The psychosocial problems of children and adolescents are a social disease

01

Because mental disorders are greatly affected by social and environmental factors, therefore, they are linked to the temperament and psychological state of different periods, and the disease spectrum is also epochal, and it is necessary to constantly update the understanding.

In the gap waiting for her daughter to come out of the clinic, a mother chatted with other waiting parents. Because of anxiety, mood ups and downs, coupled with physical reasons, her daughter, who was in the first year of junior high school, is now taking a break from school at home and regularly comes to the hospital to get medicine and follow up for a follow-up consultation.

The mother blamed herself, believing that her daughter's current situation was related to the academic pressure given by her parents. At the beginning of Xiaosheng, because she hoped that her child would be admitted to the top private school in Nanjing, coupled with the "chicken baby" suggestions of other parents, she enrolled her daughter in a training fast class, and the child's performance could not keep up, and she suffered from anxiety disorders.

She said that unlike when they were young, if they had any worries or troubles, they would run around and play with their partners. Now, parents basically do not let their children go out, or even play in the community, and spend a day at home to study. Although the truth is popular, what she mentions is actually the important factor that child psychiatrists explain today's rising prevalence of mental disorders: overprotective parenting, single criteria for evaluating children, and the disappearance of free play.

02

Recalling my childhood, more than one child psychiatrist mentioned the collective memory of growing up in a compound environment. At that time, it was so happy, because the very simple jump rope and jumping leather band games could bring happiness. Children can participate in many family affairs, that is, in small things such as helping adults queue up to buy vegetables, they can get a sense of accomplishment, unlike today, children get very little positive feedback. In Zheng Yi's view, the games created by those children, even the simplest "hopscotch", have rules in them, and it is in this kind of play that children understand the rules, learn to cooperate, see their own advantages and disadvantages, and learn social functions.

Also, when parents only value learning and over-satisfy their children in other ways, they deprive them of the opportunity to get satisfaction and happiness from some inconspicuous little things. This also brings other harms. When a child or adolescent forms a "immediate satisfaction" personality trait in an overly doting parenting style, and faces setbacks in growth, some people will begin to have problems, such as abuse of tobacco, alcohol, drugs, Internet addiction, or neurotic personality, fantasy, daydreaming... These are mental illnesses.

03

At the same time, because of the anxiety of squeezing into prestigious universities, free play, moderate adventure, self-exploration give way to course learning, coupled with the increasing popularity of smart phones and virtual social networking, and other factors are intertwined, subverting children's previous physical and social development experiences and changing the complex process of neurodevelopment.

This change in the psychology of the times has not only significantly pushed up the depression and anxiety disorders that are now widely concerned, but also affected the health of biological elements such as brain neurotransmitters through multi-faceted mechanisms, resulting in mental or psychological disorder. In the process of brain development in children and adolescents, basically at the age of 5, the excitatory synapses have been relatively mature, and then gradually pruned, but the important sign of brain function maturity, "inhibitory synapses", began to proliferate in large quantities at the age of 15, and it was not basically stable until the age of 20.

04

In development and growth, master the balance of the two major functions of brain inhibition and excitement, know how to block out the excitement points of interference, and maintain proper concentration and interest, just like young children slowly learn to walk in waddling and falling, which is a process of gradually adjusting and finding balance in interaction with the outside world. Today's social lifestyle, by reducing and depriving children of exercise, face-to-face social interaction, adequate sleep, regular eating habits, etc., makes them unable to use and learn these two functions in an environment that meets the needs of growth and development.

In this sense, to cope with today's increasingly severe and diverse mental disorders in children and adolescents, simply increasing the number and treatment of specialists and practitioners and opening more wards is not the whole solution. What needs to be further thought about is: how to maintain the mental or spiritual health of children and adolescents in this era before becoming a disease? - "Mindful Life: The Psychiatrist Teaches You to Get Rid of the Torment of Anxiety"