Alone Time Almost all decompressing teenagers spend more time by themselves. John Taylor Gatto in Dumbing Us Down tells us that the alone time of children who attend school, sadly, averages less than ten hours per week. Without this private self, too many kids lack a sense of their own identity and look to others for The Life Instruction Manual. Unfortunately, nobody can write a manual for your teenager as well as he can. Many decompressing teenagers know this intuitively, and thus seek more alone time.
Decompression is a period following a major life change.
My experience and that of hundreds of families with decompressing kids indicates that you are looking at six months to two years or more. Many say that the longer your teenager has attended school, the more time decompression will take. Parents may panic when they hear the six months to two years figure. Too frequently, they prescribe a heavy schedule of make-up academics that would discourage most Ph. D. candidates. Don't worry about the time your teenager appears to be doing nothing.