Mental Health Disorder Warning Signs Even The Best Parents Can Miss

As parents, we tend to worry about our child’s behavior either excessively or not at all. You’ll often see parents jumping to extreme conclusions about their child’s little quirks, while others choose a blind eye towards mental health issues that are quite obvious to others.

This is why it’s more important than ever for parents to know the warning signs of mental health illnesses in children, to prevent problems in the future and try to get their kids to a healthier state of mind as soon as possible.

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), “Major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder rarely appear ‘out of the blue’,” so it’s important for parents to trust their guts and seek professional help when it comes to their child’s mental health.

“Most often family, friends, teachers or individuals themselves begin to recognize small changes or a feeling that “something is not quite right” about their thinking, feelings or behavior before one of these illnesses appears in its full-blown form.”

Here are Medical Daily’s five common mental health disorder warning signs every parent should look out for:

1. Long-lasting mood swings.

A change in mood that lasts for two weeks can be a strong indicator of a serious mental disorder in your child. These mood swings which usually range from being hyperactive to being melancholy within a short time span with no substantial reason can be an early sign of bipolar disorder or manic-depressive illness.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the “up” or mania children feel and the “down” or depression is so powerful that it can interfere with a child’s academic and social life. One-third of the 3.4 million children and teens who are diagnosed with depression may be experiencing the early onset of bipolar disorder, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) reports. Abrupt mood swings and hyperactivity accompanied by lethargy have the potential to produce a chronic irritability.

If a child becomes hyperactive without being lethargic afterward, that is a normal characteristic of childhood behavior. “Childhood bipolar disorder is characterized by many of these symptoms, taken together, and marked by rapid mood swings and hyperactivity,” says John M. Grohol, Psy.D. He believes these symptoms in bipolar disorder will affect the child severely, occur frequently and lasts for approximately two weeks.

2. Excessive fears or worries.

Fears and worries in children are common throughout early childhood. It is normal for toddlers to fear the dark, imaginary creatures like “the boogie man,” and being separated from their legal guardians. For grade-school children, being anxious before school performance and worrying about social acceptance among peers are seen as healthy responses that continue into adulthood. However, when these normal aged-based fears become so excessive that they interfere with a child’s daily functions, it is time to have an intervention.

Children who are diagnosed with anxiety often express a specific worry or fear says the AACAP. Physical complaints are often accompanied by the worry or fear communicated by the child, which helps clinicians diagnose specific anxiety disorders.

3. Extreme behavioral changes.

Childhood defiance and questioning authority are also common behaviors in kids. Often times this behavior is motivated by the thrill of testing whether they can really get away with something without their parents’ blessing.

However, is your child just experimenting with independence or is there a more serious issue? Oppositional defiant disorder (OOD), on average, begins when a child is 8 years old and usually starts before the early teen years, according to the Mayo Clinic. An example of an alarming behavior would be one that displays defiance for the sake of defiance, such as buying multiple video games without any genuine interest to actually play these games. Mental health illnesses that are closely related to sporadic behavioral changes include ADHD, anxiety, bipolar, and depression.

4. Physical changes, such as weight gain or loss.

An estimated 80 percent of people with serious mental illnesses are overweight or obese, reports the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A sudden change in physical appearance that does not follow from puberty may be a strong indicator that your child is suffering from a disorder. Similarly, weight loss brought on by lack of appetite may be an early sign of depression.

Body changes brought on by alcohol or drugs to “self-medicate” are symptomatic of depressed youth, signaling a lack of concern for or attention to their appearance says the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE). Furthermore, KSDE suggests that mental health professionals believe a child has a greater chance of developing depression if one or both of their parents suffered from the illness.

5. Lack of concentration.

Children who have extreme difficulty concentrating could potentially have a mental disorder. It is important to distinguish a child who merely wants to watch his or her favorite television show instead of doing homework, versus a child who is incapable of focusing on their favorite TV show.

The inability to concentrate on a simple task is a symptom of ADHD or depression reports Psych Central. Lack of focus might result from excessive thoughts of shame, guilt, death and dying, which could be highly dangerous leading to thoughts about suicide. Trouble concentrating in a child with a disorder often manifests in their academic and social life.

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Mental Health Disorder Warning Signs Even The Best Parents Can Miss is an article from: LifeDaily