Modern parents should know the causes, symptoms, types of neurosis in children, because such a he alth problem has recently become more common. The term implies psychogenic pathologies, when a person reacts to a trauma of a mental nature. It can be provoked by a prolonged situation affecting the individual, a sudden incident or a sharply perceived event. In childhood, this situation is especially hard to bear.
Where did the trouble come from?
A variety of situations can provoke neuroses in children 3 years old and older. Quite often, the reason is in the emotional trauma that affected the psyche of the little man. A genetic factor or pathologies that the child suffered at some point in his life can play a role. Relationships between parents in the family, as well as communication with other representatives of society, have a significant impact on the mental state of the baby.
Overload, including emotional, can affect the stability of the mental state. They play their roleand increased physical tension, lack of time for night rest. Much depends on the parents and the methods of education they use. Any mistakes can cause neurosis in children in a mild, and sometimes severe form, other disorders of the mental state of a man.
Problem: how does it manifest itself?
Of course, the baby himself cannot tell that he needs neurosis treatment. In children, only older people can notice this condition. The main task of parents is to pay attention to the child in time and seek qualified help, as well as eliminate the factors that caused such a violation. The key phenomenon that provokes a mental disorder is the confrontation between the individual and the world around him. This leads to hysteria, is a powerful foundation for psychological conflict. As a rule, a child has an overestimated level of claims, while the surrounding space is unable to satisfy such requests.
It is known that neuroses in children and adolescents are often accompanied by a tendency to overwork, although such efforts are much higher than the real capabilities of a particular person. Of the frequent causes that provoke such a state, parental influence should be especially noted. The elders encourage children to new and new achievements, urge them to achieve success, not at all considering how great the possibilities of a particular individual are, how strong the child is. Duty and personal desires come into conflict, which leads to mental disorders. Often in a difficult situation there are children whose individual aspirations gocontrary to the moral standards taught by him. Of considerable importance are the personal attachments of a particular individual.
Children's form: features of pathology
Specific neuroses in preschool children are due to the fact that this condition develops while the personality is still being formed, and the result of this process, as numerous case studies have shown, depends on the approach to the educational process practiced in the family. There are many cases when parents overprotect the child, are not ready to accept his individuality, indulge the negative qualities of a person or treat the child too harshly, authoritatively. All of them lead to incorrect personality formation, create the basis for a variety of mental disorders. Such approaches to education can pervert the child's temperament, the features given to him by nature.
Incorrect interaction between elders and younger in the family can cause a violation of the direction of reactions. At the same time, persistent negative character traits are created. Studies show that many children have a pre-neurotic personality radical, that is, the child feels that he is not good enough, inferior. Over time, this leads to anxiety. Sooner or later, a person encounters something that plays the role of a trigger. This event is perceived inadequately, which becomes the start of the development of pathology - and now psychotherapy is needed. Neurosis in children and adolescents is indeed a very common problem in our society in recent times.
Start off
If external conditions, specific features of the family and other factors have created the basis for mental disorders, the role of the triggering factor can be played by the most insignificant event. There is a possibility that the symptoms of neurosis in children will suddenly appear after a careless, harsh phrase, a remark formulated with the aim of offending the child. Sudden changes in living conditions can play a role. All these factors are united by a single result - a neurosis develops.
As shown by numerous studies, the manifestations of neurosis in a child of a young age are more often associated with biological characteristics. The older the individual, the less important this factor becomes. Of the most striking, typical causes, it is necessary to mention nervousness, neuropathy. As can be seen from medical statistics, the number of such cases has been steadily increasing recently.
Psyche, medicine and the beginning of beginnings
Medicine knows several types of neurosis in children. In the general case, violations are in the wrong emotional background, on which the personal characteristics of the individual are based. Neuropathy is often provoked by diseases transferred by the mother during the period of gestation. If a woman in an “interesting position” was a lot nervous, and the birth process itself was complicated, the likelihood of a neurosis in a child is significantly higher than under favorable circumstances.
There are also known cases when diseases transferred during pregnancy, complications provoked encephalopathy, based onin which the child developed ADHD in the future. This feature of development leads to severe adaptation in social institutions. Often, obsessive-compulsive disorder in children with ADHD causes frequent breakdowns, forcing the child to be urgently hospitalized. Changes in stereotypes associated with everyday life are especially dangerous.
This is important
ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is a mental pathology, regarding which official medicine has not yet developed a unified position. While some specialists confidently diagnose the disease and prescribe drugs to eliminate it, others deny the very existence of such a problem, explaining all manifestations by individual personality traits, that is, they deny the pathological nature. Such disputes have been going on for more than a decade around the world, the most prominent figures in the psychiatric community are entering into controversy, but so far it has not been possible to formulate a final decision.
