SSD in Adolescents: Somatic Symptom Disorder in Teens & Treatment Options
Research shows that around 10% to 25% of children and young people report chronic somatic complaints, with only a small proportion of reported symptoms having an identifiable medical cause.1 Somatic symptom disorder teens often experience is not “made up.” Their symptoms are very real and indicate that they need support for the body and mind.
If your teen regularly complains of physical ailments without an identifiable medical cause, a mental health professional might be able to help. Many physical complaints come from unprocessed mental health conditions, so getting to the root causes of these issues could relieve discomfort.
This guide could also help you understand somatic symptom disorder in teens by exploring:
What SSD looks like in teenagers- Why SSD in adolescents develops
- Teen somatic disorder support, therapy, and recovery tools
- How to make home a safe place for healing and coping with SSD in teenagers
- How Mission Prep can help with teen somatic disorder treatment
What Is Somatic Symptom Disorder in Teens?
Psychosomatic symptoms teenagers develop might include constantly feeling headaches, stomach cramps, or extreme tiredness – typically without a physical cause. These symptoms are not imaginary or under the teen’s control.
In fact, they’re often the result of an overactive nervous system that causes the body to start holding tension physically. Such physical discomfort can result in repeated doctor visits in the search for a clear medical answer. Yet, what might really be going on is a mental health disorder with physical symptoms that youth often struggle to explain.
According to studies, general practitioners often refer to the symptoms of somatic symptom disorder as “medically unexplained” because they can’t attribute any known, conventionally defined disease to them.2 This increases the risk of lack of treatment or neglect of symptoms, which can feel highly frustrating and scary for families.
Fortunately, many professionals working in mental health recognize the symptoms of SSD, so you can get support for teens who are caught in this cycle.
Why Do Mental Health Disorders With Physical Symptoms in Youth Appear?
The body and brain talk to each other constantly. However, stress buildup can change their modes of communication, causing the body to start experiencing pain or discomfort. This miscommunication can result in the psychosomatic symptoms teenagers often deal with when life feels overwhelming.
To put this information in a more technical way, neurobiological research exploring somatic symptoms shows how physical or psychological stress contributes to the activation or dysregulation of the HPA axis.3 This dysregulation can result in patterns of increased or decreased activation of various sensations and even reprogram how the brain and other body systems respond to stress. As a consequence, stress hormones can be released by the nervous system, a teen’s muscles can start aching, and they may experience a tightening stomach or disruptions in sleep.
Physical symptoms of mental health teens face can gradually take over daily life, resulting in school absences, constant concern about their body, or even avoiding friends. Therefore, focusing on treating only the physical side of symptoms is often not enough. A mental health or medical professional also needs to understand the mind and body link and how mental health conditions can show up in the body.
Common Signs and Symptoms of SSD in Adolescents
Families may notice a range of signs that point toward SSD in adolescents. Some of the most common include:
Excessive or chronic headaches and stomachaches- Feeling dizzy or fainting
- Constantly feeling tired
- Ongoing digestive problems or nausea
- Pain in different parts of the body without a clear injury
- Sleep difficulties that come with physical complaints
According to findings, chronic somatic pain, like headaches, and recurrent abdominal and musculoskeletal pain, appears to be very frequent amongst teens.4 Pain can be highly frightening for a teen. Therefore, chronic physical complaints may take over their life, and the search for answers might become all-consuming. For example, a teen might truly believe something life-threatening is happening, which can add even more stress and pain.
Such concerns may result in excessive intrusive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to SSD symptoms, significantly disrupting a teen’s daily life.
Health Anxiety and SSD in Teens
This may be because somatic symptoms have been strongly associated with anxiety in adolescents. In fact, research shows teens with anxiety are almost three times more likely to report somatic symptoms than those without.6 This effect likely stems from how anxiety often increases focus on bodily sensations, leading to misinterpretation of typical physical experiences as threatening and extending somatic complaints.
For example, you may find your teen spending hours looking for answers online, constantly worrying about their body, or repeatedly checking their symptoms. The result of such behaviors can become a cycle where worry increases pain, and pain increases worry, and it can be exhausting for the whole family if left unaddressed.
If this is the case for your teen, it’s important to approach the cycle with care. Instead of dismissing their fears, gently redirecting the teen to safe, supportive conversations can begin breaking the cycle. Professional help is often key in this step.
