Half of all mental illness begins before the age of 14
Most mental health conditions start in childhood or the teenage years. Most go unnoticed for years.
When we picture someone with depression or an anxiety disorder, we usually picture an adult. But according to the World Health Organization, half of all mental health conditions begin by the age of 14, and three quarters by the mid-twenties. Most are not recognised or treated at the time.
In children it often doesn't look like sadness. It looks like irritability, stomach aches before school, falling marks, dropping old friends, staying in their room, sleeping far too much or too little, or sudden anger. Parents understandably put it down to exams, hormones or "just a phase". Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't, and the child has been struggling on their own for a long time.
India's National Mental Health Survey found that about 7% of teenagers aged 13 to 17 had a mental health condition that needed care. Suicide is now one of the leading causes of death among young Indians.
The encouraging part is that problems caught early respond well. A few sessions with a trained child or adolescent psychologist can make a big difference, and most children never need medicine.
What parents can do - Ask how they are, then listen, without rushing to advice or telling them it's nothing. - Notice changes that last more than two weeks: sleep, appetite, mood, friendships, school. - Make talking about feelings normal at home. Children copy what they see. - Don't treat a visit to a psychologist as a last resort or a family secret. It is no different from seeing a doctor for a fever. - Any talk of self-harm or not wanting to live must be taken seriously, every single time.
Where this comes from - World Health Organization. Mental health of adolescents, fact sheet. - Kessler RC et al. Lifetime Prevalence and Age-of-Onset Distributions of DSM-IV Disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005. - National Mental Health Survey of India, 2015-16. NIMHANS.
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