Resilience in our Teens (RIOT)

In 2024 Winmalee High School is undertaking a project to address anxiety, called the Resilience in Our Teens (RIOT) Project. It is a whole-school community approach to reduce anxiety and build resilience.  This project is led by an organisation called Parentshop.

A central element of the RIOT Project is for our students to be braver and to ‘have a go’ and not avoid difficult tasks or situations. It will focus on supporting students to cope with real life, age-appropriate challenges.

The staff have been undertaking professional learning and reading research from a range of sources, including the Harvard Centre for the Developing Child. This research has shown us that behaviour by significant adults that inadvertently assists students to avoid difficulties can be counterproductive.

Our students will complete lessons at school to teach them valuable skills and give them evidence-based strategies to support them with increasing their resilience. We will regularly share updates with our families about where we are up to, provide helpful information and fact sheets, and let you know when parent sessions are available for you to join. 

Fast Fact: Week 2 Term 1 
Over two-thirds of anxiety is learned (Creswell et al, 2017). 

Victim or Victor? 

One of the foundational ideas that underpins the RIOT Project is understanding how an individual’s locus of control (LOC) influences their thoughts and behaviours. If someone has an internal locus of control they believe that ‘the future is controlled by me’; whereas those with an external locus of control feel that 'the future is controlled by others, luck or chance’. According to research, “an internal locus of control contributes to positive youth outcomes such as a general well-being and academic success”, while an external orientation often leads to feelings of victimhood and a lack of agency or control. Significantly, it is estimated that approximately 80% of teenagers tend towards an external locus of control but the good news is that LOC can be shifted. One of the most prominent influences on teenagers’ locus of control is their relationship with significant adults, including parents, extended family, community members and teachers. Which is why our partnership with you in fostering resilience and self-regulation in our teens is so crucial. 

Fast Fact: Week 3 Term 1   
A resilient brain adapts to non-life-threatening stressors by adopting coping skills based on experience, resulting in the stress response system “learning” to respond more moderately. (McEwan 1998)

Brain Basics and Stress: ‘Fight or flight response’ is built into all human brains, in order to save us from life-threatening situations. This response is activated by the Amygdala which functions as the brain’s smoke alarm. In the modern world, the Amygdala will still activate the ‘fight or flight response’ when the brain feels threatened, even if the situation is not life-threatening. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for skills like planning, prioritising and making good decisions and can help the Amygdala to calm down if it has activated a ‘false alarm’ (not life-threatening). This part of the brain is one of the last parts to mature, in a person’s mid to late 20s, meaning that teenagers are more prone to intense emotional responses in stressful or challenging situations even if there is no risk of physical harm. It is possible to teach a teenager the skills to calm their reactive brain by having focused and purposeful conversations with the significant adults in their lives. We have started having these conversations at school and we look forward to being able to work in partnership with you to help our teens build their resilience. 

Fast Fact: Week 4 Term 1   
Some things get stronger when put under stress – a process called hormesis. RIOT is basically a workout for your mind instead of muscles!

When we get scared, or worried, or frustrated, our brain switches gears. The coordination and logic side shut down, and our protection instincts kick in. These reactions are scientific fact and have protected humans for millions of years. In 2024, these emotions and reactions are still real, but research shows that teenagers in particular are having heightened anxious reactions to situations far removed from true danger, such as presenting in class or even attending school. It’s normal to have anxious thoughts in these situations, but the heightened state of some teenagers is a cause for concern. Cognitive reasoning becomes distorted and affects the ability of a person to react in a logical way.

What are these reactions?

A heightened response to a situation that causes anxiety is generally the result of cognitive distortions. These warp the way our mind views the reality of a situation. Common distortions include emotional reasoning, disqualifying the positive, mind reading, all-or-nothing thinking, and catastrophising. Over the next few weeks, we will explain these distortions in more detail but if you would like an overview, there is a link below to a video outlining each one. 

It is important to note that RIOT understands that these feelings of anxiety are valid for teenagers. The purpose of the program is to develop their resilience and support their capacity to self-regulate cognitive distortions in order to achieve success.

RIOT this week 

Year 7 are continuing their lessons and Ms Doyle reports that all students are engaging incredibly well. Years 8, 9 and 10 have begun their lessons and are identifying patterns of anxiety in their own lives. Teachers have reported positive conversations with students around RIOT and are taking the lessons in their stride.