There is every chance that one doctor will diagnose a child with ADHD and assume an increased risk of developing nervous pathologies, and prescribe a potent drug to prevent neurosis in children, while another specialist will formulate the conclusion as the complete absence of mental he alth disorders. To some extent, both will be right, but at the same time both will be wrong.
Age and psychological problems
Methods for eliminating the neuroses of children, the neuroses of parents differ quite strongly. At the same time, it is worth remembering the impact on the clinical manifestations of the disease of causes,causing developmental disabilities. Studies show that among children of preschool age and even younger, classical variants of the course of the disease are extremely rarely recorded. This is due to the lack of maturity of the individual. The child is not yet self-aware enough to cause conflict. For young patients, neurotic reactions are more characteristic. The structure of this phenomenon is quite simple. Nervosa can be systemic, sometimes a monosymptomatic form is diagnosed.
Most often, neurosis in a child of three years of age and earlier is manifested by enuresis, stuttering. Conditioned reflex connections are possible - intense activity during affective tension and the state of affect itself. In practice, one of the frequent cases is defensive movements, which eventually provoke a neurotic tic. Systemic neurosis, which at first manifests itself as a neurotic response of the body, can easily become persistent in the future. During the period of study at school, in the adolescent stage of growing up, there is a high probability of the formation of a neurotic state, similar to the development of the personality. Such an outcome can only be prevented by the attentive attitude of parents to the child and seeking qualified help, if necessary.
Symptomatology: how to suspect a problem
The primary manifestations of a mental disorder largely depend on what kind of trauma provoked the violation. The specific personal characteristics of a particular person also play a role. Characteristic features allowdetermine the neurosis in a child and classify him in one of the well-known groups. Particular attention is paid to hysteria, suspiciousness, sensitivity. A thorough analysis of the condition allows you to understand whether hysteria is present, whether an obsessive neurosis has developed, or whether adequate therapy for neurasthenia is needed.
And more details?
Hysteria is quite common, for which doctors are very well aware of all the main characteristic symptoms. The treatment of neurosis in children, if this type is identified, is not an easy task. A person with such a disorder tends to inspire himself with ideas about the world around him, at the same time he is suggestible, amenable to external factors. Children with hysteria are impressionable, selfish, sensitive. They are characterized by sharp mood swings, egocentrism. The child demands from others to be recognized. Such a neurosis is provoked by excessive claims, while personality traits do not correspond to them. Often this form develops in a baby who is at home from birth - the center of attention and everyone's favorite.
Hysterical neurosis in a child is manifested by numerous, varied symptoms. To a greater extent, this is typical if the personality develops according to a hysterical pattern; manifestations are often monosymptomatic.
How to notice?
Hysteria can cause respiratory neurosis in children. To a greater extent, this is characteristic of juvenile patients. Such attacks are not uncommon, if the child is alone in the family, his parents unreasonably pamper him. If the baby is dissatisfied with something, he startscrying, and when this does not work, a seizure begins with respiratory arrest. A similar attack can provoke anger, also caused by a lack of attention to the desires of the child.
With age, neurosis in children manifests itself in a wide variety of situations. There may be seizures similar to epilepsy, suffocation, reminiscent of asthma. The seizure is theatrical, the child takes expressive poses. The duration of such a period in the presence of an observer is unpredictably long. Most of the complaints formulated by the child do not correspond to his real condition, revealed during a professional medical examination.
Neurasthenia: what's the point?
In this form, a neurosis in a child is manifested by irritability, weakness. The kid is inclined to cry, at the slightest pretext, a state of passion is possible, a violent expression of emotions, after which a period of repentance begins. Sometimes the child is lethargic, passive, but such periods are replaced by anxiety, motor activity. Changes of mood are quite frequent, the probability of depression is high. Many children suffer from a lack of attention, they get tired quickly. Efficiency with neurasthenia is lowered, and in the mornings the head hurts. Characterized by headache and overstrain - mental, mental, fatigue in general. Often headaches are constant, as if squeezing the head.
Children of the school period, adolescence and older with neurasthenia are prone to hypochondria, consider the disease incurable and very severe. Often the course is complicated by sleep problems:it is difficult to fall asleep, the rest itself is shallow, nightmares are frequent, the patient constantly wakes up. Neurasthenia in a fairly large percentage of cases is accompanied by night terrors. Most often they are associated with the experienced day. Vegetative disorders are possible - trembling, pallor, redness of the skin, a violation of the rhythm of the heartbeat.
