Mental Health of Children

“Papa, I am sick, I don’t want to go to school today, papa, my stomach is aching, I am running slight fever, I don’t want to go to school today, Moma, give me the ondem medicine urgently, I feel like puking”.  All this made us jittery as our son who is all of six years of age was continuously showing these symptoms. We consulted the doctor and he suggested some medicines but things did not improve, if anything his complaints kept on growing till we couldn’t afford to ignore his pleas   so we decided to take him to his pediatrician for a thorough checkup as we could not fathom a possible reason for the symptoms which he was showing. He asked some of the questions which were an eye opener for us:

   Doctor: “When does he have these problems?”

  Me: “In the morning”

  Doctor: “Is there any change in the past one month”

   Me: “Yes, his offline school has started after two years”

   Doctor: “How is he doing at school, does he have any problems at school”, and you also go to school and find out if he is being troubled by someone”

 This was an eye opener for us, all this while we were worried about his physical health but there was something more than what he was going thru. That is when my wife went to school, talked to his teachers, at the same time we gave him the confidence that nothing is going to happen at school and let him not worry about going to school. This cajoling and coaxing worked to some extent as things started to get better.

  But this issue has much wider connotations, mental health of the children post covid, schools reopened after a gap of two years and as children were not used to socializing they suddenly felt something was not right.

  Children did not socialize or went to school for two years and they can have lot of issues to deal with and mental health is surely one of the important factors to deal with, children at all levels suffer from mental health and most on hold on to their feelings and suffer inside. This leads to pain and suffering in children which they do not reveal.

  What are the mental health issues which children have to deal with:

  Children who are bullied at school incessantly and do not share their concerns either with their parents or with other children are most likely to suffer from bouts of depression and will show reluctance while going to school and adverse affects will reflect in their academic performance as well.

  There is another kind of bullying which children face, it is cyber bullying, with the unabated growth of internet children are exposed to cyber bullies which is a reality which again can affect the children.

  There are lot of video games which promote the culture of violence among children. Gun culture that we see in the western countries where in children kill other children reflect poor mental health of children. No matter how much you control the sales of gun in the country but if we do not control the mindset of the children these killings will continue unabated.

  If we analyze the mindset of these children who sprayed the bullets and killed fellow children had a troubled past, they were either bullied or were upset over some event in their lives or family.

  Had these children confided in their parent’s things would have been very different, had their teachers been more vigilant and empathetic tragedies of gargantuan proportions could have been avoided.

One of the major reasons  for this tragedy is psychopathy, the brain either damaged by trauma or delayed in development — never comes to develop the functions of empathy and self-control. Unless addressed early on, children dealing with psychopathy can quickly become an unbridled threat to everyone around them.

So what are the various mitigation measures which can be adopted:

 Accepting that Mental health is a challenge:

 If children are having mental health issues, parents should accept the same and seek help, if required professional help should be sought immediately, similarly if you feel your child is staying depressed over a longer period of time or is showing some signs of anger management and is unable to concentrate on the things it is better to seek the help of a psychologist or psychiatrist rather than wishing the problem will just vanish on its own.

    Owning the responsibility and not live in self-denial:

At time parents feel that their child is perfect and there is no need for them to intervene even when the signs are eminent, that child is perpetually exhibiting behavior which cannot be described as normal. Condoning of such behavior just because of our ego can have long term ramifications.

  Anger Management issues:

  These days because of easy availability of internet and online video games children are becoming violent and get annoyed or angry if things do not go their way.  Teaching children values and patience is the responsibility of parents and teachers. Parents themselves should wean away from excessive violent behavior as children learn from observing their parents.

  School and Teachers:

  School and teachers have an important responsibility towards their pupil and how they are raised, imparting right pedagogical education is important but teaching moral values is of tantamount importance. Children must imbibe right values so that they become good citizens and stay away from countless distractions which can affect their lives.

  Government’s Role:

  Government also has a very important role to play here, happiness classes in Delhi are a step towards that. Government should also make policies wherein mental and physical health of children are checked on a regular basis and counselling session arranged for children without any prejudices.   Stringent policies and stricter punishment must be meted out to people who sell drugs and alcohol to children and children must also be made aware of the ill effects of such substances.

  Atmosphere at Home:

  Atmosphere at home should be kept warm and healthy where open discussions are encouraged between elders and children. If children are facing any issues they should openly discuss this with their children. Children who face sexual abuse often have such issues, quality education must be imparted to those children so that they are aware and do not face sexual abuse.

 Off late mental health has taken precedence over physical health and many children are getting affected by this malaise which is turning out to be a menace in west and is also raising its ugly head in India which so far was left untouched from such evils. Our family system was such wherein children could confide in parents and Grandparents but with people moving out for work and nuclear families becoming a norm needs of children need to be dealt with more carefully.

  Recognizing that mental health is of paramount importance is the first step in the direction, much further work needs to be done else we are the risk of losing precocious talent to a bleak future.