Facing the Challenges of Young Adult Life

Young Adults In Transition

We often think of young adults as ready to launch easily take-off into career, college, and lively adult social scenes.

This change from a protective and supportive home or school environment to independent living is a link to adulthood.

Many young adults find they are over-loaded and overwhelmed with great difficulty in making this change.

They may feel confused and even have a sense of deep loneliness.

Older teens and young adults in their twenties are often not adapting well to work place environments and schedules and find they do not possess the essential interpersonal skills to succeed in adult relationships, whether at school or at work.

Additionally, financial pressures are more intense than they ever imagined and they frequently have naive and unrealistic hopes of financial self-support and real independence.

They feel thrown into a world without a real understanding of how to accomplish, survive or succeed in it.

Much is written about this "quarter life crisis."

Young adults need to find a more sensible view for their own lives.

They need assistance as they face the hard realities that they haven't accomplished certain necessary adult responsibilities and milestones of young adult success.

These tasks may include cooking and doing laundry (for the first time), establishing an adult role in the home with parents, or in an apartment (with a room-mate), being responsible for their own health and medication management, finding a career, mastering transportation, multi-tasking, navigating agreements with cell phone companies, financial sponsors, landlords, and parents, managing a grocery budget, accepting delayed gratification, or allotting appropriate time to important priorities.

Unforeseen difficulties can disrupt even the most successful young adult or college student. Parents and their young adult daughters and sons who were once in alignment when planning the transition to college or independent living are often faced with the pain of jumbled timelines, unmatched expectations, and angry conversations.

Young adult lives and good relationships can rapidly turn upside down. Young adults in transition are students between high school and college, post-college, or returning home from boarding schools, gap-years, or even military service.

They seek to set new goals and define new directions for their future. These normal, yet rapid young adult changes can be especially hard on parents. Parents often need coaching and/or guidance as they redefine their new roles as parents to adult children. Young adults need adult guidance, understanding, and wisdom, yet in their need to differentiate, they often respond negatively to parental support. Guidance and coaching can change that dynamic by producing skill building and management practices that can help both the young adult and their parents.

Adventure Programs & Outdoor Therapy & Summer Camps for Troubled Young Adults

Young adults struggling with alcohol abuse, drugs, gambling, Internet addiction, online addictions, and other challenging issues can find the pressures and influences of their daily environment make it difficult to develop healthy coping skills.

For this reason, adventure wilderness programs can effect profound changes in troubled young adults by removing them from their environment and putting them in a healthy environment where they can focus on change.

Adventure therapy, outdoor education, wilderness therapy, is a unique alternative to longer term treatment programs. These programs have proven to be highly effective in also dealing with issues such as ADD/ADHD, anxiety disorders, and other challenges a young adult may be struggling with.

Young Adults Who Struggle with Psychiatric Disorders

These residential treatment programs serve young adults, age 18 to 30, who are having problems managing the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

These programs are designed for those transitional adults who struggle with psychiatric disorders including:

Adult attention-deficit disorder (ADHD)
Anxiety disorders
Dysfunctional reactions to developmental and life problems
Emerging personality disorders (borderline, narcissistic)
Mood disorders (depression, bipolar disorder)
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Self-esteem issues
Self-harm behavior or past suicide attempts or concerns

These young adults may also suffer from co-occurring addictive disorders such as drug or alcohol abuse or dependence. Treatment addresses the specific needs of young adults. Many of the young adults have had previous attempts at treatment yet have been unable to make progress or sustain gains. A central focus of these programs is to help determine what has stood in the way of progress and develop a path for sustained improvement.

The treatment teams at these residential programs help young adults in the program take shared responsibility for their problems, learn new coping skills and develop greater confidence in moving toward functioning adulthood.

Questions Parents and Young Adults Frequently Ask:

Does the facility offer detox support? The detoxification process may be the first step to sobriety in severe cases. This process can be dangerous as your young adult may suffer from withdrawal symptoms. Detox should only be undergone with the care of trained medical personnel.
Does the treatment program encourage you to visit and tour the facilities? In order for you to feel entirely comfortable with the decision you are making for your daughter or son, it is wise to get a real life experience at the facility; meet with staff and talk to actual people enrolled in the program.
Does the program offer dual-diagnosis treatment? Some struggling young adults also have an undiagnosed mental disorder. These disorders can range from depression to schizophrenia. Many times they are using drugs to self-medicate.
Is the facility licensed? While drug and alcohol rehab centers are not required to be licensed, those programs that are licensed generally offer better care and have a more professional staff. They tend to make quality care and service a priority. All programs Horizon Family Solutions recommends, whether residential or wilderness, are properly licensed, have completed a background check, and have been visited by one of our associates.
Is the program based on the traditional 12-step program? If not, what is it based on? Many treatment centers base a large portion, if not the entire program, on the traditional Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program. When you are considering a program that does not use this method, find out what method they are utilizing.
What does the admissions process entail? Most treatment programs will have their requirements posted on their website for easy accessibility as well as a toll free number in which to reach an admissions person. Ask about anything you are not clear on.
What is the average length of a residential or wilderness stay and how is the length determined? Any program whether residential or wilderness that you choose for your young adult needs to be tailored to their individual needs. A “one size fits all” approach to treatment is not successful. The program you choose needs to ask you and your young adult questions that will help make this determination. Residential programs range from 90 days to 12 months. Wilderness adventure programs range from 42 to 84 days.
What is the cost? Call your insurance provider and find out what they will pay for inpatient services. Be sure to ask the program you are considering for an estimate of all the expenses that you will be charged.

Choosing the best treatment program for your young adult is most likely one of the most important decisions you and they will ever make. You both need to have as much information as possible before you make your choice.

By arming yourself with knowledge about programs, this decision can be made with more confidence.

Each young adult and family that works with Horizon Family Solutions has a transition plan that is completely customized to your young adult and family needs.