25 Nov Effect of Neuropsychiatric Illness on Families – Tips to Follow
Impact of Neuropsychiatric Illness on Families in a child can be a debilitating condition. The parents get sick worried about their child’s development centers which can affect their mental health too.
It’s important for parents to recognize the warning signs in their child when they are showing symptoms of mental illness.
Keeping an eye out on their social cues, and developmental milestones can benefit in early diagnosis and treatment.
If you suspect any behavior change, or symptoms associated with a Impact of Neuropsychiatric Illness on Families refer to the best psychiatrist in Patna, Dr. Vivek Pratap Singh.
What is a mental illness?
Impact of Neuropsychiatric Illness on Families is a disorder affecting the way one thinks, behaves, and the way they express their emotions or feelings.
It can disrupt the brain chemistry affecting a person’s ability to think and function. Mental health in a child can have different causes and reasons with the most common being the delay in developmental skills.
More than this, the children grow at their own pace and sometimes, there might be some degree of delay compared to others and this delay falls under a wide range of conditions and factors.
So, diagnosis of a Impact of Neuropsychiatric Illness on Families condition depends on how the child functions at home, at school and socially.
Common Mental Health Conditions in Children
There are many different kinds of psychological conditions that affect mental health in children.
These conditions have various causes associated with maternal pregnancy and environmental factors. Some of the mental conditions are
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is manifested by impulsivity and hyperactive behavior. In this condition, children cannot sit still, and have trouble focusing on one single task.
They are incapable of following instructions given to them and jump from one task to another without finishing the one they started. They are prescribed psychotherapy and medications to control their impulsive tendencies.
Anxiety disorder is a bit difficult to diagnose in children because of their young age, they tend to get scared of a lot of things.
Although, if they are constantly crying, have a rapid heartbeat, and have other physical symptoms such as sweating and hyperventilation, there is a chance they are having a panic attack.
The parents should look for triggers, or specific stressors that lead the child to develop these symptoms. This way, avoiding them can help the child’s behavior.
Some children are late to develop some habits such as using the bathroom independently. Typically, a child can develop toilet habits by 5 years of age.
If the child still hasn’t developed, they might have what is called elimination disorder. This bed-wetting in children is quite a common disorder.
Tic disorders are characterized by repetitive involuntary movements or sounds at every five-minute interval. These movements can be meaningless but uncontrollable by the child.
Autism spectrum disorder is most common in children appearing at 12 months of age that affects the neurodevelopmental center.
The severity of the condition depends on the symptoms. It leads to emotional and communication difficulties. The child can have speaking difficulties that need attention from a speech therapist.
These children need ABA therapies and constant monitoring of their emotions and feelings.
Eating disorders comprises two main disorders called anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. This typically affect the girls more as they are trying to fit in certain social standards of the society.
They tend to starve themselves in order to lose weight in anorexia nervosa.
While bulimia is characterized by binge-eating their favorite food and then purging in the toilet or they might even use laxatives.
Warning Signs of Mental Illness in Children
The symptoms and signs parents should be careful about are following
- Avoiding social contact and interaction
- Talking about self harm or hurting others
- Anger outbursts
- Irritability
- Persistent crying and being sad for more than two weeks
- Changes in mood symptoms, or behavior
- Changes in eating habits
- Sleep changes
- Trouble concentrating
- Speech difficulties
- Difficulties in walking or running
- Weight loss
- Frequent physical symptoms such as headaches, or stomachaches
Recognizing mental health in children can sometimes be difficult because of how subtly it starts developing.
Although, if you as a parent have even the slightest doubt that the child’s behavior has changed, or they have been sad for a long time and avoiding family members, you should consider something is wrong and take them to the nearest physician to rule out any disorders.
Family Health and Mental Illness
The impact on a family with a child of mental illness can be drastic. All parents face challenges when their child is suffering from a condition that affects his childhood and daily life.
Mental health varies in terms of symptoms and the disorder but the parents would need moral support and guidance to avoid feeling upset. Because, eventually their mood can affect the child’s mental state.
The effects of mental illness on family members can lead to mental breakdown and might need professional help to overcome this. There will be stressful events that can trigger your mood. Parents go through
- Challenges with their kids because of their mood symptoms or depressive episodes. Handling rheir kid while at the same time going through these emotions can be difficult and demanding.
- Managing your mood around the children just so they don’t understand what’s going on
- Caring for children suffering with mental illness can take a toll on the family because they are overwhelmed with the fact that their kid isn’t normal and has to suffer from something he didn’t deserve.
- When the child is being difficult, it is important for the parents to set boundaries and don’t let the child get out of control.
Mental illness impact on family and friends can be taxing for the parents on top of dealing with their tantrums and emotional episodes.
Sometimes, the parents would even need to see a therapist so as to know how to deal with the child in an efficient way.
At times, the mental illness impact on family and friends would be so severe that they might fall into a thought spiral of blaming themselves for their kid’s condition, and it is important for them to realize it is not their fault, and to keep a positive attitude throughout.
The role of family in mental health can be to look after themselves so that they are doing enough for themselves and their child.
Taking care of your mental health is the foremost thing to do, only then will you be able to look after your child. This can be done by eating well, physical activity, and getting enough sleep to function well in the day.
Finding a support network and people that you can rely upon for emotional support is a vital key in your life.
Sharing your feelings with them can leave you feeling relaxed and even get a perspective on things that are bothering you.
You can also read about >>> Is Self Talk a Sign of Depression
Impact of mental illness on individuals
Children are negatively impacted with their mental illness. Considering the stigma around the disorder, it makes the children unhappy at school, and losing focus on what’s important.
They suffer from poor concentration, learning difficulties courtesy of their mental health. They may be withdrawn, and can show signs of aggressive behavior.
Individuals might not know how to deal with their mental illness interfering with their ability to do something meaningful.
Sometimes, their mood symptoms, and changed behavior can cause the authorities to take disciplinary action against them.
Most of the youth affected by mental health disorders tend to drop out of school more compared to their peers.
They start engaging in high risk behaviors such as drug trafficking, or alcohol abuse and when these activities get out of hand, they sstart having suicidal thoughts.
Some of them, frustrated to the core by their condition even attempt to commit suicide. These thoughts come as a blend due to their disorder and the lack of motivation towards life.
Living with Mental Illness in the Family
The negative impact of family on mental health can be defined as when an individual has to tiptoe around his symptoms in order to not let his family get affected by the disorder.
As much as the family worries about their child’s disorder, they themselves are going through a whirlwind of emotions to not make them worried.
This brings up the question how does family problems affect mental health?
An individual who is suffering from a mental illness already bas to deal with a lot of symptoms associated with the disorder.
They are undergoing mood swings, depression, and panic episodes underlying the disorder.
They are too vulnerable to any stressful event, so it is natural if they have to deal with family problems along with these, it’s gonna affect their ability to cope with their disorder.
Sometimes, the individual might even start blaming themselves that it’s because of them their family is going through a traumatic situation.
And when these thoughts start pohring it’s difficult to handle the emotions, and there can be grave consequences associated with it. One of the bery common ideation related with these situations are suicidal thoughts.
Hence, it’s important for the family and the individual affected with the disorder to seek medical attention as soon as their diagnosis is confirmed.
And, once the physician is consulted for the illness, it is vital to follow the programme set for the individual and not miss any medication or therapy session.
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