Ever seen anyone who talks a lot, suddenly burying himself deep down in a trench of silence? It seems abrupt to even think about it too, but believe it or not, depression and anxiety have taken a toll on the mental health of children, in Canada hampering their daily normal. You see often see them in homes and on doors battling anger, guilt, worthlessness, fatigue, memory loss and in the worst scenarios, suicides and deaths. The families are worst affected because they miss out on the red flags and do not even get to know if something fatal happens, why it happened.
So, before you let the situation go from the frying pan into the fire, take a look at the indicators that you might have been ignoring for a while and before it races up, brace yourself up with the awareness of most common symptoms and catch a hold of them before they catch fire.
1. Excessive worrying- If you find your children cribbing on the most routine jobs, they could be suffering from anxiety. It is much needed for you to jump into action and make them explain it to you what bothers them so much so that you can help them before it takes a toll on them emotionally.
2. Aggressiveness- This is one of the most common behavior that will show up and the reason can be any personal problems at school or some kind of ragging that he was exposed to. If this is not checked at the right point, your child might end up getting violent in future and sabotage his career. The PTMs are always a good medium to know apart from his academic grades, his behavior and whether there has been any radical change in his or her behaviour.
3. Quietness –This is the other extreme that your children can be vulnerable to. Children would usually stop socializing and talking to you and would just like to go and shut themselves up in their rooms. The school time usually sees a lot of celebrations and fiascos and the school children usually swing in between these two, and the sensitive ones can really take the defeats seriously and that is the time you need to jump in and tell them to learn from them and move ahead and not take them personally.
4. Excessive sleeping- It is time for you to wake up and realize why is your teen spending more time sleeping when in the earlier days he barely used to miss playing his football matches with his friends. There can be a feeling of worthlessness that he cannot get over and he just doesn’t know how to get out of that feeling. He doesn’t know if it would be appropriate to talk to you about it and hence, it is even more dangerous when you are not having a dialogue with your wards. Initiate and let him know you are always there for him.
5. Change in appetite- Any kind of an emotional setback triggers off two things-either your child will stop eating or will eat in excess and display constant tantrums even when served his favorite dish. That is one red flag to look out for since you might confuse it with their growing age and teenage behaviour but there might be a frustration deep within or a trauma that he or she has been bottling up inside and not venting out.
6. Sleeplessness- Totally opposite to sleeping excessively, the constant worry doesn’t let your child sleep and often leads to insomnia in many cases and makes them even more tired and fatigued in their routine which causes them more anxious and fearful. This becomes a vicious circle until they reach the state of devastation and it is just too late for any damage control.
There is no bigger comfort for the children than the shadow of their parents. And nobody will take care of them as much you would do. Just like the potter takes care of the clay well before it reaches the wheel, your children need your emotional molding at this nascent and sensitive stage of their lives. The more you be their lighthouse, the closer their emotional health will be to the shore without any high tides and they would always ready to face any storms of life.
Happy Sailing!
