Nowadays, the incidence of mental illness is increasingly skewed towards younger ages. A previous news report revealed that the youngest patient with depression in the psychiatric department of a hospital was only 8 years old, so why would he be depressed at such a young age?
Maybe many parents have to say: "When we were young, we knew what depression was, and today's children are psychologically fragile and hypocritical!" But is that really the case?
According to the newly released National Blue Book on Depression, more than 50% of the depressed patients in the country are students. These children may have no worries about food and clothing, and may not have to worry about anything in life, but they have great emotional problems.
Guoguo walked into the consultation room accompanied by her parents, her parents said that Guoguo has always been an excellent child, and she is the first in every exam, but this year I don't know why she seems to be extra silent and unhappy, and recently found that Guoguo even has a tendency to self-harm, we really don't know what to do!
And Guoguo said: "Since childhood, parents have been extremely strict with themselves, once they take the first exam, what they get is not praise, but a more stringent 'continue to maintain next time' requirements, if they don't do well in the exam, then they will see their mother's disappointed expression, and even scolded, parents often quarrel, I am too depressed every day!" ”
Why is Guoguo depressed? The reason for this is the huge pressure caused by the strict requirements of parents and the disharmony of family relationships, children do not have a little time to relax, live in a negative environment every day, and cannot see a little sunshine and hope, how can they not be depressed?
In addition, when the child has a problem, when he tells his parents about his unhappiness, but the parents do not understand it, a sentence of "hypocrisy" covers everything, and the child's depression will become deeper and deeper over time.
So what kind of child suffers from depression?
A study on the screening of neurodevelopmental disorders was conducted by scholars, and a survey sample of 10,233 primary school students aged 6-12 years old was collected, with an average age of 93 years of age and have them screened using the Children's Depression Scale.
The survey results showed that four phenomena, namely "school disgust", "loneliness", "self-hatred" and "low self-esteem", were the core manifestations of children's depression symptoms. In addition, the proportions of academic difficulties (declining academic performance), sadness (crying), low self-esteem (fighting), self-loathing (negative body image), lack of pleasure (school boredom), sadness (loneliness), and lack of love for school (lack of friendship) were also significantly higher than others.
If your child shows these signs, then parents need to pay attention!
Recognize that the child is sick, but only sick
We have been talking about "combination of work and rest", of course, children also need "combination of work and rest" in life and school, when children have a series of above symptoms, what should parents do?
1. Stop your own "power education" and let your child rest when you are tired.
Many children suffer from depression because of the excessive pressure on their parents' education. Do you still remember the doctoral student who had cancer but was very happy, always asked for the first place in the academic exam, never got praise from his parents, and was always in a high-pressure environment, which eventually led to the tragedy.
Then take a break from school, and take a good look after taking a break from school. ”
The child then told his mother that this sentence was equivalent to saving her life. Because she was thinking at the time, if Mom was like other parents and called you a hypocrisy, she might have jumped out of the window at that time.
Teenagers actually have less freedom than **.
When faced with the pain caused by depression, they are limited by the school environment, academic pressure, and parenting style, and they are unable to use emotional relief methods independently, such as traveling, gathering with friends, and going out for a walk. Even if you take a temporary leave of absence from school and go to the hospital to see a doctor, you need to get parental consent first.
Therefore, teenagers need more understanding and support from their families, even if the child's thoughts and feelings sometimes seem unreasonable to the parents, but that is the child's real feelings. If parents can see it, then the child is no longer alone in the struggle with depression.
2. Early identification, early **
How did a good child suddenly become depressed. This is the first reaction that most parents have when they learn that their child is suffering from depression.
But the opposite is true: depression does not appear without warning, but rather accumulates gradually.
Parents need to be vigilant when a child is constantly lost, has frequent tantrums, drops things, does not want to go to school, or runs away from home for a period of time, which may be a sign for the child to ask for help.
If depressive states can be identified as early as possible, adolescents with mild depression or some moderate depression can be relieved with only professional psychological counseling.
Therefore, if the child expresses suicidal thoughts to his parents, parents must pay attention to this signal, and in the face of life, academic performance, entrance exams, and other people's evaluations will no longer be important
Because, "life is above all else".
Come on for the back-to-school season