Recently, I heard someone say that everyone is either going through a crisis, recovering from a crisis, or preparing to go through a crisis. With some teenagers, it seems like these phases can all occur during the course of a single day. With other students, it can seem like the full-blown crisis phase lasts throughout the teen years.

For teenagers, a crisis can be something as seemingly insignificant as forgetting to bring home a textbook needed to complete an assignment or as life-altering as experiencing  the suicide of a friend. As leaders, it can be tempting to shrug off the more insignificant crises, but those things we deem rather insignificant from the standpoint of adulthood are incredibly significant to the teenager dealing with the issue.

At the same time, it can be difficult to know how to effectively deal with the more life-changing crises. There really is no way to anticipate a crisis and if you try to prepare for possible crisis instigators, you could spend years studying about one issue.

 A great resource for the anticipation, guiding a teenager through, and assisting in the recovery of a crisis is A Youth Leader’s Guide to Helping Teenagers in Crisis and A Parent’s Guide to Helping Teenagers in Crisis. These great resources offer information, guidance, and support for parents and leaders as they help adolescents navigate through the crisis-riddled teen years.