This is an automatically translated article.
Children are psychologically sensitive subjects, easily affected by external factors, especially from their own family members. Because of the pressure coming from the family, adults do not pay attention to the feelings of children. Children can also feel stressed and sometimes depressed because of pressure from family.
1. What is depression?
Depression is a common mental disorder, especially school age depression is increasing. Depression is a type of mood disorder that makes us feel sad and lose interest in everything, including things that we used to enjoy and persist. Patients always feel sad, lack of energy for unknown reasons, severe cases may have suicidal thoughts.
Depression can be caused by many factors including psychological factors, stress arising in daily life or related to genetic factors in the ability to deal with mood. In general, depression can occur at many different ages, but the most common age is school age because at this time the child's psychology is not really stable, it is easy to encounter many factors that affect the risk of depression. high.
2. The risk of children becoming depressed because of family pressure
Depression is a common problem in adolescent development for many reasons, including pressure from family is also a common cause of depression in children. From the pressure of the family not only affects us as adults, but also unintentionally affects the psychology of children, children are also stressed and more seriously depressed. Some family factors make children depressed such as:
The child's parents are stressed, stress due to financial pressure may often quarrel with relatives about money issues. They are often irritable, anxious, tired, and moody, so they can have negative effects on children, and children can also be stressed or afraid because of the change in their parents' temperament. to depression. Because parents have many concerns, it is often difficult to detect the signs of depression at an early stage. Therefore, it is possible that the risk of severe depression, children with serious signs such as suicidal ideation, even successful suicide, when parents know it, it is too late. When the family encounters pressure from economy, money, and work, there are conflicts between parents' family. According to research, children in families with conflicts, the rate of psychological disorders or depression is higher than children in families with harmony; This rate is higher in urban households. Another pressure coming from the family is the child's studying for exams. Currently, each family has only 1 or 2 children, so expecting their children to be able to study well is what most parents want. Parents who place high expectations on their children, do not follow them closely, and care about their children's academic achievements make children feel pressured. Especially when going through the period is not as expected, children will feel disappointed, worried that their parents will not be happy, leading to these pressures if not resolved or timely encouragement of their parents will result. depression and other dangerous consequences are possible. According to the data of a few studies in Vietnam, the rate of adolescents with depression accounts for 26.3%, the rate of children having thoughts about death is 6.3%, the rate of children planning suicide was 4.6% and the number of children who attempted suicide was 5.8%. In which, the cause of pressure from the family is worth mentioning that has not really been paid attention by parents and has the risk of causing sad consequences.
It is very important for parents to recognize early signs of illness to help children overcome stress in life, and to treat with a psychologist early to avoid serious consequences.
3. Signs to identify children with depression
Signs of depression can be seen in children such as:Frequent anger: Adolescents can have mixed, temporary emotions. When children feel depressed, it can be difficult for them to control their emotions. They become short-tempered, yelling or even banging things. Feeling very worthless, low self-esteem and low self-esteem: Children begin to feel their life is meaningless, often consider themselves worthless as a sign of depression. Feeling bored for no reason: The fact that a child always keeps a depressed and quiet attitude in all situations without a good reason is a reflection of the child having a psychological problem. Parents need to spend more time getting to know and help their children through.
Change in sleeping habits: Often, when children have depression, they tend to lose sleep, sleep less or sometimes sleep too much. So when the child has a change in sleep, attention should be paid. Constantly feeling tired: Even if your child doesn't have to do anything hard or study hard, he always feels tired, so don't rush to blame the child, but find the reason. Likes to be alone: Automatically separates yourself from friends and family, shares little, doesn't like to go out... then it's an alarming sign for parents. Appetite: When there are signs of depression, some teens turn to food as a way to relieve their emotions. However, this method may not be effective and can also affect the health of the child. Begins to lose interest in things and hobbies: Children lose interest in things even though they used to enjoy it. But when depressed, children always feel bored and no longer interested. Suicidal thoughts and behavior: This is one of the most dangerous signs that can occur in children with depression. Parents should pay special attention to their children's words and gestures if they are constantly talking about death.
4. How to prevent depression in children?
When a child shows signs of depression due to a certain cause or specific family pressure, the child should be examined by a psychologist for early diagnosis and treatment.
In addition, to prevent children from becoming depressed, parents can take the following measures:
Please control your emotions well, do not get angry or scold the child because of life pressures. Families together share difficulties in life to understand each other better, avoid unnecessary arguments. Take good control of your finances so you don't have to be too stressed about your finances. Share your child's difficulties when studying for exams, do not put pressure on children to score or big exams. Timely sharing if the child is not as expected, to avoid making the child think too negatively. If a child is found to have psychological symptoms of stress and stress, it is first necessary to find out the cause of the child's stress both in the family and at school, to help the child reduce the pressure from studying and studying. Help children establish positive relationships from the family environment with friends. Encourage your child to participate in team activities, have fun together, play with family or friends, and practice sports to reduce stress. Depression because of family pressure is an always-present danger in every family that we need to be very vigilant about to avoid the situation of children suffering from depression causing consequences such as self-destruction, self-destructive behavior. death or addiction...
Psychological Clinic - Times City International General Hospital is one of the leading prestigious addresses in the treatment of psychological and mental health problems. The medical team at the clinic are highly specialized, many of whom are lecturers in psychiatry at Hanoi Medical University, capable of implementing psychological tests, in-depth psychotherapy, and providing support. effective aid in the treatment of diseases.
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