Shhh!!! Mental health – don’t talk about it!

by with No Comment Uncategorized

Communication gaps and child’s mental health

If your child had a cold, you’d look for the right syrup in your medicine cabinet. If the kid hurt his knee, you’d fetch cotton and Dettol to clean up the wound. If there are lice in your child’s hair, you’ll search and buy the suitable anti lice kit. However, if the kid has trouble expressing himself or if the child is not able to understand in school or talk freely with people around her, the reaction is to either ignore the problem or scare them into performing better.

Why do we Indian parents have such a hard time dealing with mental problems? Why is it that instead of helping our children through these difficult times, we abandon them because of our own irrational prejudices?

The stigma associated with mental health

Stigma Meaning – A mark of shame!!!

My child cannot be sick!!! Do you ever say this to a doctor if your child is running a fever??

No … you instead look for the best doctor and avail the most suited medication for treatment. However, when it comes to problems related to their social, emotional or psychological well–being, it is all a hushed – hushed topic.

This lack of understanding, compassion and communication makes the problem even bigger than it has to be.

Mental health of children and young adults

Psychological issues do not mean that the person is mad and needs to be institutionalized or disbarred from society. They have varying impacts and in the majority of the cases, the impact isn’t severe. In fact, if treated well in time and dealt with cautiously, the symptoms can be managed and the issues can be gradually minimalized.

Communication & social skills of children suffering from mental health challenges

The communication gap is the biggest challenge when it comes to diagnosing & treating children and young adults. On account of the stigma attached with the problem, a large majority of kids facing these issues aren’t even diagnosed properly. Parents are too worried about their societal image and thus instead of assimilating the essence of the problem, they resort to evasion tactics. The desire to ignore and hide the problem allows the poison to spread.

Even the children themselves are scared of this ignorant public outlook and thus find it unsafe to share their problems with anybody. Their silence takes different forms – some face anxiety and depression, while others opt for a more stubborn approach, where they end up hurting themselves and others around them.

Foster an environment of empathy and acceptance

We the parents, educators and the community have to be more accepting. We are all mature adults here and it is imperative that we be more caring and empathetic towards the problems these children and young adults are facing. Mental health discussions aren’t and shouldn’t be considered taboo. As a society, we ought to grow and that shall only happen when we promote life driven by open conversations regarding all fields including mental health in children and adults.

Communication skills enable growth & mental health!

by with No Comment Uncategorized

Being able to express improves self-image and imparts confidence in kids.

Communication skills training is imperative for the young ones for numerous reasons. While better communication skills help in every field, when it comes to mental health, the ability to communicate effectively has quite a few advantages. For a growing kid, self-image and confidence are vital ingredients of development and these elements are strongly linked to the child’s ability to effectively communicate in his / her environment. Thus, when it comes to communication skills training, special attention from the very start is a mandate.

Communication gaps & mental health

It seems natural that kids talk and convey their message; so what is the whole fuss about communication skills? Well yes, kids talk and they try to send out the message, but the aspect that demands attention is if they are actually able to convey the right message, comprehend what is being said and what happens if they are not!

To understand better, take the case of an infant. The baby is too young to use words or sign language and thus resorts to crying whenever anything is needed. Parents eventually get accustomed to these signs and the baby’s schedule and thus comply as per their understanding to satisfy the baby. Eventually, this child is expected to make use of spoken words and adequate sentences to express. The growth seems natural and perhaps in the safety of the home environment and in the language used at home, kid is able to convey the thoughts.

However, as the kid grows and moves out into the real world, things change quite rapidly. From physical surroundings to people, from language to mannerisms, everything changes drastically. Further clubbed with competition and academic pressures, many kids find it quite challenging to maintain pace.

How can communication skills help maintain the needed wellbeing?

This challenge which is posed by the outside world, can be countered by enhancing the communication skills. Communication skills training works on a very simple formula.

Key components:

  • To be able to say / write the desired message using the correct grammar & sentence structure.
  • Ability to patiently listen to others.
  • Capability to hear and understand what is being said, including the meaning of unsaid words and used language tones.
  • Respond in an appropriate manner, using the right set of words.

Crying for everything might work for a 1 year old, but a 10 year old or a teenage does not have the luxury to simply replace words with sounds. An authentic expression of thoughts is the only solution to the problem. The mentioned components, when suitably mixed, provide the needed communication support for enhanced self-image and self-monitored positive expression.

Why Conversation Club for communication skills training?

The focus at Conversation Club is imparting the needed elements of communication, while strictly working as per the individual child’s needs. Customized practical communication sessions for kids ensure learning at a reasonable pace. We understand their struggles and provide a communicative curriculum that enables learning & development.

Depressed or distressed – know the difference … act accordingly!

by with No Comment Uncategorized

Depression is a very serious word, which these days is too casually thrown around. Be it boredom, heartbreak, work issues, lack of motivation or hormonal changes, the sufferer is tagged as a depressed person. Even for smaller meaningless stuff, like not being able to go shopping, phrases like I am depressed and need to get out, are chanted. Infact, it could also simply be a byproduct of too much overthinking. Just because you have time and nothing of much use to do, doesn’t mean you are depressed.

Know when you are depressed!!!

Depression isn’t something that can be cured by a chocolate chip cookie or a pouch of sugar. Buying new clothes or shedding a couple of kilos too cannot cure this problem. In a nutshell, if getting ready for a fun evening and chilling out in a nice café and posting pictures of you online makes it all better – you are not depressed; you just needed to get out of the house or stray away from typical work stress and you got that.

A complex medical condition, depression ought to be targeted with increased gravity. Just because you’ve been unhappy or lost for a few days at a stretch, looking for cures for depression isn’t right. But then are there any signs of depression? In other words, what are the symptoms of depression and how to identify them? What causes depression?

Signs of depression / common symptoms of depression

Consistent guilt / feeling of worthlessness – It is all my fault syndrome. The ones suffering from this challenging mental issue have a serious tendency to blame themselves for everything that isn’t perfect around them. Finding flaws and trying to improve is a good thing, but consistently carrying the burden of blame isn’t a desirable trait.

Complete withdrawal – Zero interest in anything or anybody is a trait commonly noted in people suffering from depression. This is different than no longer liking movies or unwillingness to go to a gym. Loss of interest is universal and applicable in the majority of situations. Just because your taste has changed and now you feel differently about your usual social circles, doesn’t mean you suffering from depression.

Other medical reasons – Many times people are suffering from other medical problems like thyroid, fluctuating sugar levels, BP, cholesterol or hormonal changes. One account of these issues, one feels fatigued, bloated or irritable. Sleeping disorder is also a common side effect. When clubbed with aging, these problems are often considered as a state of depression, however this isn’t the case. Depression does have physical implications like fatigue and sleeping issues, etc., but these problems aren’t necessarily indicative of depression. Only proper physical diagnosis can unearth the mystery. Thus don’t jump to conclusions and get the required clinical tests done.

Massive mood swings – You are perfectly fine and even a minor snarky comment from a colleague leads to an outburst. This unexpected emotional reaction, which you later totally regret, is a symptom of depression to look out for!

Suicidal thoughts – Wanting to end things is clearly a red flag. If you or anybody around is fidgeting with the idea, get immediate professional help.

Less common in Asians??

Studies suggest that Asians (Indians are part of this profile) are less prone to this critical problem. However, this could simply be a result of unavailability of appropriate measures to diagnose and / or lack of willingness amongst sufferers to acknowledge the problem and get help. Results of this underdiagnoses or misdiagnosis are increased severity of the situation, which in rarest case could also lead to suicide. Thus, best to get help.