#teen – @scriptshrink on Tumblr

How would the diagnosis of a mental illness and treatment process go for a teenager (say mid/late teens) vs. someone older/a young adult? Are there any differences the teenager would go through because they're under 18? (For reference, let's just say both have bipolar disorder.)

The biggest differences would be that the parents / guardians would likely be involved in treatment, and even may be told about what the child character says in therapy.

This is not uniform, however; whether or not the parents / guardians involved depends on a number of factors including but not limited to:

The therapist’s policies
Laws about confidentiality in the region
The child character’s age
What the child discloses during therapy

The consent of an underage character is also not required; the parents / guardians must give consent instead.

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Anonymous asked:

I know it's unlikely to be diagnosed with a personality disorder under the age of 18. But I read that if the symptoms persisted for over a year they could. Is this true?

With the exception of antisocial personality disorder, which requires a character to be 18 years or older, it’s technically possible to diagnose personality disorders in minors.

However, therapists try not to do this unless it’s 100% clear that the character has it for a couple reasons.

1. Teenagers’ personalities aren’t quite stable / set in stone yet.

2. A diagnosis of a personality disorder unfortunately carries a life-long stigma that can make things a lot more difficult for a character (for instance, insurance companies often balk at covering mental health care for people with personality disorders because they believe “treatment doesn’t work on them, so it’s a waste of resources”).

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Anonymous asked:

Hi, scriptshrink! I want to ask about teen Superheros, specifically spider-man. Is it possible to go from highschool to fighting hydra with your mental health intact? If not, what would happen? I'm guessing hella PTSD, but I wouldn't know. Thank you!

Yep, PTSD would be a huge risk. There’s also Acute Stress Disorder, which has many of the same symptoms of PTSD, but is less severe and requires a shorter duration of symptoms.

As I said in one of my first posts (see here), there are a lot of factors in determining who gets PTSD and who does not. A teen superhero might just luck out and be really resilient to the effects of trauma.

…Though now that you mention it, it would be kind of amazing if the only one who knew about a superhero’s secret identity was their therapist. Though that would probably run into an ethical dilemma about whether or not said superhero poses a threat to themselves and/or society, and if they were a minor, could qualify as child abuse…

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