Teenage Mental Health and Wellbeing
with Nicola Morgan
Information, classroom materialsand resources:
www.nicolamorgan.com
FOR REFERENCE ONLY• NB This won’t make perfect sense if you weren’t at my
presentation. It is intended for reference for delegates to my Boarding Schools Association INSET day on Nov 10 2015
• Do share for personal reference but respect the laws of copyright and do not share with an audience without permission from Nicola Morgan
• Copyright © Nicola Morgan 2015• Specially commissioned illustrations © Katherine Lynas 2015
More information:
• My books– About the teenage brain: – About teenage stress:
• Classroom resources: Brain Sticks
• My website: www.nicolamorgan.com– And my blog– Ask me a question
• Your handouts today• This presentation is online – see my blog today
Today
1. Challenges: what is adolescence like? Internal and external pressures.
2. Strategies: how we can maximise resilience, and mental health/wellbeing performance and acheivement.
Core conditions for care
A. AcceptanceB. UnderstandingC. Genuineness
Think about:
(Have your “acceptance, understanding and genuineness” been positively affected?)
1. What are your take-home messages?2. What might pupils benefit from knowing?3. How might you share knowledge with
colleagues and pupils?
Brain differences
Warning: generalisations ahoy! Yes, they are all individuals…
1. Major changes in neural connections 11+ (Boys usually later than girls)
2. Prefrontal cortex develops last (mid-20s)
Amygdala
PFC
Consequences Strong amygdala vs weak prefrontal cortex– Affects emotions: • volatility and control
– Impulse control – Empathy– Peer pressure– And risk-taking
Some words about risk-taking
Risk-taking
• Evolutionary drive/biology risk:– Dopamine systems may be more active in teens– Especially when peers are present
• Again, amygdala may overpower pfc• More weight on immediate pleasure• Need to provide opportunities– And reframe
More challenges
• Diminishing of a previous skill– Teach that connections re-grow with practice
• Sleep changes– The double whammy
External stresses
Teenage stress
• Change: brains, bodies, chemistry, friends, fears, expectations, pressures
• Biggest stresses: exams and friendship issues• A regular schoolday• “New” stresses:
1. Exams: higher pressure, frequency + stakes
Teenage stress cont’d
2. The internet and social media: • 24/7 bullying low empathy + lack of eye contact• Highly appealing/addictive time-suck• Over-sharing temptation to share personal info• Pressure to conform with tribe
– Switching off connection is very hard – “FOMO”• Digital distraction: multi-tasking is a myth
The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin
Teenage stress even more cont’d
• Biological differences: a. self-consciousness + social embarrassment b. more brain response to stress? c. slower adaptation to stress?
• “Scarcity” – of money, time, foodScarcity by Mullainathan & Shafir
• All worries/stresses lead to “Preoccupation”
“Preoccupation”
• If part of our attention is on something else, we cannot perform 100% on the task in hand1. The “bandwidth” analogy2. Intrusive thoughts; worries; self-consciousness
• Preoccupation diminishes performance/IQ:1. Cognitive capacity (aspects of learning)2. Executive control (aspects of behaviour)
Both The Organized Mind and Scarcity cover this
Acceptance, understanding, genuineness?
Break!
Solutions and strategies
1. Resilience2. Stress education3. Introversion4. Sleep5. Screentime6. Reading for Pleasure
Resilience
• Innate and learned• Does not come from cotton-wool– Warning about trigger-warnings
• Neither from neglect nor “stiff upper lip”• Nor helicopter parenting • BUT: safety net parenting– Teach skills; allow failure and trying again
Resilience
Is helped by:• “Growth” (not “fixed” mindset) – Carol Dweck
– “Drive” by Daniel Pink also covers her work
• Praising effort not talent• Acknowledging “character strengths” – see
Authentic Happiness website• Recognising who needs extra support:
perfectionists, Type A, neglected etc
Educate about stress
• What stress IS – good and bad– RELAXATION IS NOT A LUXURY– Extra vulnerability of some – eg Type A
• Strategies:A. Breathing skills – for panic or daily relaxationB. Down-time – activities to reduce cortisol
~ Different ~ Varied ~ Deliberate
C. Perspective: not alone ~ find trusted adult
Are you valuing your introverts?
Introverts:– Expend energy in all social interaction– May not do best work when collaborating– Extra need for quiet time – mental and physical• Not just for relaxation but for thinking
– May also “ruminate” excessively – Likely to feel inadequate compared to extroverts
“Quiet” by Susan Cain – and her website
Sleep
The critical time
1-2 hours before bed – “sleep hygiene”
Aims of sleep hygiene1. Wind down2. Stimulate melatonin – the sleep hormone3. Create routine
Screen-time and concentration
• Fact: we cannot focus as well on two things• “You will get your work done faster and better
if you switch off distraction” • Tools: Pomodoro technique; Antisocial– Experience of benefit– Feeling of control
Reading for pleasure
• Readaxation – see my website• We now have substantial evidence:– Self-esteem, relationships, knowledge, vocabulary,
attainment, empathy, mood, stress• Book must be freely chosen – NO judgment on book choice; fiction AND non
• Aim is “engagement” or “flow”– Reduces cortisol; stops rumination; improves
performance
CAUTION:Children who read a
lot risk becoming independent, open-
minded, questioning, knowledgeable and
CONFIDENT
Anxiety management
A. Empathise re anxieties – “understanding, acceptance and genuineness”
B. Breathing exerciseC. Intrusive thoughts – “pathways” exercise
Intrusive thoughts – a CBT tool
• Every thought is only a pathway in the brain• The brain learns by repetition, creating strong
pathways that are easy to follow• But the brain can learn negative, unhelpful
things, too => negative intrusive thoughts • (There is a pathways tool on my Slideshare
page and blog)
How well are we doing?What could we do differently?
A. ResilienceB. Stress educationC. SleepD. IntroversionE. ScreentimeF. Reading for Pleasure
Understanding Adolescence
with Nicola Morgan
Information, events, training, classroom resources and chances to win books: www.nicolamorgan.com