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Things You Wish You Did When You Were 15
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If you could be 15 once again, what would you do differently? Undoubtedly, there is no one alive on this planet who could say they got it all figured out when they were a teen. It’s just bittersweet to look back to the time when mistakes are fun. We didn’t care because we know it’s a part of adolescence. We are supposed to do stupid things and laugh about them. However, some of these deeds may have serious consequences that could affect our life ahead – adulthood.
Since you can never be 15 again, what are the things you wish you knew back then? For sure, there’s a thing or more that made you say to yourself, “I should have known!” Somehow, knowing all the things you know now is like going two decades back with a winning lottery combination. If only life was that simple or might we say kinder?
3 Things You Wish You Did When You Were 15:
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Never Miss A Class
School may be uninteresting when you were a teen. However, it is the time when you are free to learn about the things that may or may not be a necessity in the future, the things that might interest you or not. Skipping a day in school makes you miss out on something that might be the day when you find out “who you are.” An ordinary day could make you realize what you want to be instead of being just the average employee. Learning the stars could make you dream of being an astronaut and be actually be one someday.
Be Nice And Make Friends
The bond that you make when you are in high school is unique in many ways. It is the time when you were the most vulnerable, and it’s like knowing everybody’s weaknesses. You cannot be friends with everyone, but you can be nice at least. Don’t judge your seatmate for the way he bites his nails because he probably wouldn’t a decade from now. Who knows? He might be your boss! It is a great feeling to walk past someone, and he recognizes you as the kind kid in high school.
Eat What Mom Cooked
Eat as much as you want! You will never look like any of the supermodels you see on TV because you are at the age when you haven’t fully developed physically, emotionally, and mentally, and it’s okay. No one is judgemental about your weight because everybody is judging everything they see anyway. The only judgment that matters is yours, so dig into all the great meals that mom serves on the table because it is the time when you would not have to be mindful of the calories in a plate. Someday, you wouldn’t be able to eat most of the food you can when you were 15.
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Most of us, adults, had a moment when we say to ourselves, “I wish I knew. Maybe, my life could have been better, happier.” However, time is something we can never take back once gone. That part of our lives is already behind us. It may have influenced how we live now, but it is not too late for us. Instead of thinking about what you could have done differently back then, why not think of the things you could do differently today when it matters?
How To Continue Living As A Bipolar Teen
Source: flickr.com
One does not have to be a genius to know how devastating it is to be a teenager with bipolar disorder. According to John M. Grohol, Psy.D., “It is characterized by alternating moods of mania and depression, both of which usually last weeks or even months in most people who have the disorder.”
You cannot charge all your success to determination and hard work as the mania might have fueled your adrenaline. When you look sad, the entire family tends to panic and keep you in a close watch because the depression might push you to attempt suicide. Moreover, it is tough to know which side of the disorder will strike at any time.
Despite that, hoping that you’ll find normalcy as a bipolar teen does not make you crazy. It is possible, primarily once you stop hating the disorder and start doing the following.
Source: pxhere.com
- Avoid Stress At All Cost
People believe that your teenage years comprise the busiest period of your life. Everyone expects you to excel at school and sports. You ought to join different clubs to figure out your other talents. Aside from that, you need to socialize with adolescents in and out of school as a way to build connections for the future.
The problem with having to do all of these things is that your stress level has nowhere to go but up. High levels of stress can break even the most mentally stable person you know. When you acquire it and still need to deal with bipolar disorder, you are likely to experience one manic or depressive episode after another. “It’s important to take things slowly and avoid stressful situations,” says Steve Bressert, Ph.D. “If you are a student, most colleges and universities will offer good support and advice.” Hence, you should limit the stressful activities you participate in and try to be chill all the time.
- Watch Your Diet
It is recommended for a bipolar teen like yourself to pay attention to everything you eat. Consuming a few servings of greasy meals, cakes, and pastries, and junk foods daily can affect your health severely. Not only will you be a candidate for diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, but your mental disorder may also flare up due to it.
You see, the more you stuff yourself with fattening dishes, the lesser articles of clothing you can wear. The shirts won’t fit; the pants are impossible to button up. Going through a series of clothes to an ensemble that can encase your blossoming figure can undoubtedly be depressing, so you need to control your cravings to prevent the symptoms from getting in the way.
