STOPPING CRACKS AND BUILDING BRIDGES OF YOUNG MINDS: UNDERSTADNING MENTAL HEALTH FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

If, you have passed your childhood and adolescent stage, what would you do differently if you were a child or teen again?

And if you are a teen, what are some of the things you wish not to do and are excited to try?

Youth and exuberance versus wisdom and experience, are the duels of time that many have tried to master but just like a wet bar of soap, tend to always slip, when you don’t have a proper handle on things and often juggle the soap until you finally have proper handle on it.

Travelling the road of youth can feel like flying in the sky while trying to find wings in the vastness of the skies to fly. Freeing but very turbulent at the same time.

Until, you begin to wonder, which mood or emotion is being shown and for what reason, and then you find yourself having to start from square one. It can be a challenge as a child, teen or parent to grapple with the erratic nature of the emotions occurring

Often at times, the mental health of children and adolescents can be passed off as an unnecessary impulsive reaction to an irrelevant or insignificant situation, due to the heightened degree of complex changes happening to them for the first time.

As much as most of their behaviors are characterized by their influx of hormones that causes the rapid changes to occur, this can cause a flood of complex thoughts and emotions experiences during this phase that may go ignored.

In this blindsided nature of events, important issues may go unnoticed and often shelved as a phase of their lives. The consequences of this can lead to behaviors that could lead to harm for self and others, which lead to severe situations.

Take a look at this story, in the link below of Megan who was only saved by the intervention of mental health services

https://davidlawrencecenters.org/success-stories/megan/

Let’s look into what mental health looks like for children and adolescents, to possibly avoid, severe situations.

Understanding mental health for children and adolescents

Being able to understand the mental health of children and adolescents and what that looks like can help in deciphering the behaviors experienced during this phase of growth and can alleviate stigma as well as stereotypical views that leave important matters left out.

In the phase of growth of children and adolescents, they are often markers of stages of growth and development or milestones, which eventually lead to more independence as they get to being adults, in an ideal situation. However, knowing that many children and adolescents don’t have the same lives, the growth and development can look different for various people.

Therefore, mental health of children and adolescents can be influenced by a variety of factors which include, family background and the environment of their upbringing, family history or predisposed genetics for some mental disorders and physical ailments or disabilities.

Some of the ways that these factors affect the mental health of children and adolescents and also serve as early warning signs and symptoms of concerning mental health include:

- Increased anxiety, depression and extreme varying moods

- Erratic or poor performance in school, sports or regular activities, this could include, being absent from school without clear or understandable reasons for great durations or skipping or stopping regularly done activities in their day to day schedule of work or school

- Withdrawal from friends, family or social events

- Increased risk-taking and impulsive behaviour

- Significant changes in sleeping or eating patterns

Common mental disorders for children and adolescents

In the midst of the common warning signs and symptoms, various children and adolescents could be faced with various types of situations which could be specific and therefore they required a specialized type of attention. However, most of the common mental disorders faced by children and adolescents include anxiety, mood, attention and behavioral disorders.

Anxiety disorders could include:

Generalized anxiety: This involves excessive worry about a number of events or activities. The intensity, duration or frequency of the anxiety or worry is out of proportion to the rationality and likelihood or effect of the anticipated event. The individual is overwhelmed by the worry and is unable to carry out tasks in their day to day life.

Social anxiety: Marked by persistent and consistent fear of social environments, be it having to interact with other people or having to perform in front, of a number of people. This causes overwhelming stress and avoidance of the situation.

Panic disorder: Unexpected panic attacks that tend to recur

Panic attacks: Sudden surges of intense fear and discomfort that involve physical and cognitive symptoms such as palpitations, accelerated heart rate, sweating, trembling or shaking, shortness of breath, nausea or abdominal stress, dizziness or light headedness, numbness or tingling sensations, derealization (feelings of unreality), depersonalization (being detached from oneself) and fear of losing control or “going crazy” (fear of dying)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder: The symptoms often vary from individual to individual, in terms of their specific obsessions and compulsions, it is, however, characterized by individuals having particular obsessions and compulsions for a particular activity in a certain order, belief or routine. Some of the common obsessions and compulsions include, cleaning (contamination obsessions and cleaning obsessions), symmetry (symmetry obsessions and repeating, ordering and counting compulsions) and harm (fear to harm oneself and others and related checking compulsions)

Post-traumatic stress disorders: It involves the development of symptoms after a traumatic situation or event such as physical or sexual assault, near death or witnessing gruesome or graphic death situations or serious injury. These symptoms include, re-experiencing the traumatic situation or event, and experiencing the emotions all over again, which can result in complex emotions and behaviors that could easily lead to substance use to cope, being fearful of things related to the traumatic situation or event. A combination of these symptoms could occur and cause distress around the person’s life.