Getting a Diagnosis of Somatic Symptom Disorder in Teens
Fortunately, training encourages doctors to be open-minded and adopt a non-judgmental, holistic approach. Therefore, they will likely listen actively, explore what symptoms mean for a patient, validate distress, clear confusion, and communicate understanding.7
A physician may also evaluate physical symptoms together with associated psychosocial stressors. This process helps them understand the patient as a person, improving the relationship and increasing the likelihood that they’ll get an accurate diagnosis. For example, they might ask questions about what is causing the symptoms, how they have impacted a teen’s life, and what their expectations are for investigations and treatment.
Professionals now, more than ever, understand the connection between the mind and the body, which opens up more treatment options. It’s rarely about a single approach. Instead, it’s about creating a plan that meets the teen’s unique needs.
Therefore, if a physician suspects somatic symptom disorder, they may refer a teen to a mental health professional for appropriate treatment. Of course, they would likely only do so after an explanation about what they suspect and with consent.
Types of Therapy for Somatic Symptom Disorder in Youth
Therapy for somatic symptom disorder in youth can help teens reconnect with their bodies in safe ways and reduce the grip and weight of mental health disorders with physical symptoms. The most appropriate form of therapy may depend on a teen’s specific symptoms and circumstances, but the following are some evidence-based approaches for targeting somatic issues:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT can help teens notice how thoughts can add physical stress or pressure and gently shift toward ideas that are kinder and more helpful. Therefore, with CBT, teens learn simple steps that can ease uncomfortable bodily feelings by calming the mind’s worry loops. It’s practical and hands-on, and often one of the first tools teens try to find relief.
Further, research backs these benefits up, as findings show that CBT greatly improves self-reported functioning and somatic symptoms and leads to a greater decrease in health care costs.8
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT builds on CBT techniques and brings in accessible tools like mindful breathing and calm thinking, as well as other ways to handle intense feelings without getting stuck. As a result, teens can learn how to ride out emotional storms, feel less overwhelmed, and hold onto stability, even when physical symptoms flare up.
Trauma-Informed Therapy
For teens whose symptoms stem from deeper emotional hurt or stress, trauma-informed therapy often provides a gentle path back to calm. This can include EMDR, which uses eye movements to soften difficult memories or movement-based approaches that don’t require teens to put feelings into words right away.
Family Therapy
When physical symptoms feel tangled in home life or expectations, family therapy can open a space for families to talk, understand each other better, and build trust again. It equips parents and caregivers with ways to listen with warmth and respond in ways that feel safe for teens.
Group Therapy and Peer Support
Being in a room with other teens going through similar struggles can be powerfully healing. Group therapy offers a sense of community, ways to talk about body worries out loud, and chances to share what helps without pressure and with understanding.
Mind-Body and Experiential Therapies
Not every teen talks easily about what’s inside. In fact, teens with trauma may especially struggle with identifying and verbalizing their emotions. This is why experiential therapies like art therapy, music, creative movement, or even gardening let the body lead the way toward trust and calm. These tools can encourage nervous system soothing in low-key, hopeful ways.
Tips for Coping with SSD in Teenagers
Coping with SSD in teenagers often means acknowledging symptoms, better understanding their causes, and learning new ways to respond. Therefore, families can make a big difference in recovery by supporting everyday coping strategies.
For instance, research emphasizes that the active involvement of the family, the school, and any other important setting in a child’s life is necessary for treatment to succeed.⁹
Helpful tips for coping with SSD in teenagers include:
- Keeping routines predictable
- Encouraging gentle movement like walking or stretching
- Listening without judgment when they talk about discomfort
- Using calming activities before bedtime
- Reminding the teen that feelings of pain or fatigue don’t mean danger
These tools, practiced daily, can give a teen a sense of control and safety. They may improve their functioning and coping skills in different situations, helping them “live with the symptoms,” and include their families in making discomfort more manageable.
However, if a teen’s somatic issues are affecting their daily life, there may only be so much you can do to help them at home. In such cases, professional support may be required to help them regulate the problem.
The Role of Adolescent Psychosomatic Therapy Programs
In some cases, more structured programs may be needed. Adolescent psychosomatic therapy programs offer intensive support where medical and psychological care come together.
These programs help with psychosomatic illness in adolescents by making them feel less overwhelmed through daily routines, supervised therapy, and medical oversight. Teens can benefit from learning skills in a safe environment, surrounded by professionals who understand SSD.10 Families can also participate in education sessions to better understand the mind-body connection.
The following section covers the role of residential treatment programs in the treatment of SSD in teens.
