Recognizing when your child is having an emotional mental health crisis can be difficult. When we think about mental health crises, we often associate them with emergency responders rushing to take care of the situation. Many parents usually have trouble differentiating between a ‘bad day’ and a genuine mental health crisis. Mental health crisis response can look very different from conventional emergency responses. It requires adequate mental health training to be effective.
Over the past few years, there has been an unprecedented increase in the rate of mental health emergencies. Suicide, self-harm, and major depressive episodes contribute to the largest amount of mental health crises in America. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, about 20% of teens in the United States reported having major depressive episodes. In 2022, about 13% of teenagers had suicidal ideation, with half of them having a serious plan for suicide. About 3% of these teens attempted suicide.
This article aims to help parents, caregivers, and educators understand how to respond effectively to mental health crises. It will equip them with the skills required to handle and support teens during a crisis and provide useful national and local resources for crisis management.
What Is an Emotional Mental Health Crisis?
An emotional mental health crisis can take many forms. It can be a crisis due to a nervous breakdown, attempted suicide, or self-harm. Generally, a mental health crisis can be described as an emergency where teens risk harming themselves or others, or when their emotions become overwhelming and out of control. It can be caused by various mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and borderline personality disorder (BPD), among others. If your teen has a severe mental health condition, it is important to be prepared for an emergency.
Warning Signs of A Mental Health Crisis
As a parent or guardian, you can recognize a mental health crisis by observing your teen’s behavior. Some warning signs of an impending crisis include the following:
Threatening self-harm or harming others
Making comments about suicide
Suddenly becoming physically aggressive in normal situations
Nervousness, agitation, and fidgeting
Engaging in risky behavior, such as drug and substance use
Becoming socially isolated
Hallucinations
Night terrors
Difficulty falling asleep or sleeping too much
Changes in appetite
Irritability
Being secretive
Sudden interest in dangerous items like knives
Common Triggers of A Mental Health Crisis
Several factors can trigger your teen’s mental health crisis. These factors include the following:
Childhood neglect, trauma, or abuse: Childhood trauma, domestic violence, and abuse are common triggers for emotional crises. Teens who have experienced such adverse life events have trouble regulating their emotions and are at an increased likelihood of slipping into a mental health crisis.
Stressful life events: Life events like divorce, the loss of a loved one, or experiencing a natural disaster can cause your teen to develop a mental health crisis. These events can be stressful and overwhelming for teens. This may trigger an emotional crisis.
Over-exposure to social media: Social media has both positive and negative effects on your teen’s mental health. On the one hand, it is a great way to connect with others, while on the other hand, it can be a tool used to bully your teen. Social media can also influence your teen into self-harm and suicide.
Drug and substance use: Drug and substance misuse can cause an emotional crisis. Drugs affect everyone differently and can cause your teen to become a danger to themselves and others.
Social isolation or withdrawal: Socially withdrawn teens experience overwhelming emotions. They lack an emotional outlet and tend to bottle up their feelings. This can trigger an emotional crisis.
Economic difficulties and other social disadvantages: Teens who are economically disadvantaged or homeless may slip into a mental health crisis. They are powerless and can engage in self-harm as a negative coping mechanism.
Experiencing discrimination, bullying, or oppression: Teens who are bullied at school because of their sexual identity, race, or personality can experience a mental health crisis. They often feel like self-harm or suicide is the only way to end their suffering.
Emergency Response Protocols for Teen Emotional Crises
Many first responders lack the training to deal with emotional crises. They use a one-size-fits-all approach instead of utilizing scenario-specific approaches. Emergency responder training does not consider a specific teen’s needs and often escalates rather than de-escalates the situation. Although efficient, a standardized approach may be ineffective in helping teens with an emotional crisis.
This does not mean that you should not seek professional help when your teen has an emotional crisis. This only means you should supplement the emergency response with your tailored approach. You understand your teen better and can offer better mental health support compared to emergency responders.
What should you do if your teen is having an emotional crisis? We will divide approaches into two categories: when your teen is in immediate danger and when your teen is not in immediate danger.
No Imminent Danger or Threat
If you are certain your teen is not a threat to themselves or to others, there are several protocols you can observe to help them. You can manage an emotional crisis by following the steps below:
Remain calm and assess the situation: The most essential part of crisis management is remaining calm. As a parent or caregiver, you should help de-escalate the situation by remaining calm while your teen is experiencing an emotional crisis. You can help your teen feel safe and secure using an empathetic tone and calming body language.
