It’s common for teenagers today to need the support of an adolescent treatment program. At least part of this phenomenon is related to changes in the modern lifestyle that impact wellness.
Lifestyle medicine for teens provides a holistic approach to adolescent treatment, helping ensure that all factors impacting a teen’s mental and emotional health are addressed during a treatment program.
Foothills at Red Oak Recovery is a teen treatment center that helps teenage boys overcome mental and behavioral health challenges. Call 866.300.5275 to learn more about lifestyle medicine and other treatment methods for adolescent boys at Foothills at Red Oak Recovery.
What Is Lifestyle Adolescent Treatment?
Teens today deal with technological and social stressors that can impact their well-being in new ways. Many adolescents also have sedentary lifestyles and miss key nutrients in their diets, which can lead to the development of preventable illnesses.
The negative impact of modern lifestyle on teenagers may be reflected in the prevalence of health concerns such as:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Self-harm
- Eating disorders
- Obesity
- Substance use disorders
Lifestyle medicine exists as a means of identifying and responding to the external factors that often negatively impact a teen’s overall wellness.
Lifestyle medicine doesn’t replace traditional treatment methods like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or dialectic behavioral therapy (DBT). Instead, lifestyle medicine serves as a complement to traditional therapies, offering additional support in central areas of wellness.
The Four Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine
Lifestyle medicine identifies four main areas of life central to overall wellness — the “four pillars” of health and well-being.
Lifestyle medicine is a wellness model created for adults. Treatment centers that use the model on teenage clients should use an adapted version designed to better identify the core elements that impact teen well-being.
The four pillars of lifestyle medicine for teens are:
- Stress management
- Healthy relationships
- Physical activity
- Nutrition
Each of these elements can have a direct impact on a teen’s mental and emotional health. An imbalance in one area can easily lead to issues in the other three.
Each pillar combines education with instruction and practice. Teens learn about the science behind concepts around nutrition, stress hormones, and how a sedentary lifestyle impacts all areas of health.
Once teen clients are educated on why these pillars are central elements of wellness, they learn practical tips and tools for addressing each area in their own lives.
The Benefits of Lifestyle Medicine for Teens
Lifestyle adolescent treatment brings tangible long-term benefits to participants. The education offered by lifestyle medicine empowers teens to take control of their health. Teens learn valuable coping skills for making changes when they notice their mental or physical health is taking a downturn.
A few of the many benefits commonly experienced by teens who participate in lifestyle medicine treatment include:
- Improved overall physical health
- Healthy body weight
- Reduced risk of conditions like obesity and diabetes
- Improved mental and emotional health
- Reduced levels of stress and anxiety
- Healthier relationships with family and peers
- Increased confidence
When teens are given the tools to help themselves, it can be deeply empowering. A teen who might have formerly experienced a mental health crisis or resorted to substance use in the past now has a wide variety of tools for taking control of their feelings and asking for help when it’s needed.
Lifestyle Medicine at Foothills at Red Oak Recovery
Foothills at Red Oak Recovery is a treatment center that serves adolescent boys. Our programs aim to take existing treatment models like lifestyle medicine and tailor them to best meet the needs of our teenage clients.
We can empower our teenage clients to move beyond mental and behavioral health challenges through a combination of traditional and experiential treatment models.
Contact us today at 866.300.5275 to learn more about how lifestyle medicine at Foothills at Red Oak Recovery can help your teen.
