anger of the adolescents ...

Generation gussa          

Vickey.Lalwani 

Grappling intolerance and rage, adolescents are targeting their parents with sudden violent outbursts. Experts tell Mirror how and when they should intervene

    A15-year-old girl planned to stalk a boy on Facebook, after he broke up with her. When her parents tried to talk her out of it, she broke their flat screen television set and hurled a paperweight and pen stand at her mother.

» A 16-year old girl was caught stealing Rs 80,000 from the home safe by her father. When he confronted her, she threw a stool at his head.

» A 14-year old boy killed his mother because she was often upset with him for not doing well in studies.

» A 13-year old boy thrashed his father because he did not permit him to go shopping with his friends.

   These are only some of the complaints that Mumbai psychiatrists have received over the past year, signalling a growing intolerance among today’s youth, especially in the age group of 13 to 17 years, towards their parents. What is worrisome is that this is manifested through extreme violence. Recent news reports bear this out. The story of a 15-year-old from Palghar killing his father for refusing to buy him a mobile phone is still fresh in people’s minds. Two days ago, another 15-year-old from Thane reportedly killed his father who was planning to remarry.

    “Call it momentary madness if you like, but the fact is, most kids today cannot deal with the emotion of anger,” says psychiatrist and child psychologist Dr Anjali Chhabria, whose Juhu clinic sees a steady stream of concerned parents. 

    This seems to be a global trend if we were to go by a study published by the Harvard Medical School last year. Published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the study found that one in 12 adolescents in the States could be suffering from Intermittent Explosive Disorder or IED that results in extreme short temper. Based on a household survey of 10,148 youngsters, the study also found that nearly two thirds had a history of anger attacks that involved real or threatened violence. 
    IED is a behavioural disorder characterised by extreme expressions of rage that are disproportionate to the situation at hand. So, why are city kids facing this? 

    According to Chhabria, IED is part of the problem here, too, but the rage could also be symptomatic of other disorders such as depression, anxiety or even personality disorders.

 
TROUBLE BEGINS AT HOME 

    Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty argues that we must first consider the role played by parents in their child’s rage, and he faults the lack of time spent between them at home. 

    “The conversation is restricted to ‘Khaana khaya?’, ‘Homework kiya?’, ‘Abhi so jao’. If parents spend time watching TV after work, what does this do to the emotional contact between them and their children?” he asks. 

    Former president of Bombay Psychiatrists Association, Dr Kersi Chavda agrees. “Parents,” he says, “lash out at their kid and lower his/her self-esteem. If parents don’t display anger and anxiety, anger levels in kids are found to be lower.” The diet consumed by children also adds to their emotional imbalance, Dr Shetty adds. “Excessive consumption of colas and fast food diminishes nutrients and leads to biochemical changes in the body. Irritability levels increase on account of excessive caffeine.” 

    Dr Shetty is not alone in assuming that colas play a role in an individual’s mental health. A recent study, which will be presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) in March, has found a link between cola consumption and depression. In an AAN release, study author Dr Honglei Chen was quoted as saying, “Sweetened beverages, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical — and may have important mental — health consequences.” 

NIP IT IN THE BUD 

A Bandra-based homemaker, who has been a victim of her son’s rage, told Mirror, “I have borne the brunt of my teenage son’s blows. It was always a consequence of saying ‘No’ to him. Whenever my husband and I disagreed with his wants, whether a car or money, he became violent.” 
    According to Chhabria, accepting a ‘no’ is a challenge for adolescents. “This is because they have been given everything on a platter since they were born. The ‘no’ — if and when it comes — seems humiliating.” 

    Experts also point to the culture of might, propagated in Bollywood, that could be a possible cause for violent behaviour. When children see violence being valourised in films that don’t depict the very real consequences of this behaviour (physical pain; emotional hurt), they are trained to think that this behaviour is okay. What’s more, few parents take the trouble to explain the consequences of violence to their children. 

    Yet, if detected early, experts say that this behaviour can be corrected.

ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS 

   Mumbai’s psychiatrists have been offering anger management therapy to these teens, which includes counselling sessions coupled with yoga exercises. “Yoga inculcates self-discipline; to modify the lifestyle of kids indulging in violence, we teach them vipasna techniques,” says Chhabria. Dr Shetty contends that working closely with the police will help curtail the trend. “Some cops make for very good counsellors,” he says adding, “Therapy has helped many children lead normal lives.” 

    Psychiatrists also work closely with schools to train teachers on how to deal with violent students. Some schools have professional counsellors at hand, while others have included anger management in their study course. 

    Utpal Shanghvi School in Juhu has two counsellors on board, and students from Class six onwards are taught human resources development, which includes lessons on managing temper. “The counsellors take turns to sit in classes to observe how children behave. They keep a record of every student,” says Principal Abha Dharampal. 

    With doctors and school authorities taking cognisance of the issue, the question remains — what must parents do? 

    Dharampal says it is vital to hand-hold the child facing anger issues, which she says, sometimes stem from helplessness. She illustrates with an example. “After an enraged Class 9 student smashed a window in school, we had to call his parents. We found out that he had a very aggressive father. The counsellors took over and counselled him right through Class 10. Their main message to him was that anger was a sign of helplessness and weakness. He sailed through his board examination.” 

    David Gottlieb, a Harvard trained clinical psychologist and author of books such as Anger Overload in Children: A Parent’s Manual and Your Child is Defiant: Why is Nothing Working? keeps a blog called yourchildisdefiant.blogspot.in, where he advises parents on how to deal with what he calls, anger overload in their kids. While there is no anger ‘antidote,’ Gottlieb assures parents that with repeated practise, children can develop skills to cope with their emotions. 
    He advises parents to intervene in the early stages or after their child’s fury has subsided. During the outburst, it is best not to say or do anything unless someone is getting hurt. He exhorts parents to recognise a pattern. For instance, if the child is likely to have an outburst when you switch off the television after dinner, one option is to not switch on the television at all, he writes. Another possible intervention is to distract the child from his anger. 
    “Parents need to make the child understand that ‘feeling’ angry and ‘getting’ angry are two different things. We team up with the child to help him/her deal with his/her anger. This way, we let them know that the anger is the problem, not them,” says Chhabria. 
    Experts also advice parents to have certain non-negotiable rules for their children. Once they identify a source of rage, it is a good idea to involve the child in becoming aware of the triggers too. 
    Under no circumstances, experts warn, should parents dismiss violent behaviour by their children. Violent behaviour in a child at any age always needs to be taken seriously. It should not be dismissed as a phase they’re going through,” says Dr. Chhabria. 

ADDING TO THE DAMAGE 

» BOLLYWOOD: Bollywood propagates a culture of might. When children see violence being valourised in films that don’t depict the very real consequences of this behaviour (physical pain; emotional hurt), they are trained to think that this behaviour is okay. 

» FAST FOODS: Excessive consumption of colas and fast food diminishes nutrients and leads to biochemical changes in the body. Irritability levels increase on account of excessive caffeine. 
» LASHING OUT: When parents lash out at their kids, they lower their self-esteem. If parents don’t display anger and anxiety, anger levels in kids are found to be lower. 

Courtesy (visited 7.2.13) http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2013/02/05&PageLabel=24&EntityId=Ar02300&ViewMode=HTML

Schools chalk out newer ways for teaching…

            Schools are nowadays chalking out newer ways for teaching and are implementing several changes in their academic curriculum, to make it more interactive and interesting for the students. Please find some of the steps taken by St Mary Multipurpose School, Vashi (New Bombay) in this regard.

            “The classroom teaching technique has changed completely. In case of prose, earlier we read them out to students from textbooks, in order to explain them to students. But now with the teaching kit, we need to make students participate. So if there is an English prose to be taught, we will ask students to encircle the complicated words and find their meanings. These words are then written on the blackboard and whenever the word appears, students have to answer its meaning,” explained a teacher from the school.

            Similarly in case of the science lectures, the activity comprises solving questions in group and making the students present the chapter in their own words. “Within a 30 minute lecture students are made to think, share and pair. Since their involvement is a must, they stay more alert. So the lessons taught are better understood,” said Fr Abraham Joseph, the principal.