Remove any potential hazards: Even though an emotional crisis may not cause your teen to harm themselves, it is always better to take all necessary precautions. When your teen is experiencing an emotional crisis, remove potentially hazardous items that can cause physical harm.
Ensure your teen is not alone: Do not let them remain alone with their thoughts. Be there for them and ensure you actively listen to their issues. As a parent or caregiver, you should always be there for your teen during an emotional meltdown.
Getting in touch with your teen’s mental health provider: If your teen is already receiving specialized treatment, reach out to their mental health provider. Their therapist can offer invaluable insight on how to manage the crisis.
Connect them to a crisis hotline: Crisis hotlines provide effective crisis management. TheNational Suicide Prevention LifelineandCrisis Text Lineare some of the most effective emotional crisis management resources in America.
Create a crisis plan: As a parent or guardian, you may be aware that your teen is struggling with their mental health. If you suspect this, you should develop a crisis management plan. This plan will outline the steps you should follow when facing an emergency.
Imminent Danger
If you suspect that your teen’s emotional crisis may escalate to the point where they are a danger to themselves or others, you should contact a crisis hotline immediately. Depending on the type of emergency, you should ensure you reach out to professionals. Call 911 or rush your teen to an emergency room.
Since emergency responders may not have the requisite training to deal with emotional crises, you should specifically outline the type of emergency. This will help the operator dispatch the most appropriate emergency responders. You should also ask whether there are specialized teams that can deal with mental health crises. If they exist, ask for them to be dispatched. Do not be scanty with details to ensure your teen receives the care they need from emergency services.
Supporting Your Teen During a Crisis
As a parent or guardian, there are several things you can do to support your teen during an emotional crisis. These include the following:
Validating their feelings without judgment: Emotional validation is an important support tool. It is about making your teen feel understood rather than judged or shamed for their feelings. You can validate your teen’s feelings by acknowledging and accepting their emotional response. By seeing things from their point of view, teens feel accepted rather than ashamed of their feelings. As a parent or caregiver, validating your teen’s feelings can help de-escalate the situation and make your teen calm.
Providing reassurance and maintaining a calm tone: To support your teen effectively during a crisis, you need to reassure them that they are loved and cared for. Use words and gestures that will make your teen feel safe and secure. Tell them you will always be there for them, even when they are struggling with their mental health. Remain calm and reinforce your commitment to helping them overcome their mental health struggles. You can do this by reminding them of any past experiences that you have supported them through.
Avoiding confrontation or dismissing language: Many parents find themselves using dismissive language because they do not understand the magnitude of an emotional crisis. They often compare these situations with worse ones to minimize their teen’s experiences. As a parent or guardian, you should avoid using dismissive language when your teen is experiencing an emotional crisis. Confrontation and minimization will only worsen the situation rather than improve it.
Resources for Immediate Teen Crisis Intervention
You can contact several crisis helplines when your teen is experiencing an emotional crisis. They range from national, local, and online resources that help teens and parents during a crisis. They include the following:
Moodfit can be found on the App Store or Google Play
Preventing Future Emotional Crises in Teens
Emotional crisis management is not just about managing a current crisis but also preventing future occurrences. As a parent or guardian, there are several things you can do to help prevent future crises. These include the following:
Building Emotional Resilience
Emotional resilience is a crucial part of crisis prevention. It is the internal motivation to be resilient when faced with challenges. Emotional resilience helps teens overcome challenges while remaining calm and collected. It can also help teens bounce back to normal after adverse experiences.
You can help your teen build emotional resilience through encouraging the following:
Emotional awareness
Flexibility and open-mindedness
Persistence and consistency
Open communication
Establishing a Support Network
Having supportive family and friends can help prevent future emotional crises. A strong support network comprises reliable family and friends who can offer your teen guidance and advice. These support networks help teens have a shoulder to lean on when things get tough.
As a parent or guardian, you should create a support network for your teen. Call upon other family members and friends who can be relied upon when your teen is feeling blue. A good support structure will ensure your teen has someone to talk to when they feel overwhelmed or need advice.
