Mental disorders in children and adolescents are less chronic and more temporary than in adults. The severity of mental illnesses in teenagers is low because children’s brains are still growing and evolving, making them more malleable and resilient than adults (Otto et al., 2021). The mental disorders in children and adults are similar in terms of their symptoms. For instance, symptoms of anxiety disorder are not different from those experienced by children (Collins & Muñoz-Solomando, 2018). Both children and adults experience sleeping difficulties, uneasiness, panic, restlessness, irregular heartbeats, breath shortness, nausea, chest pains, dizziness, cold sweats, and lack of focus (Hasson-Ohayon et al., 2019). Although mental disorders in children and adults differ, they also share some symptoms.
The DSM-5 criteria are helpful in the early detection of mental disorders among teenagers. The guidelines help identify mental problems in that clinicians can target the signs most likely to be symptoms of mental health illness using specific principles (Bartels et al., 2019). For instance, the DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing substance abuse list signs, such as having legal issues, engaging in risky activities, and ignoring obligations, which are frequent among teenagers coping with substance misuse. Similar symptoms, such as sleeping difficulties, avoiding anxiety-provoking events, and excessive worry, have been mentioned in the DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing anxiety disorders (Udo & Grilo, 2019). These symptoms are typical of all teenagers dealing with anxiety disorders.
Sometimes, parents, teachers, and professionals might erroneously believe that a child has a mental disorder. In other instances, one might be familiar with the symptoms of a disease and make presumptions that the child satisfies the requirements just because they are displaying some of the signs. Research by (“Florida National University,” 2019) reveals that failure to have the proper training can lead to misdiagnosing mental disorders among children. According to “Florida National University,” (2019), this is a significant problem in the United States, mainly in Miami and Florida, because children are misdiagnosed with ODD, ASD, ADHD, and bipolar disorder. Therefore, misdiagnosis cases are prevalent among teenagers and make children get subjected to therapies or other interventions to treat a condition they do not have.
References
Bartels, L., Berliner, L., Holt, T., Jensen, T., Jungbluth, N., Plener, P., & Sachser, C. (2019). The importance of the DSM‐5 posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms of cognitions and mood in traumatized children and adolescents: Two network approaches. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60(5), 545-554. Web.
“Children & mental disorders” by FNU’s Psychology Club. (2019). Web.
Collins, A., & Muñoz-Solomando, A. (2018). The transition from child and adolescent to adult mental health services with a focus on diagnosis progression. BJPsych bulletin, 42(5), 188-192. Web.
Hasson-Ohayon, I., Goldzweig, G., Lavi-Rotenberg, A., Roe, D., & Pijnenborge, G. H. M. (2019). Illness representations among parents of children and adults with serious mental disorders: A systematic review and theoretical model. European Psychiatry, 58, 27-37. Web.
Otto, C., Reiss, F., Voss, C., Wüstner, A., Meyrose, A. K., Hölling, H., & Ravens-Sieberer, U. (2021). Mental health and well-being from childhood to adulthood: design, methods, and results of the 11-year follow-up of the BELLA study. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 30(10), 1559-1577. Web.
Udo, T., & Grilo, C. M. (2019). Psychiatric and medical correlates of DSM‐5 eating disorders in a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 52(1), 42-50. Web.