It was alarming to read recently that our nation is full of anxious kids
Statistics now show that as many as 10 percent of 5-16 year olds have a clinically diagnosed mental health problem.
That’s about a million youngsters in the UK.
The common causes tend to be bullying, peer pressure, academic demands, unhappy family life or parents who unload their stress onto their kids.
Symptoms in younger children include bedwetting or soiling, temper tantrums and clingyness but, as they get older, these can present as obsessional behaviour and compulsive rituals, hair, eyelash and eyebrow pulling (trichotillomania), sudden aggression and eating disorders.
The effects of puberty mean that these behaviours begin to conform to gender, with boys directing the stress outwards in the form of violence and aggression, whilst girls are more self destructive and prone to self harming or eating disorders. Although that is not to say that it always works that way. There can be female rebels and male anorexics. In both sexes, sufferers show an increase of drink and drug use.
The normal stereotype would suggest that these children all come from disadvantaged backgrounds, but, these days, that would be wrong, because sufferers also include kids from competitive parents who supervise their lives and routines to achieve the optimum success rate, leaving a vast amount of mental damage in their wake.
From the background of my own experience with anorexia as a child and watching self-harm as a parent, I cannot help but connect the domestic problems of parents with the mental anguish of their children. Add in the additional pressure of expectation in terms of academic performance from both the school and family, and you have a powder keg waiting to ignite.
Some children deal with this by openly rebelling and refusing to conform to academic or society’s constraints, whilst others turn the confusion inwards and actively hurt themselves.
But whether there is anything that can be done to prevent this damage, I cannot say. Would the personalities of those children have been programmed to react in the same way to emotional trauma whatever the age at which they faced it? Or is it because their brains are still immature that it has such a devastating effect?
Would monthly counselling sessions for all children help to ameliorate some of the damage before it had a chance to build up momentum?
I have no answers, only questions.
10% of kids does seem quite high. I think if their problems are treated early enough then they may be able to stop them from spiralling out of control.
The trouble is that we can never know whether the statistics are a direct result of today’s society or if that number of children have always been affected but were undiagnosed…
Consumerism consumes our kids. Its a pretty simple formula. Families that eat together stay together.
“Whoever has the most toys at the end, still dies”
TitforTat recently posted..Happy Birthday to Me!
[...] teenagers. I heard recently that up to 10% of British children aged 5-16 have been diagnosed with mental health problems. These can be caused by academic demands, peer pressure, bullying, unhappy family life or pushy [...]
[...] shows that over a million kids in the UK aged between five and 16 have clincially diagnosed mental health problems caused by peer pressure/bullying, academic demands, pushy parents or an unhappy [...]
[...] Apparently, as many as 10 percent of 5-16 year olds in the UK have a clinically diagnosed mental health problem caused by bullying, peer pressure, academic demands, unhappy family life or parents who unload [...]
[...] teenagers. I heard recently that up to 10% of British children aged 5-16 have been diagnosed with mental health problems. These can be caused by academic demands, peer pressure, bullying, unhappy family life or pushy [...]
[...] shows that over a million kids in the UK aged between five and 16 have clincially diagnosed mental health problems caused by peer pressure/bullying, academic demands, pushy parents or an unhappy [...]
[...] Apparently, as many as 10 percent of 5-16 year olds in the UK have a clinically diagnosed mental health problem caused by bullying, peer pressure, academic demands, unhappy family life or parents who unload [...]
[...] shows that over a million kids in the UK aged between five and 16 have clincially diagnosed mental health problems caused by peer pressure/bullying, academic demands, pushy parents or an unhappy [...]
[...] into you. Apparently, as many as 10 percent of 5-16 year olds in the UK have a clinically diagnosed mental health problem caused by bullying, peer pressure, academic demands, unhappy family life or parents who unload [...]
[...] shows that over a million kids in the UK aged between five and 16 have clincially diagnosed mental health problems caused by peer pressure/bullying, academic demands, pushy parents or an unhappy [...]
[...] Apparently, as many as 10 percent of 5-16 year olds in the UK have a clinically diagnosed mental health problem caused by bullying, peer pressure, academic demands, unhappy family life or parents who unload [...]
[...] Apparently, as many as 10 percent of 5-16 year olds in the UK have a clinically diagnosed mental health problem caused by bullying, peer pressure, academic demands, unhappy family life or parents who unload [...]
[...] shows that over a million kids in the UK aged between five and 16 have clincially diagnosed mental health problems caused by peer pressure/bullying, academic demands, pushy parents or an unhappy [...]
[...] teenagers. I heard recently that up to 10% of British children aged 5-16 have been diagnosed with mental health problems. These can be caused by academic demands, peer pressure, bullying, unhappy family life or pushy [...]
[...] teenagers. I heard recently that up to 10% of British children aged 5-16 have been diagnosed with mental health problems. These can be caused by academic demands, peer pressure, bullying, unhappy family life or pushy [...]
[...] Apparently, as many as 10 percent of 5-16 year olds in the UK have a clinically diagnosed mental health problem caused by bullying, peer pressure, academic demands, unhappy family life or parents who unload [...]
[...] I heard recently that up to 10% of British children aged 5-16 have been diagnosed with mental health problems. These can be caused by academic demands, peer pressure, bullying, unhappy family life or pushy [...]