What Happens To The Mental Health Of Our Children?
The period of adolescence is crucial for the development of our children and emotional well-being is decisive for their health. According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that one in seven adolescents between 10 and 19 years old suffers from a mental disorder 50% of mental disorders begin before the age of 14 and 75% of mental health problems begin before the age of 18. And in the majority of cases, these problems either go undetected or do not receive the proper treatment. .
In recent years, both the number of consultations related to adolescent mental health and their complexity have increased. They come for emotional and behavioral problems, symptoms of depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicide.
Roger Ballescà, coordinator of the Child and Youth Mental Health Area at the Sagrat Cor Hospital in Martorell, points out that “young people dare to consult more, but there is a complicated and unfriendly social context for children and adolescents. There is a lot of anxiety, behavioral problems, body-related problems (self-harm) and eating behavior. They also come for emotional and depressive problems.”
Despite having data that confirms the fragility of the mental health of our adolescents, many of them do not receive the necessary professional help due to lack of means. Ballescà, who is also a teacher in the Master of Strategic and Integrative Therapy at Nus Agency, confirms this: “Psychological treatments are becoming more and more effective But often the problem is a lack of resources and time. Above all, when we talk about public health.
Mental health centers, which were already saturated, are even more overwhelmed after the pandemic and it is difficult to have space, time and knowledge to reach all people. “We are in a country where there is still a gap in access to public mental health between those who can afford to access better mental health resources and those who cannot afford it.”
Crystal generation: an unfair label
Years ago, young people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, perceived as more emotionally fragile compared to previous generations, were called the “glass generation.” They are said to be more sensitive to criticism, less tolerant of adversity and more likely to experience anxiety or stress in response to emotional challenges or difficult situations.
This idea has been the subject of debate, with some arguing that the perception of the “glass generation” may be exaggerated or simplistic. It is suggested that changes in parenting, technology and wider society may influence how young people cope with emotional challenges, and that these perceptions may not fully reflect the diversity and resilience of today’s youth.
The Catalan specialist in youth mental health is one of those who rejects that label: “To say that the current generation is made of glass is absolutely unfair because if there is someone who has perceived that adolescents are made of glass, we are their adult references. Rather, we are the ones who perceive adolescents as if they were made of glass and treat them as if they do not know how to do anything or as if they cannot cope with frustrations. And that ends up making them potentially more incapable of doing things. We talk a lot about young people’s lack of tolerance for frustration when, in reality, the ones who really have a lot of difficulty tolerating our children’s frustrations are adults.”
A frequent concern for parents today is to maintain fluid, affective and effective communication with their children. They want their children to be confident enough to share their worries and concerns, but sometimes they try from the wrong position. “For our children to explain things to us, they have to perceive that we are willing to listen. Often, when children dare to explain their suffering to us, we tend to do something so that they do not suffer and not do something to understand where that suffering comes from and give them tools to solve it.”
The influence that the digital environment exerts on young people also does not help with healthy socialization or achieving emotional balance. The maelstrom of social networks advances at the expense of the mental health of our adolescents. Roger Ballescà is very clear about the manipulation to which youth is being subjected: “We are witnessing the absolute commercialization of childhood and adolescence Children and adolescents who should be at the center of our attention are only so when it comes to selling them something. “There has been a lack of good support for our children in the discovery of the digital world.”
We can promote the mental health of adolescents in different ways: with open communication and active listening, teaching them to identify signs of possible problems to ask for professional support if necessary, educating them to acquire self-care habits, helping them to foster healthy relationships and limiting the use of technology.
To the provide emotional support, education and access to resources, we can help teenagers develop skills to face the challenges they will encounter along the way. But the first challenge lies in families and in accepting the responsibility of accompanying, listening to and supporting a generation that is much stronger than we think.
