Currently, we're all dealing with a lot.
The pandemic, stress at home caused by increase in fuel, energy, rent and food prices. Knife crime, the war, and now shootings.
And this is all on top of the usual things you anxiously anticipate your little ones could be dealing with, like exam pressure, first heartbreak and anxiety.
READ MORE: 'Obedient children become obedient adults' less likely to stand up for themselves
The current climate has us enduring more than we ever used to and it's difficult to know what information may be negatively effecting your children’s mental health.
Not checking in regularly can cause our little ones to be dealing with negative thoughts alone. This may cause relatively small issues to develop into more serious problems that we may not notice until our child is struggling to keep a lid on things, and become so upset we feel helpless and far out of our depth.
Sometimes an open conversation may be all that's required put your child's mind at rest. But your child may be too fearful of upsetting you, or causing further stress in the home, to let you know they’re struggling.
But there's a tool that is invaluable to parents by allowing them have a snapshot of how their child is feeling at any given time. Especially if they’re struggling to open up to you.
Dr Sarah Vohra @themindmedic on Instagram is a consultant psychiatrist who wrote the incredible book Mental Health in Children and Young People, which includes an invaluable tip for checking on your child’s mental health. Its a simple traffic light system, where each light directly corresponds to their current mental state, at any given moment.
Green means, I'm having a good day, managing my emotions well, feeling positive, I don’t have any negative thoughts about myself or feel like I want to hurt myself.
Amber means, I'm finding things difficult, I think you need to sit down and talk to me, I have dark thoughts in my head and think about hurting myself but I don’t think I’ll act on them. I may need to see a doctor.
Red means, I'm really struggling, finding it difficult to control my emotions, thoughts in my head are getting darker and stronger. I may not want to talk to you and you may need to call the GP, emergency services or take me to A&E for advice.
When you’re both feeling light and well and you’re in a comfortable place where your child is likely to open up to you, explain the system and talk in detail about what each colour means.
Then, moving forward you’re both fully equipped to be able to check in and talk about their current mental state, even if they don’t have the words to describe it. You could send the traffic light emoji in a text and they could text back with a heart emoji in the colour that relates most to how they feel.
You could also use cards at home, each with a different colour. Ask them to show you a card every time they want to let you know how they’re feeling.
For younger children, you can draw faces on paper - sad, straight or happy face so your child can easily let you know how they feel at any given moment.
At the very least, it will help to encourage your child to think about their mental health and communicate to others about how they feel. Which is great practice for healthy adult life.
Find out more about this tip and a huge amount of other invaluable information about a whole range of issues effecting young people in Dr Vohra’s book. You can find more information on Dr Vohra's Instagram account.
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