Mood disorders can include:

Major Depressive Disorder: Involves a period of at least two weeks in which a depressed period is experienced, or loss of interest in regular activities. In children or adolescents, it may present as irritability or sadness

Bipolar disorder: A distinct period of abnormally and persistent elevated moods such as extreme happiness, increased energy and activity and lows of depression, irritability or sadness. This can last for 4 consecutive days or really severe that is requires hospitalization

Attention disorders include:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: It is a disorder characterized by the inability to maintain concentration, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. This may lead to troubled relationships at school or home as well as poor performance in school

Disruptive disorders may include:

Conduct disorders: Behaviors that often violate rules and regulations of a place or people, as well as the rights of people without disregard of consequences. These could include, aggression to people and animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, or serious violation or rules such as running away from home, truancy or curfew violations.

Oppositional-defiant disorder: Involves a pattern of negative, hostile and defiant behavior such as losing temper, often arguing with those who are older or in authority, refusal to following rules, annoyance to others, often angry, resentful, vindictive and spiteful.

The disorders are commonly experienced mostly due to their stage of growth and development as well as those who may have family history of a particular mental disorder. Eating disorders may also be present.

Other aspects that could lead to common mental disorders being experienced could be the environment in which the children or adolescents are raised in. Adverse backgrounds may cause significant traumatic situations and events which could lead to substance use disorder which involves the overwhelming dependence and abuse of a substance to facilitate the operation of day to day life.

Another aspect that could to mental disorders include impairment in neurodevelopment of children and adolescents. This involves physiological impairments in the ideal neural development. This could lead to Downs syndrome, autism and many others.

Support and treatment options of children and adolescents with mental disorders

Depending on the geographical region of children and adolescents, the access or policies around treatment can vary, however, since most children and adolescents are not of able to age to provide for themselves, it may commonly involve the parents or caregivers and family, healthcare organizations and institutions and to some degree schools and learning centers in which the children enroll.

The role of parents/caregivers: Although parents are not exactly professionals, they provide a close contact with the child and often provide the closest form of support. Therefore, parents should listen carefully and understand their children’s or adolescent’s feelings, accept their emotions and collectively find ways to solve the problem

The role of healthcare organizations: They offer the expertise to help get to the root cause of the child’s or adolescent’s problems as well as, give the appropriate advice or treatments.

The role of schools or learning institutions: Most children or adolescents are usually still acquiring their education, and most of the people who they engage with in schools are there to support their education and wholesome growth and development. This also serves as a way to help counsel or mentor the child or adolescent through their path in their growth and development as well as offer insights to mental health professionals about their behavior and any other matters they have come across. The teachers should also a free and non-judgmental space for the child’s and adolescent’s complex emotions.

Conclusion

Despite their stereotypical status as being individuals in society, who are mostly turbulent and erratic, recent events in our society today has shown that children and teens are often overwhelmed with pressures of life and others issues that are not of their choosing, that affect their mental health.

This misunderstanding can create hurtful experiences for the individual with a mental health condition or disorder, as well as parents or caregivers, friends or family.

The stories in these links below show that by paying closer attention to our children and adolescents, they may receive the intervention they need.

https://davidlawrencecenters.org/success-stories/sofia/

https://davidlawrencecenters.org/success-stories/brianna/

https://davidlawrencecenters.org/success-stories/chloe-adrianne/

https://davidlawrencecenters.org/success-stories/allison/

In what ways, can we improve how we interact with children and adolescents in regards to their mental health?

Feel free to share in the comments.

References

https://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/pediatrics/psychiatric-disorders-in-children-and-adolescents/overview-of-psychiatric-disorders-in-children-and-adolescents

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health

https://youth.gov/youth-topics/youth-mental-health/how-mental-health-disorders-affect-youth

https://www.anxiousminds.co.uk/understanding-mental-health-challenges-in-children-and-adolescents/