What is the Child Mental Health Crisis?
Mental illness is finally starting to be a topic more openly more openly discussed, but this does not mean we have overcome all challenges. As adults, seeking treatment is often a hard step to take, and not only that but with suicide and mental illness rates rapidly rising, there is no guarantee you will be able to access immediate help. So for children, we can only really imagine the difficulty of finding and then actually accepting help.
We all tend to view children as innocent and carefree souls, which is probably why mental illness and suicide are not always noted or treated in childhood years. we need to be aware and notice these symptoms, as child suicide rates have been rising in recent years. Especially in this current climate, we are all more vulnerable than ever and should support one another by facing these problems head-on.
Being a child isn’t easy. We often presume that children don’t have any worries or difficulties purely because, in comparison to adult life, we view a child’s life as simple, with no mortgage, no job, and therefore no stress. Wrong. It’s this attitude that we have that prevents us from noticing the internal pain a child may be going through. This is where it’s hard because we want to believe our children would approach us and talk, but if they don’t understand it themselves and are feeling isolated, they probably won’t. Now we know this, we should try and step in and be mindful of the new stresses children now face.
One of the most significant sources of stress is social media. Imagine growing up in today’s generation. Technology and social media dominate children's lives, making their problems and insecurities feel inescapable. Bullying does not stop when they leave school; instead, it often worsens at home through online platforms and the posts by Instagram models, constantly making children feel physically inadequate, won’t disappear. Social media isn’t all bad, and it’s a great way of entertainment and interaction, but we’re handing out access to these platforms to children of younger and younger ages and giving them access to environments that can become toxic.
The competitive school environment is more intense than ever, with an overwhelming amount of pressure on children to get the grades and go to university. Studies suggest that stress levels peak around exam periods, which can negatively impact children's mental well-being. But we know everyone is unique and not necessarily academic, so why is society still pushing children all in the same direction?
Technology is advancing rapidly, and younger generations are experiencing a very different childhood from the one we had. These changes are happening rapidly, widening the generational gap between parents and children, making it harder for us to understand the current stress that children currently go through.
As parents, if we remain aware of these barriers and recognise the signs of depression and suicidal thoughts, we can intervene early—potentially saving lives.