FURTHER CAUSES OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN CHILDREN
I will add to this from my experience with some children from the Domestic Violence Unit of the Ghana Police Service. Some of the undocumented causes of mental illness in children include:
Technological advancements that expose children to stuff beyond them.
Lack of parental control and guidance due to our busy schedules.
Neglect of some of our duties as parents and guardians towards these children during puberty when they are confused as to their identity at times.
Lack of listening ear" to their grievances.
A deviation from our core mandate as a continent that failed to inculcate the spirit of pan Africanism in our children. We have replaced playing local games like" ampe" in our Ghanaian parlance to buying video games for our children. We have stopped telling stories to our children and grandchildren at night and instead make them fall in love with fictional movies which teach them most of the vices we witness today like horror movies and movies that have a high level of content not good for children. We have failed as parents and have exposed our children to danger unknowingly and knowingly.
One other thing that is a cause of mental illness is Rape.
Rape victims or defiled girls and boys never recover from the emotional, mental and psychological injuries inflicted on them. They might appear to recover from the physical injury but not the emotional one. It makes them yearn for sexual attention whilst some others stay away from it. It scares some all their lives and makes them more bold in trying to pay back "men" in their own coin which is not good.
This is what I have seen and heard in my interaction with some children.
A living example of a girl abused and now mentally ill is one Axxxxxx(Redacted for privacy) in Ghana whose condition is deteriorating daily and who always says she was abused as a child.
-ADISA WALAMANI ESQ