INTERVIEW
How to live containment when you have a teenager at home? Stéphane Clerget, child psychiatrist, practitioner in the child psychiatry department at the Cergy-Pontoise hospital, gave some keys to the microphone of Europe 1 to better understand his children and succeed in avoiding tensions. According to him, it is necessary to pay particular attention to adolescents who have addictions or behavioral disorders, and respect a few rules of living together with all the others, in particular leaving them moments "theirs".
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For which teens can confinement be more problematic?
First for those who have addictions, or behavioral disorders, explains the child psychiatrist. "Adolescents addicted to cannabis for example: this is going to be a withdrawal, but a brutal withdrawal. Sports addicts too, those who did 10 to 15 hours of sport per week will experience a real lack. There are also adolescents who are in a situation of dependence with their comrades, or why not their lover, in short, all situations of dependence are difficult to live! "
He also needs to be alert to "depressed teens: depression will worsen with confinement, and anxious teens may experience increased anxiety. I have some who have OCD, who are afraid of getting diseases, which already often wash their hands but there which wash them every five minutes, while they stay at home - this is obviously completely illogical. But there are disorders like that which can worsen ".
Conversely, according to the doctor, some teenagers will tolerate confinement rather well: "These adolescents who were afraid of the outside world, who were phobic outside or with social phobias, or those who played video games a lot , who are very happy. "
How to avoid tensions?
"We try to stick to a certain timetable. But everyone has their own according to their own rhythm: we have to accept that the teenager gets up later, to live at night to be a little quiet, not having parents on the back and have the impression of being a little lonely. We respect that, on the condition that he respects school work. There is work online, live or not, and he must be present, "recalls the child psychiatrist.
According to him, it is also necessary to ask everyone to be responsible: "We will ask the help of adolescents, ask them to take responsibility, to accompany the little ones to do their homework while we are telecommuting, ask them to participate household chores, because when you are in confinement it quickly becomes a mess. "
And what rules for parents?
"Most adolescents need a little distance from their parents and it's very hard to have their parents on their back all the time," recalls Stéphane Clerget. "So we respect their need for privacy, we don't open the door without knocking, we distribute everyone's territory well, we accept that they isolate themselves in their rooms, that they use the screens - we can help them advise to do something other than play but learn, watch documentaries for example. But we are as little as possible on their backs physically. There is a distance, a space to respect to limit conflicts, especially when you are a parent alone with a teenager. "
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