- Get Enough Sleep
“Sleep is critical for people with bipolar disorder,” says Margarita Tartakovsky, MS. On a regular basis, sleep deprivation causes your skin to break out and gives you dark bags under the eyes. If you happen to have bipolar disorder, the lack of rest at night will not only be terrible for your aesthetics but can also trigger your manic episodes.
Likewise, it will help if you avoid sleeping for more than eight hours every day. That is a sign of depression, and you are merely feeding the disorder by letting your eyes stay shut for too long.
It is best to stick with a bedtime schedule so that you won’t accidentally activate the illness with irregular sleeping habits.
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To Sum Things Up
Bipolar disorder is an illness that affects your mood and way of thinking. There is no cure for this condition; you can only try to cope with it. Because of that, you have to change some aspects of your life that can worsen the disease.
Feel free to start with the three things mentioned above, and then keep on looking for more facets to improve as you mature.
Benefits Of Social Media In Preventing Teenage Pregnancy
Source: pregnancyweeks.org
Social media has provided enormous help to people. Back then, we get information from the newspapers, encyclopedia, or the TV, which sometimes were limited. We need to get more, but it’s all we had. Since the birth of the internet, knowledge about almost everything had been available for everyone who has access to the internet.
But social media has its pros and cons, and it is for sure one of those that have extreme advantages and disadvantages. It provides awareness about important matters like prevention and treatment of certain medical conditions, but at the same time, it exposes irrelevant insights about sensitive issues such as sex.
Sex can be perplexed when not explained thoroughly, and with all the information on social media, parents cannot always be with their children to point out which are appropriate and which are not. Some studies show that ever since the birth of social media, teenage pregnancy has declined.
Source: sayanythingblog.com
Benefits Of Social Media In Preventing Teenage Pregnancy
Provides Awareness
Social media is an exceptional tool to gather information about almost everything. When teens browse their newsfeeds, there are good ads and good reads about the consequences of their actions, like engaging in premarital sex. It exposes them to what might happen when people at a very young age get pregnant. It helps them decide what they want. One might have probably said, “I wish I can have that, too,” or maybe, “I am never going to be like that!” According to Lara Jakobsons, PhD, teens now use social media for education, “It is beneficial for parents to understand what social media is being used for by their teen and how. Being educated in how they use it will help parents understand the risks involved.”
Educates The Youth
It educates not just the youth but all the people about the diseases acquired through unprotected sex. It gives precautions to avoid anything that can harm our overall wellness. We learn about prevention and treatment of every medical condition that only doctors would know back then. “As a healthcare provider, I frequently find it helpful if patients have done some additional reading about their specific medical concerns and find the internet can frequently be helpful tool,” Dr. Michelle Matthews, MD said.
Opens Opportunities
Social media is a tool to showcase talents and skills. It provides space to boost a person’s self-esteem when he is too shy to do it in the outside world. It gives the youth the opportunity to make new friends, see places, learn new things, and other matters that will indulge their interests and imagination.
Serves As Diversion
It makes the youth busy with all the exciting things they can do on social media. Now, they can chat with their friends real-time through the internet. They don’t need to sneak out to meet and end up doing crazy stuff just because they want to make their time out worthwhile. “Social media sites allow teens to accomplish online many of the tasks that are important to them offline: staying connected with friends and family, making new friends, sharing pictures, and exchanging ideas.”, Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe and co-author, wrote.
Provides Options
It shows the vastness of this world and what the younger generation can achieve through learning about the lives of successful people. The positive things they see on social media inspire them to be the best that they can be. It gives them hope that their life is more than just the place they are now. It decreases the cases of teenage pregnancy because it provides the youth with a glimpse of the other choices they can make with their lives.
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Everything has advantages and disadvantages. Some may say social media is not suitable for the teens, but at the end of the day, it is up to the person using it if he’s going to put it to good use or not, and as parents, it is your responsibility to make sure that your child understands that.
Curiosity Kills: Teenage Drug Addiction
At first, it was just curiosity, and after some time, it became an addiction. Some say that it’s okay to make mistakes, especially when you’re young. They say it’s the point of being young. What Raychelle Cassada Lohmann Ph.D. said was true enough: “Sometimes the desire to try drugs is a satiated need to satisfy curiosity.” She adds, “These youth often convince themselves that one time won’t hurt anything, or better yet, they tell themselves, “everybody else is doing it so why can’t I?” They feed themselves lies to justify their unhealthy behavior.” But sometimes, the youth should learn from people who say otherwise, particularly their parents, about grave mistakes that are not worth doing.
