When I was younger, I’d have to make an excuse to leave the room whenever sex scenes came on the television. I learned to sniff out at a bedroom scene within 30 seconds and escape to make tea, or feign a yawn and head off to bed.
There are many things it’s difficult to talk about with parents. Mental health, apparently, is one of them. Given that one in 10 young people experience mental health issues, it is worrying that 55% of parents in the UK have not discussed mental health at all with their children, according to a new study from the Department of Health and Time to Change. Even more shocking is that 45% of parents interviewed said they haven’t had this conversation because mental health “is not an issue”.
62% of teenagers have searched the internet for information on depression
More than 850,000 children aged between 5 and 16 in the UK have a mental illness. Child and adolescent mental health services are struggling with soaring referrals and admissions. It is thought that half of diagnosable conditions manifest before the age of 14 and 75% by 21. A study in October found 62% of teens had searched for information about depression on the internet.
It is difficult enough to experience a mental health condition or episode at any age, but these issues can have a particularly serious impact on teenagers’ future. A-levels don’t wait for you to pull out of depression. Months of education can be missed as you battle an eating disorder or recover from an episode of psychosis.
[For more of this story, written by Hannah Jane Parkinson, go to http://www.theguardian.com/com...-children-depression]
Comments (0)