Treatment at NexStep Teen Academy
NexStep Teen Academy is a premier mental health treatment facility in Arizona. It provides high-quality mental health treatment for teens with various mental health conditions and substance abuse issues. Its serene environment helps teens focus on getting better.
NexStep Teen Academy helps teens with emotional crises overcome emotional dysregulation by equipping them with the necessary skills to manage their emotions. We utilize various treatment approaches to ensure your teen gets the care required, and our services are customized to every teen’s needs.
If you suspect your teen’s impending emotional crisis, NexStep is the right place for you. Our outpatient treatment program offers five-day-a-week sessions where your teen can receive quality treatment. We utilize evidence-based and holistic therapies to ensure teens leave the facility feeling better than when they came in. Some of the treatment approaches we use include the following:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is an evidence-based treatment option that focuses on helping teens identify negative and distorted thoughts. It helps them reframe negative thoughts into more positive ones. CBT is based on the idea that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connected. Changing one’s thoughts ultimately affects one’s behavior. Teens with emotional crises often have negative thoughts. CBT will help them identify and change these negative thoughts to prevent future crises.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is similar to CBT but focuses on changing behaviors first. It helps teens regulate their emotions by teaching them mindfulness techniques. During an emotional crisis, your teen’s thoughts might be all over the place. Mindfulness helps teens change their behavior by slowing down their thoughts. Slowing down their thoughts helps them analyze the situation appropriately and choose to behave differently.
Holistic Approaches
Holistic approaches, such as art, yoga, and music therapy, help equip teens with the skills to manage their emotions and provide a healthy outlet for overwhelming emotions.
Yes, you can handle a teen’s emotional crisis without professional help. However, learning to recognize when you need professional help is important. You can manage a teen’s emotional crisis by remaining calm and assessing the situation, validating your teen’s feelings, removing any potential hazards, ensuring your teen is safe and not alone, and creating a crisis plan.
Schools can play an important role in crisis management. They can offer mental health support for teens, teach staff to identify emotional crisis warning signs, and conduct mental awareness campaigns on campus.
Teen Emotional Crisis Emergency Response
Table of Contents
Recognizing when your child is having an emotional mental health crisis can be difficult. When we think about mental health crises, we often associate them with emergency responders rushing to take care of the situation. Many parents usually have trouble differentiating between a ‘bad day’ and a genuine mental health crisis. Mental health crisis response can look very different from conventional emergency responses. It requires adequate mental health training to be effective.
Over the past few years, there has been an unprecedented increase in the rate of mental health emergencies. Suicide, self-harm, and major depressive episodes contribute to the largest amount of mental health crises in America. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, about 20% of teens in the United States reported having major depressive episodes. In 2022, about 13% of teenagers had suicidal ideation, with half of them having a serious plan for suicide. About 3% of these teens attempted suicide.
This article aims to help parents, caregivers, and educators understand how to respond effectively to mental health crises. It will equip them with the skills required to handle and support teens during a crisis and provide useful national and local resources for crisis management.
What Is an Emotional Mental Health Crisis?
An emotional mental health crisis can take many forms. It can be a crisis due to a nervous breakdown, attempted suicide, or self-harm. Generally, a mental health crisis can be described as an emergency where teens risk harming themselves or others, or when their emotions become overwhelming and out of control. It can be caused by various mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and borderline personality disorder (BPD), among others. If your teen has a severe mental health condition, it is important to be prepared for an emergency.
Warning Signs of A Mental Health Crisis
As a parent or guardian, you can recognize a mental health crisis by observing your teen’s behavior. Some warning signs of an impending crisis include the following:
Common Triggers of A Mental Health Crisis
Several factors can trigger your teen’s mental health crisis. These factors include the following:
Emergency Response Protocols for Teen Emotional Crises
Many first responders lack the training to deal with emotional crises. They use a one-size-fits-all approach instead of utilizing scenario-specific approaches. Emergency responder training does not consider a specific teen’s needs and often escalates rather than de-escalates the situation. Although efficient, a standardized approach may be ineffective in helping teens with an emotional crisis.
This does not mean that you should not seek professional help when your teen has an emotional crisis. This only means you should supplement the emergency response with your tailored approach. You understand your teen better and can offer better mental health support compared to emergency responders.
