• Question: Do mental health issues appear in childhood or are they developed later on in life? If so, what causes mental health issues in children?

    Asked by anon-184169 to Tom, sarahhodge, Owen, Nathan, Lorna, Abbie on 7 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Abbie Jordan

      Abbie Jordan answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      Wow, another big question. I actually think it is more individual. For some people, mental health issues appear in childhood but for others, they appear later on. It depends on what the mental health issue is (e.g. there are timepoints where we know rates of particular mental health conditions increase). Teenage years can be one of those times.

      As for cause, this is tricky as some mental health conditions have a small genetic explanation (so you are more likely to be diagnosed with schisophrenia if you have a relative with this diagnosis than if you don’t have a relative with this diagnosis). But, there are many other risk factors for developing schizophrenia and other mental health conditions. I was just using this as an example. If you take depression, it might be because of a situation specific factor such as someone losing their job or someone they love. It’s hard to say as it is very specific to each individual.

    • Photo: Tom Gallagher-Mitchell

      Tom Gallagher-Mitchell answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      Lorna is correct here, one thing to bear in mind is that we all have mental health and this will fluctuate, it is not static. So any negative or positive life event can have an impact upon it. Childhood and negative events therein can have some longer impacts, but these are not fixed and can be re mediated with support. Equally so, a very negative event could impact on you as an adult where up until then you have experienced fairly good mental health, but this changes your perspective.

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