However, he said the growth of pharmaceutical treatment in Australia is due in part to a lack of access to psychologists.
“Most people suggest trying the psychological approach first, but that assumes you have access to them. Waitlists are scary,” Hickey said.
While smartphones and technology are often believed to be the underlying cause of the world’s anxiety, he believes the cause is much more fundamental.
“I’m more convinced it’s a social disconnect. Young people don’t have the experience of the wider world to ease that anxiety,” he said.
“Children should move outside the family, not just by parents keeping them safe, in order to gain the experiences and skills to deal with their anxiety about the wider world.”
Another complicating factor faced by parents is that their children are now able to converse in the language of mental health.
“Most children acquire much more psychological vocabulary without understanding the meaning of those terms,” Hickey said.
Parents who allow their children to disconnect from the difficulties of everyday life may not actually be relieving their children’s anxiety.credit: shutter stock
Poor school attendance may result from fear of leaving home caused by a combination of social, emotional, behavioral and academic problems, experts say.
A 2017 report recommends increasing the number of school counselors in schools across the state to one for every 500 students. Before the election, Labor pledged funding to add her 250 counselors to state schools.
Vice Principals Council Craig Petersen said more students had anxiety, but schools were short of counselors.
“We can’t pay what psychologists in private practice make,” he said.
He wanted students to have access to experts who could make diagnoses, but said schools also have discussions about reframing emotions such as grief.
“Growing up, young people lack resilience. This is one of the conversations I have with parents and students, saying, ‘It’s normal to have days when you’re feeling down.
“It’s not normal to be happy forever,” he said.
According to clinical psychologist Judith Rock, children and adolescents growing up today are more likely to pathologize their emotions in terms of mental health, which parents are more likely to accept.
“I think there’s more standardization of terminology, and then I think the concept is slowly changing as words like trauma are being used in ways that aren’t truly traumatic,” Locke said. said.
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“Parents do their best to talk about those feelings in a way that crushes the normal nerves and makes the child feel as if their emotions are abnormal.”
Youth mental health is a serious problem, New South Wales Minister of Mental Health Rose Jackson said.
“Data show that more and more young people are suffering from mental health problems, and we know that addressing this challenge is a major priority for this government,” she said. rice field.
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