Parents know that adolescence is a crucial time of life for their children’s development. As they go through life, you want to make sure you set them up for success in every way possible.
While a lot of parents understand the importance of physical health - through prioritizing nutrition, sleep, and exercise - one important aspect of your child’s development that might fly under the radar is their mental health. However, your child’s mental health can greatly impact their development and wellbeing.
We might think of childhood as such a fun, easy time that we assume our children cannot be struggling with their mental health. The reality, though, is that there are plenty of real challenges that threaten the mental health of children every single day.
In this blog, we’ll talk about some of the different mental health challenges your kids might face, how to talk to your kids about their mental health, and how to practice mental wellbeing as a family.
Factors Affecting Mental Health
Mental health can be a fickle thing to understand. Even as adults, we sometimes don’t understand why certain things affect our mental health the way they do – and your children are no different.
That’s why it’s important to be aware of all the things that could affect your child’s mental health. Knowing the sorts of things that affect children the greatest can help you be more aware of their behaviors if they experience these things.
Life Changes
For the average child, early adolescence is full of new experiences. While some of these experiences are new and exciting, some of them can cause feelings of depression or anxiety in children. Some of these experiences include:
Changing family dynamics, such as the divorce or remarriage of parents
Moving to a new home or city
Changing schools
Death or illness within the family
Social Pressures
As your children enter school, they will hopefully meet lots of people and make lots of great friends. With that, though, your child will also experience the desire to be liked by their peers; although this desire is not inherently bad, an unhealthy desire to be liked can lead your kids feeling self-conscious and insecure.
This insecurity, in turn, can make children more susceptible to peer pressure. Whether it’s something as simple as what they wear or something that could potentially get them in trouble, social pressure can create a lot of internal turmoil for students as they negotiate between what they believe and what others are telling them is right.
With social media becoming an increasingly normalized part of everyday life for children and teens, social pressure is coming at them from even more angles than ever before.
Mental Disorders
Even outside of their personal lives, mental illness can still affect your children; some children have mental disorders that impact their day-to-day lives. In fact, approximately 1 in 5 children in the United States have a diagnosed mental disorder.
Among children, the common most mental disorders are:
ADHD/ADD
Autism spectrum disorder
Anxiety or OCD
Depression
Other behavioral disorders
While lifestyle changes can help mitigate the effects of mental disorders for children, these often require outside intervention, such as therapy or medication.
Symptoms to Look For
If your child is experiencing struggles with their mental health, there are signs of mental illness that you can look for. These signs include:
Prolonged sadness (lasting longer than two weeks)
Retreating from friends and family
Changes in sleep patterns, such as suddenly sleeping a lot more or a lot less
Changes in appetite, such as suddenly over- or under-eating
Drastic weight loss
Frequent headaches or stomach aches
Trouble concentrating or poor performance at school
Sudden emotional outbursts
Childhood can be a tumultuous time for your kids, so do not panic if you start to notice one or more of these symptoms. Take it as an opportunity to intervene – reach out to your pediatric provider and talk to them about the changes you are noticing in your child.
Addressing Mental Illness and Disorders
When it comes to treating mental illness, there are two main approaches: therapy and medication. Depending on your child’s needs, treatment for their mental illness can involve either or both approaches. While there are other methods to approaching mental illness, these two are the most common and tend to be the most effective.
Therapy
Therapy plays a crucial role in helping children understand and manage their emotions, develop coping strategies, and improve their social interactions. Through various therapeutic techniques, children can learn to navigate challenges and build resilience.
Finding the right therapist or counselor for your child can be a challenge. Depending on their therapist’s personality and therapy style, your child may or may not click with a particular therapist over another. Your pediatrician can provide you with referrals to therapists, which should give you a good place to start your search.
Medication
In some cases, medication may be necessary to manage symptoms of mental health disorders effectively. When prescribed by a qualified healthcare professional, medication can help stabilize mood and improve overall functioning, making it easier for children to engage in therapy and daily activities.
Some pediatric providers will be able to diagnose your child’s mental illness and prescribe medication on their own, while others will be able to refer you to a psychiatrist. Once again, we encourage you to have a conversation with your child’s pediatric provider to determine next steps.
Practicing Mental Wellness: Preventative Care
Even if your kids do not show symptoms of mental illness or are not struggling with their mental health, you can still take preventative action as a parent to keep them mentally healthy.
Mental health is a broad and nuanced issue; therefore, what works for one family might not work for yours. It’s important for you to know your family’s needs, and to meet those needs accordingly.
Teach and Model Emotional Regulation
Part of growing up is learning emotional regulation, which involves recognizing and controlling one’s emotions. This does not mean ignoring or dismissing negative feelings– instead, emotional regulation involves finding healthy ways to express one’s feelings, without being overcome or controlled by them.
There are a lot different strategies kids can use to practice emotional regulation, including:
Journaling: If your child is old enough to read and write, journaling can be an effective way for kids to express and process their feelings in a calm, safe way. If your children aren’t yet old enough to read and write, you can even ask them to draw pictures to express how they feel.
Talking with a trusted adult: Whether this is a parent, counselor, or mentor, having someone to talk through their feelings with will help your child get better at identifying, processing, and coping with their emotions.
Relaxing activities: Work with your child to find activities that help them deescalate overwhelming feelings. This can look like doing deep breathing exercises, going for a walk, playing a game together, taking a bath, or anything else that your child finds calming.
Not only do these practices give children an outlet for their negative emotions, but it also helps them clearly and effectively communicate their feelings with others, which sets them up for a future of happy, healthy relationships with friends and family.
Check In Frequently
Earlier, we discussed some signs and symptoms of mental illness your child might display. However, sometimes our children struggle silently because they simply don’t know how to put their feelings into words.
By taking the initiative to check in on your children, you ensure that they don’t suffer in silence. Whether your check-ins are formal or informal, every week or once a month, or thirty seconds or an hour, do whatever works for your children so that they feel comfortable and supported.
Practice Physical Wellness
We sometimes like to think of our physical and mental wellness as completely separate concepts when, in reality, our minds and bodies are highly interconnected. Although good physical health doesn’t completely prevent someone from struggling with their mental health, it can lessen or alleviate some of the symptoms of mental illness.
To help your children learn how to care for their physical health, try to prioritize healthy habits such as balanced eating, high-quality sleep, boundaries around screen time, and plenty of exercise.
Talk to Your Child’s Pediatrician
At your next wellness visit, ask your pediatric provider for suggestions on how to care for the mental health of your family. Having seen your children through various stages of development, your provider can offer suggestions that are more tailored to your family dynamic and your child’s specific needs.
In general, staying on top of your child’s wellness visits is a great way to ensure their long-term happiness and health. Pediatricians provide preventative care, which allows them to address potential health concerns before they develop into serious issues.
Make Mental Wellness a Priority
We know that, as parents, your biggest priority is seeing your child grow into a happy, healthy, well-adjusted adult. The foundations you lay in their childhood shape how they will build the rest of their lives, and making sure their mental health needs are met is a part of building that foundation.
We also know that raising children can feel overwhelming at times. Between their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, there’s so much responsibility resting on your shoulders. Remember that you are not perfect – and that’s okay! Instead of expecting perfection, simply do your best to take little steps everyday towards creating and modeling healthy habits for your young ones.
If you have concerns about your child’s mental health, reach out to your pediatric provider and schedule an appointment. We hope this blog gives you the information you need to make sure your child’s mental health is well taken care of!
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