How to Help a Teen Survive a First Heartbreak

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Reka Morvay, I'm a psychologist and I'm going to talk to you today about how to help a teen survive a first heartbreak. Now when you're a teenager and you have your first heartache, it's probably more devastating than almost any other heartache or breakup you can have because it's the first time. And I think one of the most important things is to help the teen understand that this is not the end of the world and it's not necessarily about them. It's not a personal failure to have a relationship that comes to an end but that rather it is a natural part of almost all relationships you're ever going to have except of course the one that lasts because you decide to get married. But every other relationship is probably going to end at some point so this is only the first one and maybe it was best, maybe it's for the best that the relationship didn't continue. Nonetheless it's difficult to process this first heartbreak. So the thing you can help is to try to put this into perspective for the teen, try to make them understand that this is something that is a natural part of most relationships that they will ever have. That it's something that gets easier with time and with experience and help them focus on their own lives and keep them busy, keep them interested in their friends and their hobbies and all the other things that they used to do before the relationship. In other words, don't let the heartbreak become a defining feature in their lives but help them to talk about it if they need to talk about it so they do need to process it and get it out of their system. But at the same time, they need to be able to go on with their lives and not get completely caught up in the end of a romantic relationship."