As a parent, you always want to make sure that your child is as happy and healthy as possible at all times. However, as your children grow into teenagers and young adults, this can become increasingly challenging. If you are the parent of a teenage daughter, you may find yourself constantly struggling and wondering whether or not your daughter is mentally healthy, happy, and stable. In order to be sure that your daughter's mental health is not compromised throughout their middle and high school years, get to know some of the reasons that your teenage daughter may need mental health counseling.

School Pressures Are Weighing Her Down

Sometimes, a teenage girl may feel as if their school obligations, including both academics and activities, are weighing them down. As a teen, it can be very easy to get overwhelmed with all of the school and social obligations they feel they have. These pressures can be overwhelming for both boys and girls, but girls often feel more social pressures to fit into a specific mold than boys do.

If your daughter seems to be run down, stressed, lethargic at home, or unable to focus, you may want to have her meet with a mental health counselor to talk about what is bothering them. School pressures can be intense, but talking them through with a mental health counselor and developing effective ways to cope with and manage stress (as well as to prioritize activities and obligations) can greatly impact your daughter's mental health and give her successful strategies that she can use for the rest of her life.

Social Media Is Consuming Her Life

Social media has quickly become the most time-consuming activity outside of work and school that people of all ages engage in. However, of all the age and gender demographics, teenage girls spend the most time on social media of any other group.

And, of course, there are many problems that come along with teen girls spending so much time and energy on social media use. There is the issue of cyber-bullying which is a phenomenon in which people are insulted, harassed, and trolled on social media. This can include negative comments about posts, photos, and videos, character-bashing, the development of specific pages or groups devoted to spreading negative comments and rumors about a specific person and the like. It essentially takes traditional bullying to a much wider scale and can have a huge negative impact on teenage girls who are victims.

Social media use can also lead to your daughter developing unrealistic expectations of her body. Women are under a great deal of pressure to have a "perfect" body and social media has amplified the issue with various photo "challenges" like the Thigh Gap Challenge and the A4 Paper Challenge that force women to try to fit into unrealistic body standards. Eating disorders can be the result of such exposure to social media. All in all, if your daughter spends a great deal of time on social media, you may want to have them speak to a mental health counselor. This can help them develop ways to handle social media issues they may be having without becoming depressed, anxious, or developing a mental health issue.

For more information, consider contacting a mental health counselor like those at the Lincoln Psychiatric Group.