How to tell if your teenager needs help
Raising a teenager? It can be hard to know the difference between typical teenage rebellion and troubled behaviour that indicates a more serious problem. There are some things that are helpful, and some things that really aren’t, when you’re trying to find out once and for all if your teenager needs help. Here’s what we’ve found about identifying and helping at risk teenagers.
If you’ve got a teenager in the house, you’ll know that their behaviour can be erratic, annoying, odd and sometimes downright alarming. The problem is, there’s a fine line between ‘that’s just how kids are’ and warning signs that your child needs some help. They could be suffering from mental health issues, doing drugs, getting into a life of crime or even hurting themselves emotionally in a way that could hurt them for life.
But how do you know the difference? Well, that’s the hard part. You can try to talk to them. This could be helpful if they respond well to you and trust you with their problems. Assuming you say the right thing, this can be very helpful. However, this is a moody teenager we’re talking about here. It’s likely they either won’t talk to you or will lie to you about everything being fine. If you think your teenager doesn’t lie to you, you’re living in lala land!
Another option is spying on them. This is a very risky road. What could go wrong? Well, the best case scenario is you find some irrefutable proof that they’re in trouble, you confront them about it, and you break their trust in you forever. If they think you’ve been snooping through their stuff they’ll not likely be open to your help, but rather very mad at you! It’s also technically illegal so they could even charge you if they feel like it. Bad scenario? You find nothing, but they catch you spying on them. The trust is gone, and you still have no idea what’s wrong. Most likely, you snoop around without being caught, but you find nothing, because surveillance and investigation is surprisingly difficult and takes certain experience and skill to do correctly.
One thing you can do that has very little risk of going sour is hiring a private investigator to run surveillance on them. Because it wasn’t you snooping through their stuff, their trust in you, while initially might be a little strained, won’t be damaged as much as if you’d been spying yourself. Also, an investigation by a licensed and experience private investigator would give you the best chance of finding out the truth. If you teenager is hiding a dark secret, you’ll be able to find it out and do something about it, knowing for sure, once and for all, what the issue is.
If you have suspicions about your teenager, our detectives can help you get the necessary proof or peace of mind that there’s nothing wrong. Our discreet detectives have the highest degree of experience and skill. You need to know the truth about your child! Give us a call on 1300 721 715 or email info@eliteinvestigations.com.au to see how we might be able to find out if it’s just attitude, or something worse.