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