This is huge. One of the biggest problems many people have is a lack of direction or goals. Floating listlessly through life sucks. I've always found that one of the best ways to get out of my own head is to serve others. Maybe have the kid identify a cause that means something to him and find a volunteer opportunity.
Try to keep him from vaping. I see sooo many teenagers doing that these days. I don't think it's a problem if it's a couple times a week, but I see kids doing it ALL THE TIME!
A problem is many teens just don't want to spend time with parents. Is there an in betweener? A young adult, not another teen, with whom he connects?
Not really. Don’t really have any other young adults around that we all know and trust. It’s either my age or his age. Or grandma.
Man, sucks to hear this. Wishing you guys the best. I will be no help. Dealing with my teens, I always watched them closely looking for signs of depression or anxiety, because a couple neighbor kids went through it. But all I could do is look back on my teen years. I would get a bad grade on a test or had a girl break up with me and I would come home devastated…..but I just got up and went back to school and kept swinging. So there has to be a fine line between the old “man up” and get back in there and kids who do actually have issues that need to be addressed. Luckily my kids were/are pretty well adjusted and succeeding. Not sure how I would handle being in your situation brother. Good luck to you guys.