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Drunk Father, Drunk Son
Source: cdn.psychologytoday.com
“Like father like son,” so it shouldn’t be a surprise if a child takes after his father. Mine did, or almost if I didn’t do something. I had to give up on him for my son’s sake, but I have to say my husband made it easy for me. He wasn’t the best dad or partner either, so leaving him was not really difficult. Yes, it was painful, but in the end, it was worth it.
Truancy Can Cause Failure In Life
[Reasons And Outcomes]
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Are you having problems with your child? Is he skipping class and failing? These are common concerns of parents of an adolescent, but what is it with this age that makes some children do things that are somewhat hard to understand? You keep on coming up with answers until you have none left but “He’s a teenager, that’s why!”
Video Games Caused My Son To Be Violent
[Games You Should Never Allow Your Kids To Play]
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Carl and I have a 9-year-old son, Gavin, whose behavior disturbs us. He is our only child, and I don’t know where he got his violent behavior. His dad is very timid, and so am I. Lately, he’s been showing alarming attitudes, and we’re not sure what to do. His teacher even called to let me know he punched some kid just for borrowing his pen. His teacher said he didn’t want to give it away, but the other boy took it anyway, so he punched him in the face!
No! You Did Not Just Bully My Kid
[Identifying Reasons For Bullying]
Bullying is one of the most prevalent issues of adolescents all across America. It is a serious matter that parents should deal withfull attention. Many of us, even celebrities, admitted to being bullied when we were young. If you have a child, have you asked yourself if your child is doing okay in school? Is he not being bullied, or is he not causing any harm to anyone?
“Bullying may inflict physical, psychological, social or educational harm on a victim,” said Dorothy Espalage, PhD. “Behaviors include verbal and physical aggression that ranges in severity from making threats, spreading rumors and social exclusion, to physical attacks causing injury,” she added.
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We may have heard about bullying from all forms of media. It has been a topic recently as one of the causes of teenage suicides. And you might have reacted, “How come the parents of this kid never noticed that he needed help? How evil the parents of these insolent kids can be!” You might have asked yourself these two questions when you heard stories about bullying causing tragic incidents.
As parents, it is our responsibility to ascertain the welfare of our children. At the same time, we must make sure they are well-mannered as not to impose any damage or harm to other people.
Sometimes, it’s hard to comprehend how these supposedly innocent beings can cause severe pain to their fellow kid.
Reasons Why Some Kids Are Ill-Mannered:
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- They Are Abused At Home
It can be physical or emotional abuse. These are two significant elements in making up our overall health. Imagine how pain can physically and emotionally impair our judgment as adults. That’s double when it comes to kids. They are clueless about how to deal with this confusion, and they don’t have anyone else to turn to but their fellow kid who ismost likely fragile and powerless. They wouldn’t take on someone they don’t think they can handle.
“Parents are very powerful role models, and children will mimic the behavior of parents, wanting to be like them,” said Nerissa Bauer, MD. She added, “When parents engage in violence, children may assume violence is the right way to do things.”
- They Lack Discipline
Kids whose parents are busy and careless of their behavior are more likely to become bullies. When parents don’t pay close attention to their kids and are too occupied with their jobs, they tend to pamper their kids with material things and unnecessary praise and rewards. It causes them to gain too much self-confidence, too much that they will feel entitled to everything, even hurting just anybody and getting away with it.
- They Are Addicted To Violent Videogames
Most of the videogames nowadays revolve in the context of being the best by inflicting violence towards your opponent. The faster and tougher you are in defeating your enemy, the cooler you are. And given their fragile minds, this kind of mentality is adopted by kids to their real life. The meaner they are, the cooler their fellow kids will think of them.
Roanna Cooper, MA, and Marc Zimmerman, PhD, wrote, “Although playing violent video games may not necessarily determine violent or aggressive behavior, it may increase precursors to violent behavior.” They added, “Violent video games may be related to bullying, which researchers have found to be a risk factor for more serious violent behavior.”
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“No, you did not just bully my kid!” For sure, this has come to your mind twice or more, thinking what you could and would do if someone bullies your kid. But have you asked yourself what if your kid is the one bullying? What would you do?
The role of parents is crucial in developing the values and morals of the youth. They are indeed our future, and it is our obligation to the community to shape our children into responsible human beings, thus shaping the future of our next generation.
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