In adolescence, children “are in that moment of tireless search for their personal, sexual, ideological and intellectual identity. To the whirlwind of hormones is added the whirlwind of emotions that they feel with the intensity of their age. This is how the pediatrician and disseminator Lucía Galán describes it in her new book “La vida va de esto” (Planeta), in which she takes off her medical gown, speaks like a mother and tells us some of her keys to dealing with teenagers
PHOTO EFE/Alejandro Garcia
Member of the UNICEF Advisory Council and award from the Spanish Collegiate Medical Organization for the best disseminator, Lucía Galán is concerned about the impact of Covid on adolescents, and more specifically on their mental health.
In an interview with EFEsalud, he cannot help but remember that psychiatric emergencies in children and adolescents have increased by 50 percent during the pandemic.
“Self-harm has increased alarmingly and at the consultation we have seen more cases of eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, and anxiety disorders, depression and phobias.”
The most tremendous fact, he adds, is that suicide is the first cause of mortality between 15 and 29 years old.
Every day ten people commit suicide in Spain; of them, one is a young man under thirty years of age or an adolescent.
“This is a real drama, a silent and silenced drama”, which must be faced with plans and more resources, he defends.
In her book, Lucía Galán explains that “being sad does not justify in any case having the desire to end your own life, but if you have suicidal thoughts, you should talk to a professional.”
Talking to a professional “is a symptom of strength and not weakness as popular imagination believes,” says the pediatrician.
“Everything is in our mind: resilience, optimism and sense of humor, as well as the attitude towards life, struggle, sacrifice or hope and peace that we all seek after a storm.”
Life “is about accepting that death is part of the journey and that losses, absences and abysses are mourned, and, once you have mourned them, life is also about getting up and moving forward, always moving forward.”
For this reason, he adds, we must know the difference between being sad and having depression, since they are completely different things.
As for depression, he insists, it is a disease and, as such, must be treated.
In his opinion, it is natural to be afraid, “but if it overwhelms us and limits us, that fear can become a phobia and we necessarily have to seek professional help.”
Pediatrician Lucía Galán: dealing with adolescents
In relation to the initial topic of dealing with adolescent children, the pediatrician Lucía Galán invites calm, reflection and listening, and especially to work on the difficult art of communication:
“As they grow up, communication with our children will decrease, and it is completely normal that when they are adolescents they seek refuge in the solitude of their room and in the complicity of their friends.”
And he adds that our adolescent children “need to isolate themselves, to spend more time in their room alone in search of answers that only they have to find.”
Lucia Galan Bertrand
The author invites us not to miss those windows of opportunity that they grant us, such as, for example, when leaving school or institute, and they come home for a snack “and it seems that they have been wound up, they talk and devour in equal parts” .
Or when when picking them up from training, and due to the endorphins released by exercise, our children let go of the reel and there is no one to shut them up.
When that happens, he advises, we should not judge, criticize or question, because Automatically the adolescent will feel attacked and will close his mouth. Maybe he’ll even give up trying to tell us anything again.
In his new book, Lucia Galan also dedicates a chapter to parents who have had a baby and haven’t slept for months, to girls who have had their first period, to the mothers of mothers, to the traveling companion, to life, to death, to enterprising woman and those who do not give up.
Because life, he concludes, «is about looking at his kind and pretty face, which there is, of course there is, and it is beautiful. Life is looking for those refugee people to whom you can always return, no matter what happens.
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