• Knowledgebase: Teenager / Adolescent Articles

    Articles of interest to teenage patients

    7. To My Teenage Patients: - Top

    I receive questions regularly about teenagers and parents having problems with their teenagers. A few years ago I read a letter from a Pediatrician to his teenage patients and felt that this was a good letter for both teenagers and their parents:

    To My Teenage Patient:

    ADVICE from your doctor? About as welcome as Acne I should think. Still, as your doctor, I'd feel professionally amiss if I failed to make the following points:

    Your teenage years are exciting years, not only to you, but to those of .us watching you pull all the parts of your personality together into a unique and wonderful you. The REAL you. These are the years of preparation for adult responsibilities.

    1. You mature mentally, physically and creatively.
    2. You achieve your basic education, the tools for survival in the adult world.
    3. You learn how to select friends.
    4. You solve the mysteries of time management, find the proper balance between work, play and study.
    5. You learn how to manage money, pursue ideas, and make them work for you.
    6. You begin to devise a value system of what is really important to you.

    * BUT beware of the traps that can derail you --- permanently!

    1. Drugs and alcohol --- what you get from them will never equal what you lose. There is a payoff. It isn't nice.
    2. Pregnancy --- too early it can rob you of your youth, your independence, your dreams.
    3. STD (sexually transmitted diseases) - take no risks, one mistake can be fatal.
    4. Negative attitudes --- appreciate who is trying to help you become a successful adult.
    5. High-risk activities --- don't take chances; guns and cars can kill you. Cigarettes take longer.

    Treasure these years! Don't rush them. Adulthood and adult responsibilities come soon enough and once into them you have lost the teenage magic forever.

    The teenage years are special and complex and parents have to take this into account when dealing with their teenagers. If the groundwork was taken care of in the early years, they will come through thin transition in a positive manner and you have to keep reminding yourself of this. - Updated: March 22, 2001

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    • James L Horwitz, MD

    David C. Thomas, MD

    Barbara Lindberg, PNP