For a long time, many people believe that mental disorder is a disease only suffered by adults, while ignoring the special group of sick children. With autism, hyperactivity disorder and other diseases known to parents, children's mental disorder has become a problem that some families and even the whole society must face.

　　 Social factors are the main inducements

"What we usually say about children's mental illness is a broad concept, which includes many mental and psychological diseases of children, including hyperactivity disorder, autism, school weariness, emotional disorder, depression, etc. These are all children's mental illness," said Zhang Lixia, the chief doctor of the youth ward of Zhengzhou Eighth People's Hospital. On the whole, the incidence of mental illness in children is on the rise. "Due to low social recognition, many parents hide their children's condition and often choose to give up treatment when the treatment effect is not obvious. Many parents even choose to let their children drop out of school, which leads to long-term psychological self suggestion, serious decline in self-confidence and living ability of children, and this effect is always lifelong."

Zhang Lixia introduced that the cause of children's mental illness is not yet clear, which may include biological, psychological, environmental and social factors, among which social factors such as family, education and social atmosphere have a great impact. She stressed that children's diseases are inextricably linked with social diseases, and some social problems may even aggravate children's diseases.

Early detection and treatment are expected to return to normal life

Although the pathogenic factors of children's mental illness have not been fully found, the direction of the disease has shown a trend of mass. For example, only children, single parent children and left behind children are more likely to have psychological barriers.

The initial symptoms of children's mental disorders, including sudden decline in academic performance; Eccentric behavior and depression; Talk to yourself or blink or shrug; Love to tell lies; Inattention, etc. In the eyes of many parents, most of these initial symptoms are bad habits that are inevitable in the process of children's growth. In fact, these abnormalities are children's "psychological help seeking signals". But at present, many parents and teachers only have the concept of physical disease, not mental disease, and ignore these abnormal behaviors, thus delaying treatment.

Zhang Lixia said that many people's mental illness in adulthood actually resulted from childhood and adolescence. "If early detection and early diagnosis of children's mental disorders are made, the possibility of control and remission of the disease is certainly better than that of late detection and treatment." As for whether the disease can be completely cured, Zhang Lixia said that it still varies from disease to disease. Some diseases can be cured, such as children's emotional disorders. Some children really recover very well, but some diseases may be difficult to cure, such as autism.

Zhang Lixia pointed out that although parents, as non professionals, do not have professional knowledge of mental illness, they can usually observe children's behavior and make preliminary judgments after horizontal and vertical comparison. "For example, the child suddenly changed a lot, especially in personality and temper. If this change is negative, parents had better pay attention." Zhang Lixia reminded that if the child's behavior is abnormal, parents should take the child to the hospital as soon as possible for troubleshooting. If the child is diagnosed with mental disorders, parents should actively cooperate with the hospital for treatment. (Wang Shuo and Song Xiaodong)