Military Families: Mental health support for military teens
There are many aspects of military life that pose risks to the mental health of young people in military families. From separation, frequent relocations, and parental injury or death, teenagers in military families are coping with a lot. Plus, these challenges are on top of all the ‘normal’ teenage difficulties that come with school, socializing, and establishing a sense of your identity as a young adult.
Seeking mental health support for military teens is a great first step in looking after your mental health. But you might feel nervous to do so, especially if you’re worried about whether you can trust the person you’re confiding in. Fortunately, there are several confidential options out there. So, even if you’re looking for free mental health support for teens, you can find it if you know where to look.
This page will explore military teen mental health resources you can access confidentially, and it’ll explain the types of support available. We’ll begin by looking at why military life can cause mental health challenges to arise.
Let’s dive in!
Why Do Military Children Struggle With Mental Health?
Military life comes with a set of significant challenges for children and teenagers. The effects of moving every few years, as well as parent-child separation, and potential parental injury, or death, can all cause stress on growing children and their parents. Let’s explore what’s going on:
Relocation
It might be that you’ve moved across the country several times before the age of ten, having to make a whole set of new friends only to say goodbye to them a year later. Naturally, this might affect how you and other military children approach relationships, beginnings, and endings, and how secure you feel in your life circumstances.
Parental Stress
Military life can also put huge stress on parents, which children undoubtedly absorb.1 If one of your parents stayed behind while the other parent was deployed, you might have witnessed their depression or anxiety and been affected by it. Some children feel a duty to rescue their parents from a mental health difficulty like depression or develop a hypervigilant awareness of other people’s moods, impacting their own emotional patterns.
Traumatic Events
Some children will be exposed to the injury or death of a parent, which is undoubtedly an extremely distressing life event. Unfortunately, it also puts those affected at risk of developing depression and anxious symptoms down the line.2
Family Disruptions
Military life can also cause disruptions to family routines, extended separations between parents and children, and potentially compromise parenting if parents are suffering the effects of traumatic events.3 All of these factors can understandably cause children and teenagers to develop difficulties with their mental health; life might feel insecure and unreliable.
Attachment Wounds
In addition, normal development stages are disrupted for military children if they experience significant periods of time when their parents are away or unavailable. Mental health issues can arise due to the significant stress this places on the parent-child attachment, which is essential for a secure sense of self and stability in the world.4
Unstable Support Systems
Aside from military life being associated with mental health difficulties, it can also just make it harder for you to feel supported. For example, if you’ve just moved to a new place, you might not know what help is available in your area and you’re unlikely to have a support system of friends right away.
All these factors mean that military teens are more likely to struggle emotionally, making mental health support for military families essential.5 If you feel any of these factors apply to you, you might be feeling like seeking military teen mental health resources. We’ll now explore what options you have and where you can find help:
How Does the Military Help with Mental Health?
When you’re looking into mental health support as someone from a military family, you’ll probably come across TRICARE. This is the healthcare program for American military personnel and their family members. Your family likely has access to TRICARE, which includes mental health support like talking therapies, inpatient care, and medication.
These kinds of care can help you with a wide range of mental health difficulties and conditions, whether you need medication for a condition like bipolar or just want to talk to someone about stress, sadness, or frustration.
TRICARE mental health for teens might not appeal to you if you don’t want your parents to know you’re seeking support. If you receive support for your mental health through TRICARE, the specific content of your counseling sessions will be kept confidential. However, as the billing information will be sent to one of your parents, they’ll be able to see that you’re being treated.
If you don’t want your parents to know you’re receiving support for your mental health at all, there are other options available to you. You’ll find a variety of military teen mental health resources at Military OneSource, a fully confidential service, available 24/7. Through their website, you can instantly chat with a military life expert, request confidential counseling for the near future, or browse their articles.
If you do want to follow through with confidential counseling from Military OneSource, you will have to get consent from a parent. For teenagers aged 13 to 17, one of your parents must come along at the beginning of each session to give their consent. The counseling can be in person or over a video call, and what you share is completely confidential.
If you’re having a difficult time relocating, you might want to investigate the School Liaison Program. This program provides support for children and teens who are experiencing any sort of difficulties when transitioning between schools. They should be able to help even if your closest installation is an hour away.
Confidential mental health help for teens doesn’t necessarily have to be military-specific. You can still find support from other avenues, which we’ll explore now:
Teen Privacy and Mental Health Care
As a military child, confidential counseling might be essential to you. Everyone is entitled to privacy when it comes to their health, mental health included. You might want to discuss deeply personal and sensitive feelings, which can already be difficult to do. Confidentiality gives us the freedom to express what we need to, making it a key ingredient in effective mental health support.
