Mental illnesses pose a substantial pattern to the child. And this could progress into adulthood if the child does not get the treatment in time, so we adults who are raising this children or who are supporting this children, it's very important that we do equip ourselves with the skills and the knowledge that would help this children to thrive and be able to, you know, gain or achieve emotional resilience that they need. Now, I'm going to be discussing three elements that we adults have to be aware of. And the first one is an awful lot of symptoms. Because when a child experiences mental issues, it's most likely that there is something that is more than what we're observing. So they can leave and wait also blowing up behaviors that children may learn in order To help them to cope with the mental health issues that they're experiencing.
Thirdly, I'm going to be looking at the difficulties that a child might experience in the long run. This would be social, emotional, physical, and economic difficulties. Okay. Let me start off with the overlap of symptoms. I'm going to use an example of a child that I worked with and this child was aged eight, the parent was concerned because the child would want to get on the bus. Now, this went on to an extent that the child not want to, you know, attend school.
She started missing school every morning there was something wrong with her. So she would have headaches in the morning she would have some form of, you know, stomach book She would have physical symptoms in the morning, that would be something wrong with the child in the morning. And as a result that impacted of her performance at school. The parent was so concerned that she came in score and you know, talk to the teacher, and the teacher referred the child to me for assessment. When I assessed the child, it was very clear that the child was fearful. The child reported that she was fearful because she didn't know when to come to school.
If she got on the bus and came to school, then something would happen to her mom. She did not want to lose her mom. She did not want something to happen to her mom. Now, when that happened, and initially she didn't, you know, think that it will, you know, get to a situation where she would, you know, start feeling that she was different but as time went on, she developed negative coping leaves out of And then, you know, she started feeling that she was different. She started thinking, but she was not good enough. And as time progressed, and she couldn't get on the bus, the mom had no option but to get on the bus with her, which was sort of like a reinforcement of her being different.
And these negative core beliefs then resulted in loss of esteem, because she lost confidence in herself. So during assessment, she reported the symptoms that were also indicative of loss of, of loss of esteem. So not only was she anxious, but she was also an experiencing loss of confidence. Statistics show that 80 to 90% of children meet criteria have more than one mental health disorder. So we who are Raising the student who all who are working with this children, it's crucial that we do understand that what we are observing, maybe just to have icepack. So getting understand a bit more about what it is that they're going through will be very crucial.
Making the referrals if we have to be very crucial and as early as possible. If we don't, then this children could end up, you know, learning behaviors that they would use to help them to cope with what they're experiencing. Mainly as they grow older and get into adolescence, as adolescents, it may be paramount that they mask the pain that with emotional pain that they're going through. And that could, you know, mean that they would have to learn behaviors that are very unhelpful. This behaviors would include smoking We've seen teenagers smoking, but they're smoking because they need to conform or because they need to cope with the pain that they're experiencing. They would love to use alcohol.
And unfortunately, you know, they that could lead to a cold addiction. They could learn to be physically inactive. And if they're physically inactive, that would lead to obesity or it could lead to other complications. They could learn to use substances to cope with the pain that the you know, they are going through a substance misuse. And then there would be Insomnia, Sleep disturbance because the spending ordinated thinking about or worrying about what the morning is going to bring for them. You know, the experiences that they are going through.
They would love gambling later in life. Also, you know, end up in gang lifestyles. And that's because of conformity. Because they have to conform. They have to, you know, show their friends, that they're worth something. So they would learn to, you know, do things that others would approve, so they would get into behaviors that will lead to approval.
And because of the need of approval, you would find that this children get themselves into guns. And unfortunately, that is something that is happening in society, and increasingly it is becoming a problem. So for us to prevent our children from getting into gangs, getting into addictions, you know, getting into club illnesses. It's very crucial that we equip ourselves with the knowledge and skills now and help them Okay. Now, if we do not do that they'll go through adolescence with this unhelpful behaviors. And unfortunately, that then would lead into difficulties in adulthood.
And this difficulties would include social, emotional, physical and economic difficulties, you would find that these children would struggle to form and maintain relationships, so they would have interpersonal relationship difficulties. This would mean then they weren't don't have difficulties, you know, at work in their relationships, intimate relationships, in their marriages, if they're married, and with family, you know, members, and over time, they'll be isolated and don't feel lonely. And this is just basically a reinforcement of the mental health issues that are already experienced. They would also have impaired occupational function, which means that they would have difficulties finding employment or even keeping employment if they get one, because they cannot relate in the work situation. Also, because of the fact that they cannot keep a job or they cannot find a job, then it's most likely that they'll have poor quality of life. Because of that, you'd find that they also have medical conditions and psychiatric conditions.
And this would be overlapping or both of them at the same time. Additionally, they would also be experiencing this chronic depression and anxiety. And it's not a good place to be. We wouldn't like our children to get to chronic depression and anxiety because it would mean that they would live a life of isolation. Or the woods, live a life of fear all the time. And we don't want to our children to get there.
If they're fearful, then you'd find that or they're withdrawn, you would find that they'll get themselves in a situation of helplessness and hopelessness. And if they're helpless, or if they're hopeless, then what may happen is that they will feel that life is not worth living. And if they felt that life is not worth living consistently, then it's most likely that they'll get to a point of wanting to take their lives. So we need to do something now to prevent this children from getting to that point. We as adults, who are raising the student, or who are working with the student,