The global conversation on children’s wellbeing often begins with nutrition, education and physical safety. Mental health is mentioned — but rarely centred. When it is, the focus is usually on adolescents or adults, as if younger children are somehow protected by innocence.
They are not.
Across the world, a quiet mental health crisis is unfolding among children. It is not always visible. It does not always announce itself through violence or rebellion. More often, it appears as silence, withdrawal, fear and shame.
And when it is ignored long enough, it can become fatal.
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| foto by unsplash.com/@mohamad-azaam |
Children Feel More Than We Admitx
There is a persistent myth that children are emotionally resilient by default — that hardship passes over them lightly, that despair belongs to adulthood.
This belief is not only wrong; it is dangerous.
Children feel deeply, but they lack the language, power and social permission to articulate what they feel. When adults dismiss their distress as immaturity or exaggeration, children learn to internalise pain rather than express it.
For a child, emotions are absolute. Shame is total. Fear feels endless. Rejection feels permanent.
Without support, these emotions do not fade. They settle.
Poverty as a Mental Health Stressorx
Mental health does not exist in a vacuum. It is shaped by material conditions, social hierarchies and daily experiences.
For children living in poverty, stress is not episodic. It is constant.
They worry about food, school supplies, transportation and fees long before they understand economic systems. They absorb anxiety from parents who are struggling to survive. They notice when they are treated differently — when they are excluded, reprimanded or pitied.
Poverty teaches children that their needs are inconvenient.
Over time, this lesson becomes internalised. Children begin to see themselves as the problem.
Schools as Sites of Pressure, Not Protectionx
Schools are often portrayed as safe spaces for children. In reality, they can also be sites of intense psychological pressure.
Academic expectations, discipline systems and social comparisons converge in classrooms. For children who cannot meet material or performance standards, school becomes a daily reminder of inadequacy.
Mental health support within schools is often minimal or non-existent, particularly in low-income regions. Teachers are overburdened. Counsellors are scarce. Emotional distress is misinterpreted as misbehaviour.
Instead of care, children receive punishment.
Instead of understanding, they receive silence.
The Silence Around Child Mental Healthx
One of the most dangerous aspects of the mental health crisis among children is how rarely it is discussed.
In many societies, conversations about mental health remain taboo. When the subject involves children, the silence deepens. Parents fear stigma. Schools fear responsibility. Governments fear cost.
As a result, warning signs are overlooked.
A child who becomes withdrawn is labelled shy. A child who stops participating is labelled lazy. A child who struggles to cope is told to be strong.
By the time the crisis becomes visible, it is often too late.
Inequality and Emotional Abandonmentx
Mental health resources are deeply unequal.
Children from wealthier families have access to counselling, therapy and supportive environments. Children from poor families are expected to endure.
This is emotional inequality.
It reflects a broader social message: that some children are worth protecting, while others are expected to survive without help.
When societies normalise this imbalance, they create conditions where suffering is not just possible, but predictable.
Suicide Is Not Suddenx
When a child dies by suicide, it is often described as shocking or unimaginable.
In reality, suicide is rarely sudden.
It is the end point of accumulated distress, unmet needs and ignored signals. It reflects a failure of listening long before it reflects a failure of coping.
Children do not choose death because they want to die. They choose it because they see no other way to escape pain.
This distinction matters.
A Global Crisis, Not Isolated Tragediesx
From Asia to Africa, from Latin America to wealthy nations, reports of child mental health struggles are rising. Anxiety, depression and self-harm are no longer confined to specific regions or income levels.
Yet responses remain fragmented.
Global health frameworks continue to prioritise physical indicators. Mental wellbeing is treated as secondary, optional or culturally sensitive — anything but essential.
This approach fails children.
Mental health is not a luxury. It is foundational.
What Protection Should Look Likex
Addressing the mental health crisis among children requires more than awareness campaigns.
It requires structural change.
Children need schools that prioritise care over compliance. They need teachers trained to recognise distress. They need accessible mental health services regardless of income.
Most importantly, they need adults who listen without judgement.
Protection is not reactive. It is preventive.
Rethinking Responsibilityx
When children struggle, responsibility is often placed on families alone.
This is insufficient.
Mental health is shaped by systems — education systems, economic systems, social systems. Expecting families to compensate for systemic failures is unrealistic and unjust.
Children deserve collective responsibility.
The Cost of Inactionx
Ignoring the mental health of children does not make the problem disappear.
It allows it to deepen.
The cost of inaction is measured not only in statistics, but in lives altered or lost. It is measured in potential cut short and futures narrowed.
Every child who suffers in silence represents a failure we chose not to see.
The Question We Must Confrontx
The mental health crisis among children is not a future threat. It is a present reality.
The question is not whether children are struggling.
They are.
The question is whether societies are willing to listen — and to act — before silence becomes irreversible.
Because when children are forced to carry despair alone, the failure belongs to all of us.