What should you do if your teen is having an emotional crisis? We will divide approaches into two categories: when your teen is in immediate danger and when your teen is not in immediate danger.
No Imminent Danger or Threat
If you are certain your teen is not a threat to themselves or to others, there are several protocols you can observe to help them. You can manage an emotional crisis by following the steps below:
Imminent Danger
If you suspect that your teen’s emotional crisis may escalate to the point where they are a danger to themselves or others, you should contact a crisis hotline immediately. Depending on the type of emergency, you should ensure you reach out to professionals. Call 911 or rush your teen to an emergency room.
Since emergency responders may not have the requisite training to deal with emotional crises, you should specifically outline the type of emergency. This will help the operator dispatch the most appropriate emergency responders. You should also ask whether there are specialized teams that can deal with mental health crises. If they exist, ask for them to be dispatched. Do not be scanty with details to ensure your teen receives the care they need from emergency services.
Supporting Your Teen During a Crisis
As a parent or guardian, there are several things you can do to support your teen during an emotional crisis. These include the following:
Resources for Immediate Teen Crisis Intervention
You can contact several crisis helplines when your teen is experiencing an emotional crisis. They range from national, local, and online resources that help teens and parents during a crisis. They include the following:
National Helplines
Local Helplines
Online Resources
Preventing Future Emotional Crises in Teens
Emotional crisis management is not just about managing a current crisis but also preventing future occurrences. As a parent or guardian, there are several things you can do to help prevent future crises. These include the following:
Building Emotional Resilience
Emotional resilience is a crucial part of crisis prevention. It is the internal motivation to be resilient when faced with challenges. Emotional resilience helps teens overcome challenges while remaining calm and collected. It can also help teens bounce back to normal after adverse experiences.
You can help your teen build emotional resilience through encouraging the following:
Establishing a Support Network
Having supportive family and friends can help prevent future emotional crises. A strong support network comprises reliable family and friends who can offer your teen guidance and advice. These support networks help teens have a shoulder to lean on when things get tough.
As a parent or guardian, you should create a support network for your teen. Call upon other family members and friends who can be relied upon when your teen is feeling blue. A good support structure will ensure your teen has someone to talk to when they feel overwhelmed or need advice.
Treatment at NexStep Teen Academy
NexStep Teen Academy is a premier mental health treatment facility in Arizona. It provides high-quality mental health treatment for teens with various mental health conditions and substance abuse issues. Its serene environment helps teens focus on getting better.
NexStep Teen Academy helps teens with emotional crises overcome emotional dysregulation by equipping them with the necessary skills to manage their emotions. We utilize various treatment approaches to ensure your teen gets the care required, and our services are customized to every teen’s needs.
If you suspect your teen’s impending emotional crisis, NexStep is the right place for you. Our outpatient treatment program offers five-day-a-week sessions where your teen can receive quality treatment. We utilize evidence-based and holistic therapies to ensure teens leave the facility feeling better than when they came in. Some of the treatment approaches we use include the following:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is an evidence-based treatment option that focuses on helping teens identify negative and distorted thoughts. It helps them reframe negative thoughts into more positive ones. CBT is based on the idea that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connected. Changing one’s thoughts ultimately affects one’s behavior. Teens with emotional crises often have negative thoughts. CBT will help them identify and change these negative thoughts to prevent future crises.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is similar to CBT but focuses on changing behaviors first. It helps teens regulate their emotions by teaching them mindfulness techniques. During an emotional crisis, your teen’s thoughts might be all over the place. Mindfulness helps teens change their behavior by slowing down their thoughts. Slowing down their thoughts helps them analyze the situation appropriately and choose to behave differently.
Holistic Approaches
Holistic approaches, such as art, yoga, and music therapy, help equip teens with the skills to manage their emotions and provide a healthy outlet for overwhelming emotions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, you can handle a teen’s emotional crisis without professional help. However, learning to recognize when you need professional help is important. You can manage a teen’s emotional crisis by remaining calm and assessing the situation, validating your teen’s feelings, removing any potential hazards, ensuring your teen is safe and not alone, and creating a crisis plan.
Schools can play an important role in crisis management. They can offer mental health support for teens, teach staff to identify emotional crisis warning signs, and conduct mental awareness campaigns on campus.
Some online resources for support include 7Cups, The Trevor Project, and Moodfit.