In addition to a child's physical well-being, there are also concerns about a child's behavior and emotional health. Major challenges include autism, Asperger’s syndrome, learning disorders, and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder).
But children may also be plagued by nightmares, sleeping difficulties, and irrational fears. Many children have trouble expressing their anger in an appropriate fashion. A major area of study is the effect on children of watching violence on television and playing violent video games.
As children get older and more independent, their chances of developing eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia increase, especially among girls who worry about being overweight. The specter of drug and substance abuse appears. Smoking also often starts in response to peer pressure. And then there are those tattoos and body-piercing.
Children’s Mental Illness
Suicide is now the second leading cause of death during the teen years. Major depression and bipolar disease may underlie suicide attempts and suicide.
It was once thought that children were not subject to these mental illnesses because children had not yet developed the ability to feel hopeless and helpless about the future. That has turned out not to be true. It is now widely acknowledged that children are susceptible not only to major depression and bipolar disease but also to anxiety disorders, phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder. Here again the treatment must be appropriate for use in the pediatric age range.
