Rebelling means going against what people want us to do.  It is often how we break free from our parents and find out who we really are. 

Being a teenager can be difficult especially when you try and get some independence for yourself. We all have things we want to do and as a teenager and you have to balance what you want to do with what your parents want you to do.

People can rebel in all sorts of way about all sorts of things. We usually rebel when we don’t like what we are being made to do by people who are authority figures like teachers or parents!

Rebelling is something that most of us grow out of at some stage of our life.  Most of the time, we don’t even know we are rebelling, we just try and do what we want and if people frown at us it just makes us want to do it more.

After having an ABI, it is quite common for your friends an family to want to protect you. One of these things can be to over protect you and stop you from doing the things you want to do. This can cause a lot of arguments and can make you feel rather upset and angry. So you show them this by rebelling. Perhaps you get a tattoo, dye your hair pink or stay out really late or wear very little clothing! 

Sometimes rebelling can get us into all sorts of trouble. People can do some extreme things when rebelling. Having an ABI can sometimes make you put yourself in some dangerous or tricky situations, especially if you are feeling disinhibited.

The problem with rebelling is that it is hard to know yourself when you are rebelling. You can sometimes only tell when other people start reacting differently to you. It can be a good idea to ask why you are behaving the way you are and what you are really thinking about. It might be that you aren’t rebelling, it is just you are trying to adjust to your ABI.

When we are stressed or have things on our mind, it can sometimes make us do things that seem out of character. It would be a good idea to talk to someone who knows you well like your friend or a support worker. They might be able to figure out if you are rebelling and what you are rebelling about or if you are just adjusting.