Essay on Mental Health Disorders in Kids and Adults: What You Need to Know

Introduction

Across the globe, children and even adults tend to face numerous kinds of abnormalities, some of which are mental. Some of these mental health disorders are common amongst young adults and children, as in the case of schizophrenia and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Therefore, significant measures do exist under such conditions, with some of them bearing similarities in traits and effects as directed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, Fifth Edition.

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In the Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology book, the author explains the causes and emergence of disorders over time. The book also describes ways of diagnosing conditions and protective measures they can implement when working with developmental health conditions in children and young adults, as in the case of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia. The author provides readers with a platform on which they can understand occurrences of child psychopathology, developmental issues they experience, critically evaluate solutions, and treatment procedures for such developmental conditions affecting children and young adolescents (Nelson, 2008).

Such efforts expose learners to clinical reviews and researches across the book by various mental health professionals and their guiding attributes to working with and identifying possible cases and similarities between unforeseen child psychopathologies. It also allows them to have an in-depth view of the causative agents of the disorders. The mitigation measures provided also play a critical role in the diagnostic processes.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

It is a form of psychopathology which affects brain development, causing impairments in the way the affected persons perceive and socialize with others. They, therefore, develop a wide range of problems both in communicating and understanding social cues. The term spectrum gets notably used to mean a wide range of symptoms and their severity (Christensen, Gronborg, Sorensen, Schendel, Parner, Pedersen, & Vestergaard, 2013).

The disorder combines previously separated conditions such as Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and pervasive developmental disorders in its engagement with a range of severity. Autism Spectrum Disorder can get diagnosed during early childhood with significant effects on how the affected person socializes and perceives general interactions (Christensen et al., 2013). Children usually offer autism symptoms during the first year with others developing typically but develop autistic symptoms after eighteen to twenty-four months. The condition has no cure, but early detection and treatment can help change the lives of the affected.

Symptoms

Some children show signs of the condition during their first year while others experience such symptoms in late childhood. These symptoms have diverse effects on both social communication, interaction, and patterns of behavior. They experience delayed speech. Other symptoms are on the inability to maintain eye contact, experiences of abnormal tone rhythm, have problems in comprehending and understanding simple questions and social cues (Lord, Elsabbagh, Baird, & Veenstra-Vanderweele, 2018). They are also unable to start conversations and repeat phrases or words in verbatim. They tend to perform repetitive body movements such as hand flapping, engage in self-harming activities, and have specific preferences for certain foods. They equally develop specific and restrictive routines.

Causes

Its causes range from multiple segments. Genetics plays an essential role in defining autistic disorders. Some children are diagnosed with a fragile X syndrome, while others experience mutations that cause them to experience autism spectrum disorder. The environment also acts as a causative agent of the condition (Lord, Baird, & Veenstra-Vanderweele, 2018). Its exposure to viral medications and infections coupled with adverse weather conditions can trigger reactions within the affected children, causing the development of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Other contributing factors include family history, parent's ages, preterm babies, and exposure due to other mental conditions as causative agents. As such, people must ensure the safety of their surroundings as one of the mitigating factors that will ensure that the disorder is under control.

Schizophrenia

It's a form of mental disorder that affects one's ability to think and differentiate between what is real and unreal correctively. The affected persons experience considerable hallucinations, delusions, distorted thinking, and irrational behavior due to impaired brain functioning (Sekar, Bialas, De Rivera, Davis, Hammond, Kamitaki, & Genovese, 2016). Children develop schizophrenic tendencies in their late teens and early adulthood, with ages ranging from sixteen to thirty years. Early detection and treatment help to curb its effects since there is no significant cure.

Symptoms

The symptoms tend to range from behavioral, emotional, and cognitive effects. They experience continuous hallucinations in which they hear and see unrealistic objects that do not exist. They also experience delusions, which are false beliefs based on their reality. They can be grandiose or persecutory (Weinstein, Chohan, Slifstein, Kegeles, Moore, & Abi-Dargham, 2017).

They tend to have disorganized speech patterns due to communication impairments and may show bizarre abnormal tendencies and features which are childish like and cannot focus on a single goal or task (Weinstein et al., 2017). Notable symptoms in teenagers may include social withdrawal tendencies from family and friends, irregular sleeping patterns, poor performance in school, experiencing depressive episodes, experience suicidal thoughts and behavior. As such, proper diagnosis is also necessary considering the near similarity of the symptoms of the disorders. A case in point is noted on speech mechanisms, to mention but a few.

Causes

The causes are unknown, with the emphasis getting placed on exposure to environmental risk factors, the genetic makeup of a person, and brain chemistry as contributing factors. These conditions can get attributed to uneven neurotransmitter imbalances in the brain. Other possible causative agents may be risk factors such as having a family history of schizophrenic conditions, birth difficulties, and usage of psychotic drugs during early childhood (Weinstein et al., 2017).

Similarities

The affected individuals of both Schizophrenia and Autism Spectrum Disorder tend to experience similar difficulties in communicating and understanding social cues. They have problems understanding and expressing their emotions and that of others. They cannot maintain eye contact, have trouble memorizing things, experience delayed speech, and reduced fluency when using words. They also experience considerable brain malfunctioning due to genetic makeup and uneven brain chemical makeup. The conditions are hereditable, with no specific cure. They can affect anyone, and the degree of their occurrence cannot be comprehended as it can vary from mild to severe based on its severity. Therefore, significant claims and emphasis need to get undertaken when attributing to specific mental health disorders. Affected individuals who have Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia need substantial help in terms of appropriate medication and psychotherapy as a way of mitigating their effects. They should be treated as ordinary individuals and offered supportive claims in terms of rights inclusion.

Conclusion

In summary, parents need to assess the mental state of their children or even adolescents as a way of mitigating growing concerns about mental health disorders. There is a need for appropriate medication and psychotherapy sessions for both the caregivers and affected individuals as a way of promoting inclusion and safety. Early diagnosis of mental health conditions can resort to seeking early treatments and bringing under control numerous health conditions as they get easily tackled, and appropriate medication gets set forth. Such efforts enable parents and their children to counteract the diverse effects posed by certain mental conditions while raising awareness of such conditions.

The government and social institutions should put into effect legislation for mental health conditions to avail mass health education services and treatment planning as a way of reducing the risk of occurrence of such mental conditions. There is a need, therefore, for elaborate structures that would help a given community and nation to mitigate cases of mental health conditions while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Appropriate educational assessment should also get offered to children and adolescents as a way of ensuring they do become victims.

References

Christensen, J., Gronborg, T. K., Sorensen, M. J., Schendel, D., Parner, E. T., Pedersen, L. H., & Vestergaard, M. (2013). Prenatal Valproate Exposure and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Childhood Autism. Jama, 309(16), 1696-1703. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4511955/

Lord, C., Elsabbagh, M., Baird, G., & Veenstra-Vanderweele, J. (2018). Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Lancet, 392(10146), 508-520. http://depts.washington.edu/lend/pmh-cor/2018/images/autism_reveiw_2018.pdf

Nelson, R. W. (2008). Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology. 8th Education. Psychology Press Book.

Sekar, A., Bialas, A. R., de Rivera, H., Davis, A., Hammond, T. R., Kamitaki, N., & Genovese, G. (2016). Schizophrenia Risk from Complex Variation of Complement Component 4. Nature, 530(7589), 177-183. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4752392/

Weinstein, J. J., Chohan, M. O., Slifstein, M., Kegeles, L. S., Moore, H., & Abi-Dargham, A. (2017). Pathway-specific Dopamine Abnormalities in Schizophrenia. Biological psychiatry, 81(1), 31-42. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5177794/