ADOLESCENCE: STORM AND STRESS

Volume 4 Issue 8 Aug 2014

“It’s when you have to pay adult prices for movies but you can’t see adult movies….!”

The term ‘adolescence’ comes from the Latin verb ‘adolescere’, which means “to go into adulthood”. The adolescence (age of 12 to 19 years) is a period of rapid physical, cognitive, sexual, social and emotional changes. India has the largest national population of adolescents (about 20% of total population), followed by China, United States, Indonesia and Pakistan. The concept of adolescence, as it is commonly understood, as a period of ‘storm and stress’ was initiated by G. Stanley Hall. Sigmund Freud believed that adolescence is fraught with an internal struggle between id and superego resulting in tremendous stress and turmoil. Erik Erickson characterised the normative ask of adolescence as identity crisis versus role confusion. Drawing a parallel between an adolescent and trapeze artist, he conceptualized the young person as being in vigorous motion between two landings – one representing childhood and the other adulthood, ‘who must let go his safe hold on childhood and reach out for a firm grasp on adulthood’. The 3 stages of adolescence include:

1. Early adolescence (12-14 years): In this stage, most striking changes are noticed – physically, attitudinally and behaviourly. Adolescents need to make use of their newly acquired skills of logical thinking and ability to make judgments rationally.
2. Middle adolescence (14-16 years): Adolescents strive to loosen their ties to their parents and their emotions and intellectual capacities increase. The adolescent becomes adventuresome, and experiments with different ideas. During this time, the adolescent battles over his own set of values versus the set established by his parents and other adult figures.
3. Late adolescence (17-19 years): Adolescents have a more stable sense of their identity and place in society. They should, by this time, have established a balance between their aspirations, fantasies, and reality. At the conclusion of late adolescence, they should have had designed or discovered their role in society, and have set a realistic goal in life.

Most adolescents go through this transition with optimism, develop self esteem and maintain good relations with family and peers. Failure to make this transition smoothly results in considerable psychiatric morbidity in adolescents. Most mental health problems diagnosed in adulthood begin in adolescence. One in five adolescents experience significant symptoms of emotional distress and nearly one in ten are emotionally impaired. Various studies from developing countries including India show that 7-35% of child and adolescent population suffers from mental illness. Most common psychiatric illnesses seen in this population include depression, anxiety disorders, adjustment problems, suicide, psychosis, substance use disorders, eating disorders and body image disturbances. Psychopathology and maladjustment in adolescents pose a significant financial and social burden on families and society in terms of distress, cost of treatment, and disability. Enhancing social skills, problem-solving skills and self confidence can help prevent mental health problems in youths.

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