Many young people in Jakarta experience challenges with their mental health. However, most of those with mental health disorders aren’t receiving treatment. There are many barriers to mental health care, including service availability and busy schedules. But one of the most important is a tendency to not seek help in the first place.
Mental health disorders usually require professional support – and it’s unlikely a young person can get better on their own. This means that prioritising mental health – and seeking treatment when necessary – is fundamental. Parents shouldn’t wait for things to get worse before reaching out. As soon as you recognise the signs of mental health problems, you should seek professional advice.
This blog offers some more information about the importance of looking after child and adolescent mental health, with a focus on self-harm and food and body challenges. It also touches on the harm caused by stigma and the dangers of normalising mental health symptoms.
Why Is Looking After Child and Adolescent Mental Health So Important?
Mental health problems are common among young people. About half of all mental health disorders begin before the age of 14 and often continue into adulthood. Mental health issues during childhood or adolescence have a serious impact on a young person’s quality of life – and affect how their well-being in the future.
Mental Health and Development
Childhood and adolescence are fundamental periods of development. Young people are rapidly acquiring emotional and social skills, developing ways of thinking, and forming their sense of self. Biologically, adolescence is the greatest developmental stage other than early childhood, and young people’s brains continue to develop until around the age of 25.
These changes are exciting, but they also make young people vulnerable. Mental health issues can disrupt normal developmental processes, affecting the way young people think, feel, and relate to other people. These changes can be long-lasting and often persist into adulthood.
For example, long-term depression in childhood is a powerful predictor of mental health problems in adulthood, including anxiety disorders and suicidality. Mental health problems in adolescence are also linked to substance addiction later on in life.
Education and Social Relationships
Mental health concerns during childhood and adolescence affect every aspect of a young person’s life. Symptoms of depression, eating disorders, and other disorders can make it difficult to concentrate in school, cause fatigue, and damage motivation. Anxiety may lead to absences from school and increased procrastination. This means that young people may miss out on valuable learning, find it hard to begin or complete assignments, and disconnect from their interests and passions.
Mental health problems also impact young people’s social relationships. Without support, anxiety can cause avoidance of social relationships, as can low self-esteem. Young people may lose interest in activities they previously enjoyed, exacerbating social withdrawal. Intense emotional responses and insecure attachments can also make interpersonal relationships more difficult.
Early Intervention
Without support, mental health problems can seriously affect young people’s lives and futures. But it doesn’t have to be this way. With effective treatment, children and adolescents recover from mental health problems, improving their quality of life now and as adults.
Importantly, recognising mental health problems during childhood and adolescence creates an opportunity for early intervention. Early intervention is when someone receives support early on in the course of a mental health disorder or before a disorder is fully developed. It’s associated with better treatment outcomes and lower chances of relapse.
Challenging Stigma
One of the most significant barriers to mental health support is stigma. The stigma surrounding mental health prevents young people and families from recognising mental health symptoms and seeking professional help. It also limits awareness and understanding of mental health disorders in families and communities, making both prevention and recovery more complex.
Engaging with children and young people about mental health helps to prevent stigma in future generations. Social values are often formed early on in life and sharing reliable, accurate information about mental health shapes young people’s perspectives in the future.
Seeking Help for Self-Harm: Why Self-Harm Is Never Normal
One of the mental health challenges that young people face is self-harm. Self-harm is when a young person deliberately harms themselves. It can take many different forms and may or may not involve suicidal intentions.
Parent-child relationships that are affected by self-harm can be complex. Young people may tell their parents they don’t want or need support. Parents, in turn, can feel overwhelmed with emotions and may become reactive and inconsistent.
However, it’s important to remember that self-harm always requires professional support. No matter how a young person is self-harming or what they communicate, you should always speak with a mental health professional.
Self-Harm Is More than it’s Physical Impact
Young people can self-harm in many different ways. Sometimes, it can greatly impact their physical body, and other times, less so.
However, self-harm is always serious, regardless of its physical signs. The amount of damage their body experiences isn’t a measure of their emotional pain and distress.
Why We Should Never Minimise Self-Harm
Sometimes, parents can minimise or overlook self-harm. They may feel unable to cope with the reality of their child’s experiences and try to avoid confronting what’s going on. Some parents also feel responsible for their child’s actions and seek to avoid feelings of shame or guilt.
However, self-harm should never be minimised or overlooked. Devalidating a young person’s experience can intensify emotions and cause self-harm to escalate. It also acts as a barrier to young people receiving the necessary support.
If a young person is self-harming, try to:
- tell them that you are there to support them and will not judge them
- listen to what they have to say and reassure them
- recognise and validate their emotions
- remain open-minded
- seek professional support
Taking Food and Body Challenges Seriously
Food and body challenges are common among young people in Asian countries and all across the world. Catalysed by social and cultural norms that promote narrow and unhealthy beauty ideals, many children and young adults experience body dissatisfaction, often accompanied by intense psychological distress. Many engage in disordered eating behaviours to cope with difficult emotions, inner experiences, and interpersonal challenges.
But we should be careful not to normalise disordered eating behaviours. While common, eating problems are serious mental health issues that cause significant damage to young people’s emotional, social, and physical health. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality of any psychiatric disorder.
Moreover, eating disorder treatment is much more effective in the earlier stages of the illness. This means that timely treatment is fundamental. Treatment should never be delayed because a young person doesn’t seem ‘ill’ enough. Equally, food and body image challenges should never be overlooked as ‘just a phase’ or seen as a normal aspect of teenage development.
If you’re worried about a young person’s eating behaviours or body image, you should:
- open up a conversation with your child
- seek professional advice
Don’t wait until a young person’s weight changes to speak to someone. Weight loss or gain isn’t a reliable measure of an eating disorder, and many children and adolescents with eating disorders are at a normal weight. Instead, ask for advice as soon as you sense that something isn’t right.
The Wave Clinic: Therapeutic Education for Young People
The Wave Clinic offers transformative educational and therapeutic support for young people from our residential centre in Malaysia. We combine personal learning programs with exceptional clinical care, creating an environment where young people learn, grow, and thrive.
We believe that young people shouldn’t have to take a break from their education to recover from mental health concerns. Instead, education should accompany recovery, supporting young people to grow in self-confidence and pursue their passions as they overcome mental health symptoms. We lay the foundations for a resilient and lasting recovery underpinned by family support and a secure sense of self.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our programs, get in touch today. We’re here for you.
