Most adolescents fail to communicate their psychological problems to their parents. This is not due to mistrust, but to a number of factors that are typical for the onset of mental difficulties at this age.

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Adolescents find it harder to navigate their psyche, they find it difficult to describe their feelings accurately and their emotionality is deeper and less stable, even as a result of natural physiological changes. At the same time, at this age there is also a developmentally quite natural distance and ambivalence in relation to parents and the older generation in general.

The manifestations of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents can be observed by certain changes, which are mainly visible in the field of behaviour.

• Isolation from the collective and frequent escape to the virtual world (games, social networks)
• Excessive fear of school
• Aggressive outbursts and atypical behaviour (theft, vandalism)
• Apathy and self-harm
• Excessive exhaustion, sleep disturbances
• Altered relationship with food and gastrointestinal disorders
• Headache or back pain without organic findings
• Substance abuse

All of the above manifestations cannot be approached in isolation. Rather, these phenomena should be understood as the consequences of internal conflicts and unbearable emotions, which serve to avoid, escape or override them. Psychotherapy plays a central role in the treatment of anxiety and depression. Medication is used only as a last resort. The psychotherapist may involve the parents in the treatment process, but this cooperation is carried out according to strict rules. The basic prerequisite for successful therapy is a partnership relationship that is primarily based on trust. This is often very fragile in adolescents, so the therapeutic relationship must be consistently protected. Individual and group psychotherapy is used to treat depression and anxiety in adolescents.

The most proven form of psychotherapy is modified cognitive-behavioural therapy. Through it, the adolescent client learns to identify dangerous thoughts that then cause painful emotional states. He or she learns to work with these thoughts together with the therapist and to become aware of certain pathological beliefs about the self and the world that are at the root of them. Training in coping with sudden emotional states and delaying impulsive reactions is an integral part of psychotherapy. Elements of logotherapy, a psychotherapeutic method that enables young people to sort out their priorities, to make sense of negative situations and to find an answer to the question of the meaning of many experiences, which is often a burning question at this age, also work very well.