child psychiatry

My 12-year-old son, pleasant and good natured, but sometimes behaves adamantly...when he needs to buy something even if it is beyond our capacity...has to show off his friends...not understanding any of our counselling...feels depressed when his friends buy something that he cant. Uses a blade and scratched his skin. Showing it to me. Feeling self-pitty..not respecting his dad since he is not able to get what his son needs. I am afraid that he would try a suicide to threat us since he is often talking that world would be destroyed in 2012 and everything would be in peace...he states he doesn’t like to live. He doesn’t want to be a child of ours. There is a maternal family history of suicides long back. His general health is good. No allergies. I cannot take him to a hospital regarding this. Because he may feel bad of going to a psychiatrist and his friends may tease him. He is worried more thinking "what others will think of me". What should I do now as a mother? Expecting an expert's reply soon to solve his problem.

Child Psychiatry For The Family

I’m not a child psychiatrist and this is not really in my remit. My only exposure to this was as a medical student. I am a father though and I think there are 2 issues here. The first is you have a child that you are spoiling to the best of your ability and this only reinforces their need to ask for more and more. This is a common problem for all parents and one that you have to stand up to otherwise the situation gets worse.

The self harming could underlie a serious psychiatric disturbance, but it could equally be due to pure attention seeking. A lot of children do self harm as a release mechanism; inflicting pain on themselves can actually make them feel better in themselves, although short lived.

Don’t ignore the idea of seeing a psychiatrist on the grounds of whether he will be teased or not. Why should anyone know about it other than his closest family? Yes, this needs further assessment and I would urge you to get an assessment made. With child psychiatry from my medical school days, I know that child psychiatry involves the whole family not just the child so be prepared for all the family to be involved with this. Good luck!




My name is Dr Peter Thatcher MBBS, MRCPI and I am a consultant physician and gastroenterologist in the UK. I have an interest in internet based medicine and administer this site in my spare time. I hope you find this site useful and informative. If you have any suggestions, please Contact Me or if you would like to comment on my site, please do so by Clicking Here. If you like the site and would like to make a donation to support what I am doing please do so by Clicking Here. Thank you for visiting and please drop by again!