Outside of military-specific services, there are lots of ways you can get confidential support. For instance:
- Call or text 988. The 988 Lifeline is a free and confidential hotline where you can speak to a counselor about what you’re going through.
- Text ‘START’ to 678-678 to get free, confidential, and LGBTQ+ inclusive support from crisis counselors at The Trevor Project.
- Text ‘TEEN’ to 839-863 between 6 pm and 9 pm PST or call 800-852-8336 between 6 pm and 10 pm PST to speak with a teen listening volunteer at Teen Line.
These hotlines are there for you in moments when you feel like you have no one to turn to, but it’s also a good idea to seek long-term support for your mental health from something like therapy.
Teen Privacy and Mental Health Care
Therapy is a confidential space for you to talk through your feelings with a qualified counselor. You can get therapy through TRICARE or the Military and Family Life Counselors (MFLCs) if they operate in your family’s military community.
The MFLC program can provide support to families and children struggling with a range of issues like relocation adjustment, deployment stress, conflict resolution, parent-child communication, grief, self-esteem, and more. The program can also support non-military-connected youth (children of civilians) in group support settings.6
Private therapy options for military youth are a great option, but you’ll need your parent’s permission to participate in the MFLC program. If you feel comfortable asking for this, it could be extremely beneficial for you to receive specialized therapy from professionals who are very familiar with military life and its effects.
Alternatively, your school should have a counselor, social worker, or psychologist who you can speak to. This is likely to be completely confidential, so you won’t have to get your parent’s permission to speak to them. The only exceptions to confidentiality in therapy are if you disclose something that indicates you or someone else is at risk of harming themselves or others.
To find a mental health service provider in your local area, use this locator.
How to Get Therapy as a Military Teen
Therapy is a confidential space for you to talk through your feelings with a qualified counselor. You can get therapy through TRICARE or the Military and Family Life Counselors (MFLCs) if they operate in your family’s military community.
The MFLC program can provide support to families and children struggling with a range of issues like relocation adjustment, deployment stress, conflict resolution, parent-child communication, grief, self-esteem, and more. The program can also support non-military-connected youth (children of civilians) in group support settings.6
Private therapy options for military youth are a great option, but you’ll need your parent’s permission to participate in the MFLC program. If you feel comfortable asking for this, it could be extremely beneficial for you to receive specialized therapy from professionals who are very familiar with military life and its effects.
Alternatively, your school should have a counselor, social worker, or psychologist who you can speak to. This is likely to be completely confidential, so you won’t have to get your parent’s permission to speak to them. The only exceptions to confidentiality in therapy are if you disclose something that indicates you or someone else is at risk of harming themselves or others. To find a mental health service provider in your local area, use this locator.
Get Support as a Military Teen
Here at Mission Prep, we understand your desire for confidentiality when it comes to your mental health. If you’ve exhausted the options discussed in this blog post, it might be necessary to talk to a parent about getting support.
If you feel ready, we’re here to offer you a variety of therapy options both in person and online. Military life can throw up so many challenges, which is why we provide therapy for teens in military households. Our team of licensed professionals will work with you to explore how military life has impacted you and what we can do together to support you through it.
So, if you want to explore our therapy options or talk to us about accessing military teen mental health resources, call us today.
References
- Trautmann, J., Alhusen, J., & Gross, D. (2015). Impact of deployment on military families with young children: A systematic review. Nursing Outlook, 63(6), 656–679. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2015.06.002
- Sullivan, R. M., Cozza, S. J., & Dougherty, J. G. (2019). Children of Military Families. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 28(3), 337–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2019.02.004
- Paley, B., Lester, P., & Mogil, C. (2013). Family Systems and Ecological Perspectives on the Impact of Deployment on Military Families. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 16(3), 245–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-013-0138-y
- Lieberman, A. F., & Van Horn, P. (2013). Infants and Young Children in Military Families: A Conceptual Model for Intervention. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 16(3), 282–293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-013-0140-4
- Kinley, J., Feizi, S., & Elgar, F. J. (2023). Adolescent mental health in military families: Evidence from the Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-023-00758-5
- Military and Family Life Counseling. (2022). Program Guide. https://www.swcs.mil/Portals/111/MFLC-Program-Guide-6Sept2022_Final.pdf
