals who feel withdrawn, while there are some who are aggressive, or easily feel offended, indifferent to social and family gatherings. In case of girls, imbalance in hormones cause polycystic ovarian syndromes as well as increased male hormones resulting in facial hair, dark patches on skin, increase in weight gain and many others like dysfunctional uterine bleeding, anemia with pale, weak and similar appearances (Tanner et al., 2016). Hormonal imbalances in the boys may cause acne, skin problems, hair fall, weight gain, slow bone growth, muscle weakness, poor appetite as well as abnormalities in the ,ale reproductive systems. Besides, nausea, bloating, back pain, migraines, skin sensitivities, frequent cold, sinus problems and many others also remain associated with the hormonal misbalance. However, these biological determinants can never help in development for proper quality life in the individuals who are suffering from different adolescent disorders (Clark et al., 2017). Over the years, there has been an argument where many researchers have severely criticized the biological model of care. They have advised healthcare professionals to follow bio-psychosocial models of care where the social and psychological determinants of health also need to be discussed for development of care plan. They have argued that only considering the hormonal imbalances as the main reason of the disorder may result in development of care plan that will not help in providing a better quality life of the patient.

Nursing Interventions

Every nursing professional should have the capability to develop ideas about the social determinants that are affecting the life as a social determinant when handled properly ensures positive health outcomes. Exposure of the adolescents to society and media are some of the main reasons where the negative influences are attracting the adolescents.  Having parents who smoke, role models who smoke, poor school performance, pressure of peers, adopting drinking to participate in groups to appear updated, poor problem solving  abilities are some of the main determinants which episodes adolescents towards drinking of alcohols and taking up substance abuse. Moreover, it was seen that excessive use of social cites, gazettes and online medium of activities had made the adolescents hooked to the electronic media which had made them gain weight due to lack of physical labor and exercise. Therefore, it can be argued that only preparing a diet plan for the adolescents will not help them overcome obesity. They need to be educated about the activities of their lives that are exposing them to such condition of their physical appearance. Moreover, it is also found that excessive academic pressures by schools and colleges and by parents to certain extent make them depressed when they cannot live happily (Potter et al., 2016). Therefore, all these factors also need to be properly handled by the nurses so that they can help the individuals overcome the phase of anxiety and depression.

 Often, parents tend to feel helpless when they visualize their children living indiscipline life or are not able to understand how to handle them appropriately. They often turn out to be strict on them that have negative effects. Therefore, the nursing professional needs to educate the parents about the ways by which they can tackle their wards properly. The professionals need to educate them so that they can develop trust among their wards and can often establish a discussion and interactive sessions with their wards. Once the teenagers start sharing their views, concerns, issues and others with their parents, the parents can provide solutions to them and help them overcome their stress effectively. Therefore, the argument that nursing professionals need to address is the only biological determinants can be nullified and the need for considering the social determinants of health that result in adolescent disorders (Pearson et al., 2015).

Conclusion:

From the entire discussion above, it becomes quite clear that effective adolescent issues comprise of substance abuse disorder, poor performance in schools, obesity, poor health outcomes, depression, anxiety, violence and aggression and many others. For a large number of days, higher authorities of mot healthcare centers could not understand the importance of nursing professionals specialized in adolescent care and treatment and appointed adult nurses to treat them however, present day care centers have identified the significance of care nurses for adolescents who develop specialized skills to treat them. Moreover, only being careful about the biological determinates of adolescent issue would not help in overcoming problems. Nursing professionals have to care about the social determinants of health and develop care plans by which the social d psychological determinants can be handled effectively.

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