What are cognitive distortions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otFrNM7PnME

Week 5 Term 1

A recent journal article by Thirwall, K, Cooper, P and Creswell, C shows that parent-guided CBT has been shown to be an effective treatment for children with mild anxiety with similar outcomes to therapist-led outcomes. https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27930939

As Years 7-10 move through their RIOT lessons, we are beginning to take a closer look at cognitive distortions. Last week's communication had a brief outline of what cognitive distortions are. Cognitive distortions happen when your mind convinces you to believe negative things about yourself and what is happening around you, when these thoughts are not necessarily true. Below is a list (with some added information) of five common cognitive distortions that many people experience: 

All or nothing thinking (also called black and white thinking) - This is when an individual thinks of things being either all good or all bad. An example of all or nothing thinking is when, after making one mistake, a person tells themself “I can’t do anything right”.

Disqualifying the positive -This is an over focus on the negative at the expense of any positive experiences or actions. A person might discount a good mark in an assessment task or a compliment someone gives you by thinking, “that doesn’t count, that doesn’t mean anything”.

Emotional reasoning - This occurs when a person bases decisions on how they feel, overriding the actual facts. An example of emotional reasoning could be refusing to do something because a person is worried about danger, when evidence suggests the activity is safe. 

Mind reading - This is when a person makes assumptions about the intentions of others, when there is no evidence to indicate truth in one’s thoughts. A person might be concerned about coming to class late and think, everyone will be looking at me and think I’m hopeless. We can’t know what other people are thinking based on our own assumption.

Catastrophising - This is when we focus on the worst possible scenario in any situation. This could be when getting a lower-than-expected result in a test and thinking, I’m going to fail my HSC and never get into university.

We all fall into cognitive distortions, or unhelpful thinking, at times. When it becomes a pattern of behaviour however, it can be a problem and impact negatively on a person’s mental health. In RIOT lessons over the next few weeks, students will be learning about cognitive distortions, how to recognise them and how to prevent them from impacting negatively on their well-being.

For more information on Cognitive Distortions, here are a couple of short videos. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA0Pbe1Lz-c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niy54VJWPFE

Fast Fact: Week 6 Term 1
Cognitive distortions are internal mental filters or biases that increase our misery, fuel our anxiety and make us feel bad about ourselves.

All or nothing thinking: All or nothing thinking is when a person thinks in extreme opposites and fails to accept possibilities that lies between those extremes. For example: “Either I do it right or not at all“ or “If I’m not perfect I have failed”. (The APA Dictionary of Psychology uses the term “black and white thinking” to describe all or nothing thinking). People who are perfectionists usually think this way. For example, a person may assume something is perfect or a total failure.

Common examples:
- I’m late to school my day is ruined.
- If it rains, it’s no longer safe to drive at all.

Fast Fact: Week 7 Term 1
Laughing releases important brain chemicals that promote calmness, improves mood and fosters resilience.

Disqualifying the Positive: Does your child tend to ignore positive aspects and only focus on the thing that’s wrong? If so, they may be experiencing a cognitive distortion called disqualifying the positive. Disqualifying the positive makes it difficult to enjoy situations that other people normally would.

Some examples are:
- Excusing their achievements due to luck, ease of the task or others just being nice.
- They excuse praise or compliments as not counting or meaning anything.
- They reject positive things in their life and only acknowledge the negative things or the things that are not going well.

Reasons this is harmful:
- It robs them of joy.
- It takes away from their achievements and successes.
- It reinforces negative beliefs they have of themselves.
- It can increase depressive symptoms.

Week 9 Term 1: Cognitive Distortion: Emotional Reasoning

Fast Fact: Emotional reasoning is a cognitive distortion where individuals believe that their feelings reflect reality, leading them to interpret situations based solely on their emotions rather than objective evidence or logic.­­

Examples of Emotional Reasoning

Social Situations: Avoiding social gatherings because you feel anxious and assuming that people won't like you or that something embarrassing will happen, despite previous positive experiences in similar situations.

Relationships: Believing that your friends don't like you anymore just because you're feeling insecure or excluded, even though there's no evidence to support this assumption.

Public Speaking: Assuming that everyone in the audience is judging you harshly because you're feeling anxious despite the lack of any negative reactions or feedback from the audience.

Academic Performance: Feeling like a failure after receiving constructive criticism on an assignment or draft, even though it's an opportunity for improvement and doesn't necessarily reflect inadequacy.

Locus of Control Orientation: Parents, Peers and Place (PDF 352 KB)

Book: Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD by Eli R. Lebowitz
This book has very usable ideas and techniques for trying to help your child be less anxious.