Nearly every parent we talk to, by the time they make it to us at Antelope, is burned out and doesn’t know it. Or they do know it and are barely muscling through their day-to-day. This should be no surprise. Parenting a teen who is struggling with addiction or mental health disorders is an extremely…
Our Blog - Parenting
Dive into the Antelope Recovery blog for guides, tips, and insights in your teen’s mental health. From battling summer blues to navigating IOPs, we’re here to help.
How to connect with your struggling teen while they are in IOP this Summer.
If your teenager is in an Intensive Outpatient Program, it is important to ensure you have time set aside to spend with your teen outside of therapy. Even if your teen is rolling their eyes and saying they don’t want to see you, having time to connect with them is an important way to keep…
How Test Anxiety Might Affect Your Teenager
As the school year nears its end, many students are preparing for final exams. While it is natural to feel a little anxious about these high-stakes assessments, some students experience overwhelming levels of anxiety that can interfere with their ability to perform well. This is known as test anxiety, and it can have serious consequences…
The Ups and Downs of Summer: A Parent’s Guide to Teen Mental Health
While summer can be a time of relaxation, fun, and adventure for many teenagers, for teens who have struggled with their mental health, the changes that happen during the summer can require some extra attention. Ideally, summertime is a period of self-exploration and growth as teens try out new hobbies and practice being more independent.…
6 Ways you can support your teen over the holidays
The holiday season can be a wonderful and magical time. It can also be a source of stress and family conflict for many – between frantically buying presents, attending parties, traveling to see family, and hosting out-of-town guests, the holidays can quickly become overwhelming. Research has found that during the winter holidays, people experience lower…
Parents: 5 steps to avoid getting hooked into arguments with your teen
Arguing with your teen is a quick way to wear down the relationship and build up resentment and anger between you and your teenager. Here are five ways to avoid getting hooked into arguments with your teen, using both love and logic. What is Love and Logic? Love: I love my teen enough to set…
Parents: What to do if your teen is struggling with their grades?
Often, when teens struggle with grades, parents tend to either go into full drill sergeant mode and “ground” or yell at their teenager, OR they may get into helicopter parent mode and try doing the teen’s homework. Neither of these options tends to work well for the teen or the parents. Control battles, trying to…
Grounding teenagers does not work
We take a strong stance on grounding teenagers. On behalf of all our teens in our programs – parents- please stop grounding them! You don’t have to do it. Discipline can still work great without it. Grounding simply doesn’t make sense to teens. They don’t get it. It feels like senseless torture and often ends…
Value Testing: 4 Reasons Why Teens Say Outrageous Things
Teens love trying out a wide range of values and then seeing how the people around them respond. This is an essential part of teen self-concept building and is very developmentally appropriate. Often, teens love seeing their parents react to these new values negatively. Once the parents have a negative reaction, the teen will double…
How to talk to your teenager about substance use
Not all drugs are created equal and neither is all drug use. Substance use falls into three categories: Most teens experiment with substances at some point. However, of those who experiment, most will not go on to use or abuse drugs. How to set boundaries with your teen about substance use: When talking to your…