Emotional Cost to Parents and Carers
Of course, the extreme level of emotional anguish that parents and care givers experience when trying to cope and manage with a child suffering from mental health issues is the unquantifiable damage. Mind, body and soul are all affected and under siege when your kids are suffering and you feel helpless to solve the problem.
Not only is the child going from bad to worse with mounting stress, mis-behaviours and social anxiety, but the feedback loop of parental stress impacts further on the child. The deterioration of the child then causes further anxiety and stress for the parents – and so goes the revolving door of family dynamics until there is an emotional explosion and nervous breakdown (meltdown) of some kind. Eventually depression sets in as the energy runs out to keep trying.
Prevalence of Self Harm in Children and Adolescents
Among 14-15 year-olds, one in ten reported that they had self-harmed in the previous 12 months. Girls appeared to be at greater risk than boys of both self-harm and suicidal behaviour. One in four girls had had thoughts about self-harming, and 15% had engaged in some form of self-harm. Among boys, 8% had thought about self-harm, and 4% had done it. Of all those who had attempted suicide (5%), two thirds had previously self-harmed.
All of these symptoms indicate a dangerous downward trajectory.
Chronic Stress and Blowing off Steam
Different people learn to deal with mounting stress in different ways. These ways include deflecting the pain and anguish to other kinds of pain that distract from the main issues. An example of this is silent self-harm in private spaces. It is a diversion to release some steam.
Other people who can’t suppress or divert their stress let it build up until it eventually cascades into a meltdown. Meltdowns or fits allow for the release of pressures and pent up energies (a temporary respite), but the intense adrenalin-cortisol flooding the system cause an uptick of acidic and destructive by-products such as Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) that cause free radical damage to tissue cells.