Mood Disorders in Childhood: An Uptick
BY JULIA GROVER-BARREY OTR/L
FOUNDER OF IN-TUNED®
Epigenetics, as opposed to genetics, play a bigger role here. Epigenetics are the external influences promoting gene expression or suppression. Although there may be a small chance a parent suffering from major depression passes this on to their child, the child’s mood and behavior is shaped more by the narrative and habits they are exposed to.
Do more children suffer from mood disorders now than two decades ago? You bet. So, what’s changed about childhood?
As I see it, lack of normal developmental movement is one thing that has directly caused this uptick. Going through the normal physical milestones of childhood helps protect the nervous system from assault. As more devices became available to restrain and entertain infants, as one answer to compensate for lack of parental holding and play time, what I call the “Graco Baby” emerged. The baby who was put in a carrier, which converted to a car seat and then clipped into the base of a highchair…never having to remove the baby from the device, except to change a diaper. This is an exaggeration, but you get the idea. Children who don’t go through the typical physical developmental patterns, developing protective reflexes and integrating primitive reflexes are at a disadvantage for mentally and emotionally coping with typical stressors, because whole brain processing, needed to deal with stressors hasn’t quite developed.
As our culture has become obsessed with being “busy” or the illusion of being busy, whichever…we have created just a touch more chaos, insecurity and adrenaline production for those who live in our house. I point the finger at myself…I have done this. Our culture has expected it from me. But when we know better, we do better. I am committed to do better.
Being busy, being busy has developed the need for more advanced devices as artificial care givers, or pacifiers, for our children…TV, watching YouTube videos on the cell phone, video game playing and overuse of social media. Engaging with all of these devices and platforms do a number on an immature nervous system by draining the brain’s ability to regulate and stabilize production of it’s neurochemistry.
All of this brain candy we have been sold comes with a high price tag. Addiction to things that give us an immediate “feel good” dopamine hit, come at the cost of compromising our brain’s ability to produce its’ own endogenous dopamine. When the stimulus isn’t there, mood problems ensue, and later addiction to other things, not just devices. The brain…always searching for another “feel good’ stimulus, even if it means being disruptive…disruption creates a dopamine hit.
Be the producer of your own dopamine.
Julia