They are trying times, those teen or adolescence years, for both the children and the parents.
The adolescents are moody or insolent and most parents would either ignore them or attempt to deal with them in the traditional manner by roundly scolding them or giving them a slap.
Don't," advises Professor Hemamali Perera, Prof. in Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, because it may not be just teen blues but a more serious mental health problem.
The danger signal which indicates that your adolescent has a mental illness would be "functional deterioration", she explains, adding that without taking note of this, parents and teachers would come down hard on them for poor educational performance, aggravating the situation.
If there is a progressive drop in the performance of an adolescent who usually has average scores, the need would be for the parents to check out why, MediScene learns. "This is because adolescence is the age, from 12 to 19 years, at which mental health problems and serious mental health disorders appear for the first time," stresses Prof. Perera.
And under the serious mental health disorders would fall psychotic illness, depression and social phobia. A mental state in which an adolescent loses contact with reality could be described as a psychotic illness while severe anxiety in social situations is termed social phobia.
The symptoms of depression may be irritability, aggression, intolerance, falling school performance, being argumentative, anti-social behaviour and loss of control, anxiety, loss of concentration, emotional difficulties, difficulties with peers, difficulties with examinations and in some cases substance abuse.
"However, functional deterioration is the key and should not be ignored," she says, adding that the biggest or most burdensome issue faced by adolescents with mental health issues is anxiety and depression.
A wide-reaching survey of 2,000 adolescents carried out by Prof. Perera among schools in all parts of the country including some areas of the east, with the exception of the north, has given some eye-opening statistics.
The findings of this survey conducted in 2005 are reinforced by the National Health Bulletin issued by the Health Ministry, which indicates that prevalence of physical health problems in the adolescent age-group is negligible compared to the main causes of morbidity and mortality being due to mental health issues, it is learnt.
According to the bulletin 15.2% adolescents resorted to deliberate self-harm, self-inflicted injury and poisoning, she said.
Quoting from a World Health Organization report, she pointed out that 17-20% of adolescents suffer from significant mental health problems in developing countries, with 60 per 100,000 suicides in males and 40 per 100,000 in females. The main causes of death in the age group are also homicide and injury inflicted by others.
Lamenting the fact that the health system in Sri Lanka is woefully lacking in meeting the mental health needs of this important group of children, Prof. Perera urges parents and teachers to be watchful. Health services for adolescents have not developed, she says.
On why adolescents are facing mental health issues, she says that they are not equipped well enough to face and deal with the challenges that life throws up. They do not have adequate problem-solving abilities.
But, on a positive note, she points out that adolescents who have supportive families and neighbours are more resilient in facing life.
Even if they were having psychological problems, they were self-confident and felt they could go to their families to give them a hand in sorting out matters.
A sad indictment on the education system was that most of them preferred to go to their families rather than their teachers, she said.
This expert has some words of advice for parents: If your adolescent suddenly drops out of school, refuses to go to school or you see a drop in his usual abilities or he loses interest, don't try to remedy it on your own. Seek help.
Take heed
- 1 in 5 (18.9%) adolescents in Sri Lanka had clinically significant mental health problems that need help, a school survey has found.
- The mental health problems are more in boys than in girls.
- 38.2% had contemplated taking their own lives.
- 17% reported symptoms of mental illness that lasted over one year and 10% that lasted 6 to 12 months.
- 54.2% had setbacks in educational functions.
- 49.5% had pressure from adults to achieve
- 34.8% reported that unwarranted accusations of some misdeed had been made against them.
On the positive side
- Only 15.8% reported upsets over broken love affairs and only 17% about conflicts with their parents.
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