No bond is much closer than the one of a parent and child. The biological and psychological ties bind parents and children and that is fundamental for a child’s physical and emotional development.
Parenthood is not as idyllic as pictured on social media or the pages of glossy parenting magazines. Children that are sensitive receptors of parental distress. Sadly many children who are in the care of their parents at some point will experience some degree of mental illness. In california drug rehab helps the person understand the importance of mental health.
It can be mild such as intermittent depression or anxiety, or more severe like bipolar disorder. The number of households with a parent who abuses drugs or alcohol is rising. Negatively impacting children. As per the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, parental mental illness elevates a child’s risk for developing mental illness relative to their peers and when both parents are mentally ill. The child is likely to follow suit though.
Common mental health disorder in parents and children
Anxiety disorder
Anxiety disorders constitute the most common health concern in the United States. As per NAMI it is estimated that 18% of adults and approximately 8% of children and teenagers experience the negative impact of an anxiety disorder at home only, while everyone is dealing with anxiety, some individuals become overwhelmed and interfere with daily life. With California drug rehab the person will start avoiding the unnecessary things in his life.
Genetics and stress are chief among the factors scientists believe can cause anxiety problems. In addition to outside stresses that will trigger anxiety, some studies show that support evidence that anxiety disorders will run in the family.
Stress on today’s families
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, it has brought fear, social isolation, and academic economic hardship for many families across the world. A lot of factors are present conspiring to hike levels of anxiety and depression for many parents and children. Our society and culture have changed a lot with the increase in the prevalence that we are seeing in anxiety only.
Adding the increase in economic inequality, substance abuse, poor nutrition, and a lot of physical activity, change, and communication. Factors like parenting style, bullying, and social media have made a lot of reasons for anxiety too. Even very young children are picking up the parent’s uncertainty and anxiety about the current state of education and their future as well.
Changes in family life that is to blame for the rise in anxiety as well. The time spent on technology and social media, before a pandemic, rushing from activity to activity means you will become lazy for completing something.
Parenting style is the main factor. Characterized by being unresponsive, setting good strict rules and high expectations, and demanding blind obedience, that is associated with mental illness and having an increased risk for drugs and alcohol. Children that raised by parents or parents who are taking an authoritative approach to child rearing. That will combine sensitivity, warmth, limit setting, and use for positive reinforcement. It is less likely to report depression and anxiety and to exhibit antisocial behaviors.
Together all these factors can conspire to make children resilient and it hinders their ability to escape the collateral damage that is caused by parent mental illness. The risk of developing a mental illness or mental disorder that will be greater for those children with having genetic predisposition.
When are children most vulnerable?
Brain development is especially rapid during these critical periods only, the children that are resilient and most vulnerable to the effects of parental mental illness. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that nationally 1 in 8 women experience symptoms of postpartum depression.
While being a teenager has never been considered easy, it has become new stressors, including social media, and the rise in unstable family situations. Building the interplay of genetics and environment that is epigenetics a new and growing field that like to highlight with clients. In this field of psychology, it is the study of changes in expression for the genes that are not for result of alternation for genetic code.
Its effects can be seen in many generations of a family. In a family, if a grandfather is having anger issues, then his granddaughter will learn different coping mechanisms. It will not exhibit the father’s angry behavior. The “anger gene” is thereby expressed differently in personality to the extent that not only she is modeling a different behavior for her son but the son will become prone to anger.