*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Keeping it steady amid teen angst

22 May 2015

I REMEMBER when I was a teenager going to a Lee Abbey house party, and in a conversation with the resident deaconess, I confessed that I was prone to feelings of depression. She harrumphed - that is the only appropriate word - and then said firmly that I should not get bogged down in such feelings; that they could lead to a spell in a mental hospital, and that was never a good idea. I took her advice, and managed to suppress my anxieties. I think in retrospect that her approach was right at the time. I was by no means ready to confront my personal demons.

Today, there is a rising tide of concern about the mental health of young people and the lack of appropriate facilities to care for those who need urgent treatment. It is not hard to see why many teenagers feel they are under acute pressure. School has become a testing ground where the scrutiny never lets up. Anxious parents drive their children to put grades above everything else.

Socially, children are confused about sex, and are exposed to porn, vulnerable to eating disorders and experimentation with drugs, lonely, and yet endlessly in touch with friends and foes through Facebook and its imitators. The below-teen generation of 10-12-year-olds are, a recent report from the Jacobs Foundation says, more worried and pessimistic about what life holds for them than those in much poorer countries such as Ethiopia or Nepal.

It is very difficult for parents and teachers to deal wisely with these issues. While an atmosphere of openness, encouragement, and lack of judgement is clearly helpful to those who are ready to receive help, there are others who may simply be terrified to have their inner agonies recognised by the authority figures around them. Some will grow out of their problems with counselling and support; some will not.

Some, like me, respond to rather bracing advice, and are able to control their anxieties until they are more ready to face them. If it is true that a reluctance to talk about mental illness harms those who need support, it may also be true that the current scale of public worry could turn a wobble into a life crisis. The Church can help by encouraging a sense of identity which is deeper than the peer group and broader than that of the family.

Teenage years are always a challenge. Fantasies of fame, glory, sex, and success contend with misery and despair. I am glad that I came through my years of teenage angst, but there were times when, in all honesty, it was a close shave.

 

The Revd Angela Tilby is Diocesan Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and Continuing Ministerial Development Adviser for the diocese of Oxford.

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Letters to the editor

Letters for publication should be sent to letters@churchtimes.co.uk.

Letters should be exclusive to the Church Times, and include a full postal address. Your name and address will appear below your letter unless requested otherwise.

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

The Church Times Archive

Read reports from issues stretching back to 1863, search for your parish or see if any of the clergy you know get a mention.

FREE for Church Times subscribers.

Explore the archive

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)