Interview with prof. Agnieszka Słopień, a child and youth psychiatrist, and a psychotherapist
Is prevention, in the event of a mental crisis, even possible? What can be done to reduce the risk factors and avoid a situation in which the young person will have to consult a therapist or psychiatrist?
Prevention is possible and even necessary. The point is not to treat as many people as possible, but to prevent problems. Such preventive measures should start at an early stage of a child’s development: in primary school and even in kindergarten. There is more and more talk about various mental disorders, but it has become common knowledge that they are caused by genetic conditions or that they are undefined. In fact, the appearance of mental problems depends on many factors, including psychological ones. On the one hand, these are the stimuli that affect the child at home, as well as those that affect them in the school environment. The mental condition is greatly influenced by contact with peers, but also by information that reaches young minds from the world around them.
How to help your child cope with various emotions? What to do to make mental development run relatively correctly and to minimize the risk that a young person will struggle with mental problems in the future?
This is not a simple question and there is no simple answer to it. Little is said about how to take care of yourself, how important it is to nurture your interests. Children are not shown how to regulate their emotions, they do not explain that there are no good and bad feelings. Sometimes young people feel angry or frustrated and this is completely natural and necessary for their development. And often parents prevent their children from showing negative emotions. Ordinary conversation and showing interest are also forgotten. Parents, when picking up their toddler from kindergarten, ask if he ate and if he was polite. They are not always interested in what he did during the day, what he played, whether the activities were interesting and important for him, etc. Adults focus on the task at hand. This approach to education is also continued at the school stage: the most important thing is whether the child is polite, has good grades, is not too absorbing and does not bother everyone around. At the same time, a young person is required to cope with everything and be a bit of an adult, not supporting him emotionally in various stages of development.
Maybe the generation of today’s parents does not know how to talk to their children about emotions because they themselves did not receive such an education in their childhood? Now they more or less consciously follow the same patterns.
It is necessary to look at this topic broadly. It is not that today’s parents are less competent. But they also have their own history, sometimes traumatic, and they don’t know how to talk about emotions and problems related to the mental sphere. Parents often approach care and upbringing as tasks: they provide their children with material things, provide everything they think they should have, but forget about the need to talk to the child, support them in difficult moments and be with them also when they feel joy. . And it happens that the parents do not even know what their daughter or son is interested in, what are their passions. It is true that today the young generation spends a lot of time in the virtual world, which is not so attractive to their parents. Nevertheless, it is worth spending some time and finding out what in this reality is important for the child, what is interesting and intriguing and why is it happening?
One more aspect must be noted. Parents require their children to accept their friends and colleagues, not to hate someone just because they are different from them. And it is enough to open any article on the Internet, e.g. on the death of a famous person, and see that most of the comments posted under it are negative. Their authors are certainly not children. This is a wider problem: there is a lot of tension, aggression and a lack of empathy among adults. There is too little openness in us, a willingness to perceive the perspective of the other party, and the dominant focus is on our arguments and feelings seen as the only right. With this attitude of adults, those who are dependent on them, i.e. the children, suffer the most.
Should there be regular classes with a psychologist and special educational lessons devoted to mental hygiene in schools and kindergartens? Is it possible for children to be emotionally cared for during their education, and not only acquire knowledge and practical skills in specific areas?
There should be more psychologists in schools, because teachers are not able to deal with this sphere additionally. Yes, they can be more attentive, observe the behavior of children, be able to notice that someone has changed a lot, behaves differently than a few months ago, has worse grades, is more withdrawn. However, when it comes to prevention, we should talk about emotions in schools, how to take care of yourself, how to rest. Various interests and passions are very important in our lives. For some young people, contact with peers will be important, but some do not need it too much. Therefore, young people from the latter group cannot be forced to function more widely in society, as it will be difficult and tiring for them. We must remember that each of us is different and that is ok.
How important is it to get enough sleep, play sports regularly or eat a healthy diet in the context of mental health?
Physical activity is certainly an element that improves the mental condition of a person. Now children have little exercise, and some of them spend their time mainly in front of the computer or leaning over the phone. More recently, an adult population who once struggled with mental health has been researched asking what saved them from a crisis during a pandemic and isolation. Most respondents replied that they exercise regularly, at least 15 minutes a day, and restrict access to information. We must also remember the importance of rest and regeneration of the body. Children cannot have scheduled activities from morning to evening.
Go to gov.pl/opiekapsychologiczna and find out more.
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