How to Help Teenagers Manage Their Emotions and Accept Their Feelings

We are officially four months out from tween emotions overload. Already my funny, spunky child, is beginning to show signs of a moody teen. Yes, I am fully aware it is partially the impact of puberty, however for us it is also the changing nature of ADHD symptoms as his brain matures. Just when we thought we got a handle on ADHD, and the life that entails for not only him but us all as a family puberty is knocking at our door, like an uninvited guest.

Emotional regulation is a struggle for teens in general and more so with ADHD. A condition marked by challenges of self-regulation, which can interfere with managing greater pressures and responsibilities such as high academic demands from attending a private school. In addition to navigating social interactions via social media, and the many other ongoing emotional daily struggles.

As we all know life is full of reasons to feel angry, sad, scared, overwhelmed, and frustrated—but what our teens don’t understand yet is it is all normal. Of course there are times, emotions can get the best of all of us, especially our teens who are just learning to handle the new emotions they are experiencing. This is where the Put Your Feelings Here an Instant Help Guided Journal for Teens Series can help. 

Put Your Feelings Here is a safe and creative space for teens to work through difficult emotions using 100 engaging and action-oriented prompts grounded in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). With this journal, our teens can find 100 new ways to release, reduce, and manage intense emotions in the moment so they can feel balanced, calm, and happy again. Put Your Feelings Here uses fun prompts, for our teens to learn how to express themselves creatively through writing, art, and more.

The goal is for our teens to learn to discuss what they’re thoughts and feeling, which is so important for their mental health.The book encourages teens to understand emotions can be an excellent fuel for art and writing. In our home we designate 20 minutes of downtime before bed as reading and writing time. Our teen now uses this time for writing down his feelings, making his own rules, and expressing himself in a more constructive way via Put Your Feelings Here. Go ahead and make it your teens as well!