Health awareness talk on ‘adolescent depression & addiction’ held

Panchkula, October 26, 2018: A health awareness talk on ‘adolescent depression and addiction’ was held at D.A.V Police Public School (DAVPPP) , Police Lines, Panchkula on Thursday. The talk was organized by Ivy Hospital, Panchkula with association of DAVPPP. Charu Bali , Commissioner of Police, Panchkula was chief guest during occasion. Vandana Tripathi, Principal of school was also presented during occasion. Addressing talk, Dr Karan Dhawan, MD Psychiatry at Ivy Hospital, Panchkula said that in today's world, where nuclear families are a norm and both parents have packed schedules, children are brought up by these busy parents with the help of maids and helpers. This is in contrast to our previous cultural practices of our country. Hence it has led to various psychological problems amongst children. Dr Dhawan said further, children these days have increased pressure to secure good marks and stand up to high expectations of the parents. Peer pressure, peer acceptability and need to become popular among friends and on social media because of fear of isolation has raised stress levels among adolescents. The changed life style of children where they are more glued to television, laptops and phones but hardly go out to the playground. All this has led to an increased incidence of adolescent psychiatric problems, he remarked. Talking about how to identify these problems, Dr Dhawan said that if your child is having poor scholastic performance, getting angry and irritable more than before, multiple areas having body pains especially headache, change in sleep and eating behavior, lack of concentration, not talking with parents much and spends most of the time out of the house then that means your child needs attention. The parents need to be their kids friends and spend time with their child. Do not scold unnecessarily, limit your expectations and set achievable goals for them and parents avoid to fight in front of children said Dr Dhawan adding if yet these measures fail to improve or handle the situation, then one should consult a psychiatrist.