Let’s Protect Our Children’s Mental Health Listening And Talking That’s All It Takes

It’s children’s mental health week this week and there is no doubt that we need to highlight this important topic. The reason being is that mental health is without doubt still being brushed under the carpet. Even today the stigma surrounding mental health is still very much alive and kicking in the UK and that’s no more obvious than when it comes to children and their mental health.

The big question for me is why are so many children and young people suffering from mental health illness? What has changed in the world that now we are seeing on a regular basis that children at very young ages are suffering from anxiety, depression, self-harming and suicide. Sadly this is no longer a rare occurrence when it comes to children.

The blame for this dramatic rise in children suffering from mental health issues has to be firmly put at the door of social media and the influence that it is having on our children. Today so many more things are in the public domain in a nano second. It’s in our children’s faces and they can’t escape it. When I was a child this just simply didn’t happen. It could be days before I found out something. My influences as a child usually came from pop stars or footballers, but their profiles were not in your face as today’s celebrities are. Nowadays they are constantly right there in our children’s faces saying do this, try that and children being children will try to emulate those that they look up to and of course they will invariably fail to match up to what they consider their heroes.

This will consequently leave our children feeling anxious and worthless with low self esteem and confidence. Children simply don’t grasp that so much of what is on social media today is fake and that these so called celebrities are being paid vast sums of money to promote an idea or a product or whatever. It so often is just not true, barely resembling any sort of normal reality.

The internet and social media is still very much in its infancy and we have no history to look back on as to the effects, whether that be good or bad that social media is having on children and young people. It will be many years before we see the full effect. Yes I’m sure some good will come from it, but sadly I believe we will see the bad effects of social media on our children.

What is for sure though in some cases of children and young people using social media, is that is having a detrimental effect which is possibly being linked to them suffering mental health issues and these children are getting younger year on year.

We as a society need to find a balance between what is an acceptable use of technology and social media but also teach our children the more basic values of life. For instance getting outdoors, taking part in excerise and leading a healthy life away from screens. It has to be a balance of screen time and family time.

For me one of the important ways of helping your children to stay healthy mentally is always to keep the door open to an open and honest conversation so that if they have any sort of problem they can always come to you without the fear of being judged or ignored. It’s vital you always find the time to talk to your children and more importantly listen to them and advise them in a constructive way for them to move forward otherwise we could end up with a generation of screwed up children. Let’s not let our children suffer in silence, locked away in a cyber world because they will never find the answers there.

We need to protect our children’s mental health and the way forward is to listen and talk to them so that they never feel alone or lost.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.