- Published: November 13, 2021
- Updated: November 13, 2021
- University / College: University of Cambridge
- Language: English
- Downloads: 29
Mental health is important at every stage of life, from infancy to childhood to adolescence, also adulthood and older adults. Mental health includes our emotion and social wellbeing. It affects how we think feel and how we do things. It can also determine how we handle stress and how we can relate to others and how we make choices. They are many different health risks related to mental health and they can all happen at different life stages. For infants and early childhood, the importance of attachment with the infant and mother is important for them to feel secure, loved and to feel at ease. The absences or rejection of the mother or care giver can lead the child to feel uneasy and insecure and sometimes it can leave them feeling anxious.
Parents who have a hard time bonding with the child due to not having enough time to spend with them or other issues such as exposing negative behavior to them when they are around, it can lead to the child having behavior problem when they are older or the opposite. It can have a negative impact on them as an individual as they will be exposed to stress and anxiety. For children it is vital to develop different life skills which can be useful for them to have a better future. However negative experiences can cause this to change. This can happen over time or at once. By having negative experience at home or at school and change their perspective in many ways. At home they may be problems that can frustrate the whole family and even the child, it can also lead the child to feel abandon by the parent as they may no spend as much time or attention on them. This can lead them to feel alone and left out and over time it could possibly lead to depression.
Similar things could happen in school for example as they may feel left out when doing group activities or they may have no one to play with. There could be a school bully who picks on them all the time and this can lead them to have anxiety. Persistent bulling or abuse can have a long-lasting effect on the person health and it can be traumatic to them. For adolescence is a very important stage in life because it’s like a passage from being a child to an adult. This stage in life is important as they will experience a whole range thing as they progress through the life stage and experience different things, which can affect them in different ways. They can be exposed to drugs, alcohol and tobacco. This can alter the way a person may think leading them to make choices that seem harmful or dangerous.
Mental health of young people is now rising as social media is playing a big part in it. Family and friend relationship can also play a part in it as well as education. Young people are more commonly getting depression anxiety and eating disorders, as well as substance misuse disorder. This can be a result in peer and social pressures as they want to fit in with other and not to be seen a unique individual. It can also be a result in poor family relationship or loss of close friend and family. Autism, panic disorder and PTSD are the less common disorders seen in adolescence. In 2014, 19. 7% of people in the UK aged 16 and over showed symptoms of anxiety or depression – a 1. 5% increase from 2013. This percentage was higher among females (22. 5%) than males (16. 8%).
As for adulthood, by having a secure and good adolescence and childhood as well as good emotional control and socialising skills are better at dealing with the world around them and will be better at dealing with hardship in the future from work, family life and relationships. By having a good working life make people feel content and knowing that they can support them themselves and they would have less risks of having a mental health disorder. Unemployment can be a risk of have mental health illness as a person can feel depressed knowing that they have no income to support themselves or their family. This could further lead on to extreme depression as they may feel like they no use to anyone if they can’t get income in for their family.
The person can feel frustrated with themselves as they can’t get a job, result of it they may loss they appetite or even start to comfort eat. It would take some time for the person to come to terms with the fact that they may have a mental health disorder, but support is available for them if they want help. If they want to help themselves they can try breathing exercises or online counselling, if they want to receive professional help they could go to the GP to prescribe some medication which are right for their health. For example, for Depression they can get prescribe anti-depressants. Depression is the predominant mental health problem worldwide, followed by anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The health risk of mental health for old age is when older adults have a loss of a close family member for example husband or wife or their child in which they can fall in to depression or social isolation.
Bereavement is one of the many risks for depression. Social isolation is when a person totally cuts out contact from other people around them and society. This can lead to a person feeling lonely. Older adult is more prone to getting a disease which can stop their mobility, which stops them from going out and seeing the world and meeting others around them. The elderly is also very vulnerable to physical abuse and neglect be care and family members. This can affect them very negatively as their mental health can become worse. In 2013, depression was the second leading cause of years lived with a disability worldwide, behind lower back pain. In 26 countries, depression was the primary driver of disability.
