{"id":209876,"date":"2025-09-08T09:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209876\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:40:10","slug":"early-onset-of-mental-illnesses-in-children-unpacking-the-alarming-mental-health-trend-chennai-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209876\/","title":{"rendered":"Early onset of mental illnesses in children: Unpacking the alarming mental health trend | Chennai News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EarlyPsychiatrists are observing a disturbing trend of increasing mental health issues, including suicidal ideation and self-harm, in children as young as nine. Studies reveal a significant rise in anxiety disorders among Indian children and adolescents. In the past few months, Dr S Janani, psychiatrist, has been experiencing a phenomenon which is as \u201cdisturbing as it was concerning\u201d she says. \u201cFour children in the age group nine to 15 consulted me, all of whom were suicidal. A couple of them even attempted suicide through overdosing, stealing grandparents\u2019 medications.\u201dWhat was even more worrying, she says, was the way the children spoke of suicide. \u201cThey were very clear and open about the fact that they didn\u2019t want to live,\u201d she says.Early signs of most major mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia start showing between 14 and 18, but nowadays she is coming across mood disorders in children as young as nine and 10 years old, says Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, psychiatrist and the founder of suicide helpline SNEHA. \u201cI got a patient recently who was just nine years old, with hypomanic episodes, a symptom of which is that the person loses all inhibitions. The boy was confident, but extremely restless in class, not listening to the teacher and answering back, besides singing and dancing. He would ask the teachers things like: \u201cWhy are you wearing this kind of attire?\u201d or \u201cYou don’t have hair on your head\u201d. The teachers complained to the parents, who were upset as they realised that the child was the same at home as well. He would tell the neighbour, an old man, \u201cYou are drinking every Saturday. Do you know how damaging it is?\u201dThe doctors were in a quandary as they don\u2019t prescribe medications for the condition for children. \u201cBecause there are many drugs which have not been tested on children. Only when it is absolutely necessary, do we do it,\u201d says Dr Lakshmi.Besides such cases, she also comes across children below the age of 12 who engage in self-harm; cutting their wrists using compasses, blades etc. \u201cThese are things you usually see in older children, but now it\u2019s happening in younger ones. These are all cries for help,\u201d says Dr Janani.A study on the \u2018trajectory of suicide among Indian children and adolescents\u2019, a pooled analysis of national data from 1995 to 2021 and published in Springer Nature in 2024 found that a rising trend of suicide rate among children and adolescents was observed in India over the past 26 years. A 2024 study published in Frontiers using Global Burden of Disease data and an Age\u2013Period\u2013Cohort (APC) analysis showed that from 1992 to 2021, India\u2019s incidence of anxiety disorders rose dramatically \u2014 by 113.3% overall. There were two notable peaks in incidence: adolescence (ages 10-14) and mid-life (ages 35-39). The emergence of a distinct peak in the 10-14 age group indicates that anxiety disorders are being first diagnosed at younger ages over time. The medical fraternity is divided on the reasons for this phenomenon, with some saying that childhood depression and other mental health conditions have always been there and also described in literature. \u201cIt could be a perceived increase rather, as we started noticing them,\u201d says Dr Ennapadam Krishnamoorthy, neuropsychiatrist, Buddhi clinic, who recently got a 13-year-old patient with significant, schizophrenic symptoms, including auditory hallucinations. \u201cBipolar disorder in adolescence is not uncommon anymore,\u201d he says.There is an increased awareness about mental health issues in children and he often comes across many who self diagnose and make their parents bring them to the psychiatrist. \u201c\u2018I told you this when I was 10 years old. You never listened to me\u2019, they\u2019d tell the parents,\u201d says Dr Krishnamoorthy.Far from being stigmatised, it\u2019s almost fashionable in the younger generation, he says. \u201cThey come in saying, \u2018Doc, I think I got ADHD\u2019 and are very disappointed if I tell them no.\u201dSome of the kids she spoke to are cognizant of many of the terminologies of mental health, which she didn’t know about till she joined college, says Dr Janani. \u201cThe children themselves wanting to seek support is a positive trend. School counsellors are also actively involving themselves with children and their families, with schools becoming more supportive of a child who has mental health issues. If a friend has a difficult family or a difficult day, the children talk about it. \u2018My friend has anxiety, and that’s okay. It doesn’t make him or her very different\u2019 is the attitude.\u201dThose with a genetic history of these illnesses show signs earlier, so do those with social media addiction, says Dr Lakshmi. “For every one hour increase in internet and social media viewing, there is an 8% to 10% increase in anxiety and depression.\u201dAt the same time, the change in family structures could also be contributing to early occurrence of these conditions, says Dr Krishnamoorthy. \u201cIn the past, there was always someone in the extended family the child could rely on or at least talk to; grandparents, uncles, aunts, or cousins. That cushion is non-existent now. Children are being ferried from one class to the other, with no downtime.\u201d To such an extent that when they say the student needs to come to therapy, the parent\u2019s reaction is \u2018where is the time?\u2019, says Dr Krishnamoorthy.The burden of expectations from parents is high, as the parents, the first generation to see prosperity of some kind, are aspirational about their children, he says.Some argue that climate change, plastics etc. impact children\u2019s mental health biologically, causing more instances of neuro divergence, but the jury is out on that, says psychologist Mahesh Natarajan, InnerSight. \u201cBut it is a harder time to be a young person in the world with greater pressures affecting children.\u201dEarly puberty could also play a role in earlier occurrences of mental health conditions, as the child is not equipped to deal with the hormonal changes which come with it, says Dr Lakshmi. What is the way forward? Yes, parents are more educated, and the stigma is reducing, at least in cities, but there is resistance and hesitancy on the part of both the family and the children to come in and talk, says Janani. \u201cThe earlier the identification, earlier the rectification, the better the prognosis.\u201dThe challenge, says Mahesh, is also in ensuring that the mental health assessment and support brings understanding, and doesn’t become a badge or excuse.Reasons for early onset of mental illnesses\u00b7 Chronic sleep deprivation owing to social media addiction\u00b7 Excessive gaming\u00b7 Exposure to substance abuse of various kinds very early\u00b7 Changing family structures; no cushion of an extended family for support\u00b7 Early puberty (especially girls)\u00b7 Genetic history (more chances of early onset of mental illnesses)\u00b7 Dysfunctional families\/ absent parent\/ parent into substance\/single parent with step parent with a different parenting styleOn Tue, Sep 2, 2025 at 3:39 PM Asha Prakash enasha@gmail.com> wrote:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Psychiatrists are observing a disturbing trend of increasing mental health issues, including suicidal ideation and self-harm, in children…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[107638,107637,107639,107640,115179,115181,210,517,115178,115180,115177,107641,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-209876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-chennai-latest-news","9":"tag-chennai-news","10":"tag-chennai-news-live","11":"tag-chennai-news-today","12":"tag-children-and-mental-illnesses","13":"tag-children-mental-health-chennai","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-mental-health-children","17":"tag-rise-in-suicide-in-children","18":"tag-suicide-in-children","19":"tag-today-news-chennai","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115168020204804275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}