CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
Dr V Anand Prakash Rao Ghorpade
Ways to tackle abnormal fear among children
F
irst and foremost, I would like to thank you for picking up this article to read. I invite you to accompany me in this inward journey of the mind and its common problems. A few days back, one anxious mother visited me to take advice from me about her only daughter’s abnormal fear and some physical symptoms which were noticed since a month-and-a-half. As I started examining her from the psychiatric angle, looking into the past events of the person that may have led to this problem, it became very clear that her psychological problem was not very serious and that her mother was overreacting to it. The seven-year-old child, who entered into first standard this year, had developed an abnormal fear from the smell of insecticide and the sighting of a millipede in the bathroom. During such panic attacks, she used to complain about a burning sensation all over the body, expressing the fear that she may not live at all. She was also not allowing others to switch on the mosquito repellant in
the house. These symptoms were absent when the child was with her friends or engaged in studies etc. This problem has not had any kind of impact on her sleep, appetite or studies. The child’s mother was over concerned about it because of a few doubts. Has this problem arisen because of parental attitude? Is this problem going to last for a long time or is it a transitory one? Psychiatrists consider these kind of problems in children as cases of simple phobia, which is very natural and common. They outgrow it over a period of time. Some children may not be able to outgrow it and may develop different kinds of abnormal fear during their adult life. Hence the slogan “Prevention is better than cure”. How can we prevent these kinds of abnormal fear among children? A child’s mind undergoes constant changes until adolescence because of various aspects of environmental stimuli to which they are exposed during their growth period. Curiosity and inquisitiveness are the hallmark of
childhood, which helps them gain more and more practical knowledge about life. During this period, the presence of a teacher/guide, invariably parents, is of paramount importance. Parents act like a role model to children to inculcate good values in them. This is what we call ego, whose function is to balance the inner desires and parental or social control. Balanced ego results in ideal or satisfactory behaviour and thus the personality of that individual is also stable. In the present case, there was a failure of ego which landed the child in an abnormal state. Parental approach towards such children has to be very refined and tactful, so that natural abilities are not thwarted and chances of he or she becoming a stable person are not lost. These preventive measures are of utmost importance, though they are usually not given enough attention, which results in psychological problems in later years. You may be wondering that talking is very easy but carrying it out in practice is difficult. You are right, but that does not mean that one has to take a helpless position. Rather, one has to think of correcting one’s mistakes often so that the quality of life is much better. Here, I would like to emphasise the values of one’s culture and religious practices, which should never be ignored because they offer good defence. Children are considered as the biopsy of the family. Whenever a child is brought for consultation, the whole family has to be examined before the child. Our journey ends here, and I wish you and your family a good and prosperous health. (Retired Professor & Head of the Department of Psychiatry, M S Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru. He is also the Consultant Psychiatrist at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. The author can be reached at anandprakashg@yahoo.com)
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FUTURE MEDICINE I August 2012