The clichés are often devastating to a child’s mental health.
“It’s just kids being kids.”
“They’re just pushing their boundaries as all kids do.”
“We all have to learn to deal with peer pressure.”
The facts are much different. Many children and teens struggle with mental health disorders, ranging from mood disorders to complex conditions such as schizophrenia. They don’t look different, and sometimes don’t act all that “out of the ordinary,” but they are battling very real disorders. Treatment options exist for most kids and teens in these situations.
At Willow Creek Behavioral Health, we offer comprehensive, individualized mental health treatment for children, teens, and adults. Each program is a bit different. That’s important. By understanding younger people’s unique needs, we can create treatment plans that address them in meaningful ways.
Mental Health Disorders Impact Children and Teens
Around 11% of kids between the ages of 3 and 17 suffer from anxiety, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 4% of kids suffer from clinically diagnosable depression. Persistent sadness and suicide risks increase as children move into their teen years.
But there are differences in the way they experience these conditions and how they receive and benefit from treatment.
Communication With Children
Children don’t have an easy way to communicate how they feel, which often means behavioral outcomes occur when they can’t communicate thoughts, feelings, and frustrations. While adults benefit most from verbal processing and introspection for treatment of mental health disorders, kids need a different level of care.
Children and teens benefit from therapies that allow them to process information more effectively. That includes art and storytelling. Interactive games can also be helpful. Teens need forms of expression that they can relate to more effectively.
Symptoms and Presentation of Disorders
For adults, evaluation for mental health disorders is more standardized and better understood. Conditions like generalized anxiety and depressive disorders can often more easily be tied to experiences, hormones, or relationships.
In children and teens, symptoms often differ. For many experiencing depression, for example, they are likely to engage in behavioral outbursts and irritability, rather than sadness. A child’s developmental milestones help inform clinicians about what may be truly happening beyond just symptoms.
Medications for Treatment
Adults have a larger assortment of pharmacological options for most mental health disorders. That allows therapists to provide patients with more options and to control dosing adjustments more easily.
For children, specific formulations and rules exist under FDA rules. Traditionally, prescribing substances happens at a much more conservative level. Limited clinical trials and insights make it much harder to know which treatment options are effective.
How Treatment Works for Children and Teens
A child’s brain is developing at a much faster rate than that of an adult. As an adult, many of your patterns of thinking and mental health conditions are long-lasting, developed over time, and harder to “fix” than those in children.
Because a child’s brain possesses higher neuroplasticity, more meaningful, therapeutic, and positive behavioral changes can occur, and they may happen sooner. That is why it can be so important to seek out early intervention for your child.
How to Know When Your Child Needs Mental Health Treatment
One of the most important steps a parent can take is to act quickly to get their child into treatment for mental health disorders. The hard part is knowing when such action is beneficial and necessary. Look for these early signs of anxiety disorders and other mental health disorders.
- Persistent mood changes ranging from irritability to frequent crying or otherwise intense mood swings
- Anxiety and excessive worry, including fear and panic when it does not seem warranted
- Changes in social or academic performance, often pulling away from people and things they enjoyed
- Behavioral outbursts, including instances of uncontrolled anger or aggression
- Use of substances such as alcohol, vaping, or drugs specifically to cope with emotions
Your child may benefit from one-on-one support from a licensed pediatric provider in these situations. We encourage you to reach out for insight even if you’re not sure.
Treatment At Willow Creek Can Mean a Better Tomorrow
Willow Creek Behavioral Health is a resource for anyone struggling with mental health disorders, including teens and children. Mental health treatment for children is vastly different in structure and goal than it is for adults. And we accommodate that.
Learn more about what we can offer you and your children. Contact us now to learn more.