Residential Treatment for Somatic Symptom Disorder Teens
Programs like residential treatment for somatic symptom disorder in teens can be helpful when symptoms seem to be getting worse despite other interventions, or daily life feels unmanageable. They involve live-in settings offering round-the-clock care.
In residential settings, your teen can concentrate on healing without having to worry about the pressures of daily stress or school life. Interventions like therapy, medical care, and structured activities work together to break the cycle of chronic physical complaints that adolescents often experience. While this form of care might feel like a big step, residential programs can be life-changing for families who have tried other options without enough progress.
Further, studies demonstrate the benefits of these programs. For instance, they show that inpatient multidisciplinary treatment can be effective in reducing levels of discomfort, psychiatric comorbidity (anxiety, depression), and school absence and in improving coping strategies.11
Mission Prep: Professional Teen Somatic Disorder Support
Mission Prep understands the overwhelming feeling that can come with dealing with psychosomatic illness in adolescents. This is why we offer personalized plans, outpatient therapy, and residential treatment for somatic symptom disorder that teens can benefit from when symptoms become too much.
Whether you’re actively seeking therapy for somatic symptom disorder in youth or simply looking for advice on coping with SSD in teenagers, our team is here to guide you. We believe every teen deserves to feel safe in their body and mind, as well as confident in their future.
Reach out today to learn more about our programs, including teen somatic disorder support and family-based care. Together, we can help your teen find relief and move toward a healthier, more balanced life.
References
- Hinton, D., & Kirk, S. (2016). Families’ and healthcare professionals’ perceptions of healthcare services for children and young people with medically unexplained symptoms: a narrative review of the literature. Health & Social Care in the Community, 24(1), 12–26. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.12184
- Rask, M. T., Andersen, R. S., Bro, F., Fink, P., & Rosendal, M. (2014). Towards a clinically useful diagnosis for mild-to-moderate conditions of medically unexplained symptoms in general practice: a mixed methods study. BMC Family Practice, 15(1), 118. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4075929/
- Kozlowska, K., Scher, S., & Helgeland, H. (2020). The HPA axis and functional somatic symptoms. In Functional Somatic Symptoms in Children and Adolescents (pp. 161–173). Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-46184-3_8
- Heimann, P., Herpertz-Dahlmann, B., Buning, J., Wagner, N., Stollbrink-Peschgens, C., Dempfle, A., & von Polier, G. G. (2018). Somatic symptom and related disorders in children and adolescents: evaluation of a naturalistic inpatient multidisciplinary treatment. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 12, 34. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6022439/
- Kurlansik, S. L., & Maffei, M. S. (2016). Somatic Symptom Disorder. American Family Physician, 93(1), 49-54A. https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2016/0101/p49.html
- Mahirah, D., Lim, J. M., Chew, M. S.-L., Peddapalli, N., Ho, C. Z.-H., Marimuttu, V. J., Chen, H. Y., Sung, S. C., Ho, Y.-C. L., & Loh, C. B.-L. (2025). Prevalence and associated factors of somatic symptoms among adolescents in Singapore: a cross-sectional study. Annals of General Psychiatry, 24(1), 45. https://annals-general-psychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12991-025-00582-w#:~:text=Our%20findings%20revealed%20a%20strong,and%2018.8%25%2C%20respectively).
- Nair, S. S., Kwan, S. C., Ng, C. W. M., & Teo, D. C. L. (2021). Approach to the patient with multiple somatic symptoms. Singapore Medical Journal, 62(5), 252–258. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8801865/
- Allen, L. A., Woolfolk, R. L., Escobar, J. I., Gara, M. A., & Hamer, R. M. (2006). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for somatization disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(14), 1512–1518. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/410675#26894020
- Díez-Suárez, A., & Hernández-González, C. (2025). Somatization in childhood and adolescence: a guide to facilitate its understanding. Anales de Pediatría (English Edition), 102(2), 503711. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2341287925000237#bib0125
- Li, Y., Ding, Q., & Li, X. (2023). The efficacy of psychological treatments on adolescent psychopathology: a narrative review. Translational Pediatrics, 12(6), 1225–1238. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2341287925000237#bib0125
- Heimann, P., Herpertz-Dahlmann, B., Buning, J., Wagner, N., Stollbrink-Peschgens, C., Dempfle, A., & von Polier, G. G. (2018). Somatic symptom and related disorders in children and adolescents: evaluation of a naturalistic inpatient multidisciplinary treatment. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 12, 34. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6022439/#:~:text=This%20naturalistic%20study%20assesses%20the,comorbidity%20(anxiety%2C%20depression).
