Childhood Mental Health

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Mental health is an important part of the overall health well-being for children. Childhood mental health disorder can affect children and their families causing a long-term impact on the parents and other family members as well as the child themselves. Mental disorders are described as chronic health conditions. These are disorders that can go on for a long period of time, that may continue throughout the lifespan. Without early diagnosis and treatment, children with mental disorders can have problems at home and in school. These problems can continue into adulthood for the child and cause other healthy development and delays. When a child is diagnosed with a mental illness, parents and families have to adapt and adjust to a new lifestyle. …show more content…

A lot of the time parents and other family members center their attention on becoming knowledgeable about the the mental illness and look for resources to better help their loved one. Parents and family members may experiences others losses such as relationship or friendship loss or even financial loss as they learn how to help their child to deal with their mental disorder . A diagnosis of a mental disorder can impact the parents in several different ways. Particularly many parents who have a child diagnosed with a mental disorder, stress is a substantial impact for them. For instances, if a child is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, the parents have to learn to to cope with the changes in moods and behaviors such as mood swings or tempers. The stress can put tension on a relationship with other family members like their spouse and their other children. It can also cause you to have problems at work because you are missing work on multiple occasions, as well as cause you to have less alone or self-care time. No matter what the mental disorder …show more content…

Even though it is normal for parents to center their attention and display immense amount of care and support for the child or teen who has been diagnosed with a mental disorder, parents should not allow the challenges to allow themselves to neglect other important parts of their lives including equally caring for the other children in the household. Parents should remember that if they have other children, they may feel bitter about being pushed to the side if all the attention is placed on their sibling’s mental health challenges. They may also become annoyed if they have to “walk on eggshells” around their sibling due to their mental disorder generally because they do not understand what is happening. So, it is essential to make sure that they understand what their sibling is going through, and that you love and care for them all the same. Significantly, keeping a happy balanced family can be very helpful in reducing stress levels for everyone. Parents may seek counseling and support groups to help siblings deal with and learn about the mental disorder. Getting the sibling involved and having a role in the treatment of the adolescents with a long-term psychiatric disorder, can include getting them to advocate for their brother or sister. If they are older allow them to take part in some of the

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