Obsessive neurosis in children
Such a mental disorder is often due to the individual characteristics of the individual. More often it is observed in insecure and indecisive children, fearful, prone to suspiciousness. There are many cases of family history: parents in childhood were also suspicious and anxious. From a very young age, kids are afraid of the new. Fears are sometimes associated with animals, insects, darkness. Many children are terrified of being alone. With age, anxiety, suspiciousness do not weaken, many develop a fear of contracting a disease. Often such children set prohibitions for themselves, thereby trying to protect themselves from “something bad”. The clinical picture allows diagnosing obsessional neurosis.
Treatment of obsessive neurosis in children should be entrusted to a qualified doctor. This condition is difficult for both patients and relatives to endure. Many patients suffer from a variety of phobias - insects, death, disease. Psychological protection from fears is realized through obsessive actions, some of which have a ritual character. For example, a child may constantly wash their hands or slap. Over the years, the individual is more and more subject to doubts, thoughts. At the same time, many criticize the manifestations of such thinking withthe parties are trying to fight the obsessive actions noticed in themselves, which leads to the formation of new protection rituals.
Neurotic tics
Often this is how an obsessive state manifests itself, when a neurosis is still being formed. At the same time, the child feels alienated, tries to delay the tics, which becomes the basis for the formation of an even more complex ritual. The hysterical personality is distinguished by demonstrative tics, which are activated under the influence of external circumstances. The proximity of the persons to whom the symptomatology is directed has a particularly strong effect. If a child suffers from neurasthenia, a tick can be activated with somatic pathology that exacerbates other symptoms of the disease. If the situation that traumatizes the child's psyche is chronic, the neurotic state transforms over time, and tics become its main symptomatology.
Speech problems
With neurosis, many children develop stuttering. The term implies failures in the rhythm of speech, a violation of smoothness. The reason for this is convulsive muscle contractions. With neurosis, stuttering is first recorded at the age of two to four years. More often it is provoked by a strong fright, a different sharp impression. The frequency of manifestation of a symptom depends on the intensity of the processes of development of thinking. Much is also determined by how quickly the ability to use complex phrases in speech is acquired.
For young patients, convulsions of a clonic nature, tonic are distinguished. As they grow older, tonic ones dominate. Knownthe influence of the hereditary factor. If there have already been cases of stuttering in the family, the likelihood of developing such a phenomenon in a child is much higher. Violation activation occurs in a stressful situation. Often, attempts to pronounce words are accompanied by additional movements, as if facilitating the task of pronunciation. Sometimes it's tics in the facial muscle fibers, some snap their fingers or stomp their feet.
Situations are different
Stuttering, provoked by neurosis, is more characteristic of those whose speech develops faster than the norm or at a standard pace. If the speech climate in the permanent environment of the child is adequate, there are no genetic factors for the formation of the deviation, therapeutic measures are required. A timely and responsible approach allows you to completely eradicate the problem soon - it takes no more than a couple of weeks under the supervision of a qualified doctor.
Sometimes stuttering develops against the background of affect, shock, severe fright, after which the baby completely loses the power of speech for some time. Even with adequate therapy, there is a risk of relapse in the future. If the case is especially severe, stuttering is fixed, a speech stereotype is formed. In such a situation, logoneurosis is diagnosed. The disease is undulating in nature, from time to time it is activated. This is provoked by psychogenic situations - for example, the period of exams or increased workload in an educational institution. Logoneurosis often becomes stronger during adolescence, when the child is acutely aware of the lack. At the same time, logophobia develops.
Enuresis
Perhaps this symptom of childhood neurosis is the most famous. The term refers to urinary incontinence during the night's rest. In some cases, the neurological develops as a continuation of the physiological. If a child falls too deeply into sleep, it is impossible to create a “watchdog point” in the cerebral cortex. Neurosis and enuresis should be associated when the manifestations of incontinence are provoked by trauma to the psyche, a change in life circumstances, a stereotype. Very often, such a violation causes a transition to a nursery, kindergarten, or the birth of another child in the family.
Long-term studies of the phenomenon have led to reasonable conclusions regarding the close relationship between enuresis and problems with sleep mechanisms. The clinical picture varies significantly, much is determined by the external influence on the patient's emotions. If the influence of traumatic factors is excluded for a certain time period, incontinence is observed less frequently, sometimes it disappears completely. There is a noticeable relationship between the likelihood of developing enuresis and shyness of the child, increased susceptibility, and a tendency to worry. Against the background of enuresis, children develop a complex of their own inferiority. Over time, this leads to a significant complication of the situation, the child develops a closed.