Courtesy: http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=36909&boxid=8552&ed_date=2013-01-18&ed_code=820015&ed_page=3

Pampered as kids, men can’t handle rejection: Psychiatrists

Pampered as kids, men can’t handle rejection: Psychiatrists

DNA Correspondent

Whether it was production house owner Jerrit G John, who flung a chemical on physiotherapist Aryanka Hosbetkar, or collegian Nikhil Bankar, who stabbed his former girlfriend eight times and then killing himself on Chetana College premises, in both these cases the attackers could not handle the fact that the girl wanted out.     And psychiatrists feel that the Indian society is to be blamed, to some extent, for men not able to accept rejection.     According to psychiatrists, parents tend to pamper their sons more than their daughters from childhood. “Till date, there are several Indian families where a boy is given priority over daughter. This is one reason behind men not being able to accept rejection,” reasoned Dr Seema Hingorany, a clinical psychologist.     She added that in a city like Mumbai it is also the loneliness and failure to talk about one’s problems that leads to such crimes against women. “Men in our society have inflated ego. In my practice, I have found that a man will never cry or talk about their problems, unlike a woman. Lack of communication and loneliness lead to outburst of aggression in the form of crime,” said Dr Hingorany.    Doctors also feel that even in the 21st century, women empowerment in our society has been very slow. “We have more ‘do nots’ for our daughters, but give many liberties to our sons. This has somewhere led to the men’s inability to accept rejection. Men are still viewed as the protector, the symbol of bravery and martyrdom and it is unconsciously drilled in our mind through movies and mythology,” said Dr Harish Shetty, senior psychiatrist, LH Hiranandani Hospital.    However, a pampered childhood minus responsibility are only contributing factors. “These factors add up to a weak mind-set. I advise parents to be friends with their child’s friends to know what is happening in his or her life,” suggested Dr Fabian alemida, child psychiatrist. Courtesy:

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=35019&boxid=15275&ed_date=2012-12-24&ed_code=820009&ed_page=5

the real contexts of some famous nursery rhymes

Know the real context of some famous nursery rhymes.

1. Ring A Ring of Roses

Ring a ring a roses,

A pocket full of posies

A-tish-oo, a-tish-oo

We all fall down

      This is one nursery rhyme origin we think we already know to be sinister. But it has nothing at all to do with the Black Death. The first known reference to the rhyme is in 1881, more than 500 years after the plague swept across Europe. By all accounts, it seems to be a nonsense rhyme – and in its 1881 form, there isn’t even any sneezing. Here’s a version from the mid 20th century:

Ring a ring a roses,


A pocket full of posies


One, two, three, four,


We all fall down down

      The sneezing was added sometime in the last 50 years or so. So this one really is just a nice little rhyme –no ulterior meanings at all!

2. Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

    Humpty Dumpty wasn’t a real person; nor was he an odd, fragile egg-shaped thing. It turns out that Humpty Dumpty was a cannon. Owned by the supporters of King Charles I, Humpty Dumpty was used to gain control over the city of Colchester during the English Civil War. Once in Colchester, the cannon sat on church tower until a barrage of cannonballs destroyed the tower and sent Humpty into the marshland below. Although retrieved, the cannon was beyond repair. Humpty the cannon was a feared and effective weapon – as the full rhyme demonstrates:

In sixteen hundred and forty-eight

When England suffered pains of state

The Roundheads laid siege to Colchester town

Where the King’s men still fought for the crown.

There one-eyed Thompson stood on the wall

A gunner with the deadliest aim of all

From St Mary’s tower the cannon he fired

Humpty Dumpty was his name.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again!

       And you thought it was all about an egg? A 19th century illustration in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass created this myth. When Alice talks to Humpty Dumpty on the wall, the illustrator – apparently at a whim – made him egg-shaped. Given the popularity of the book, a generation of kids grew up thinking that Humpty Dumpty was a nonsense rhyme about an egg, rather than a fearsome killing machine.

3. Baa baa black sheep

Baa baa black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir,

Three bags full.

One for the Master, 

One for the Dame,

And one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane.

And with the original ending...

                              And none for the little boy 
who cries down the lane.

      The song is definitely not about black sheep, or even little boys – it’s about taxes! Back in the 13th century, King Edward I realized that he could make some decent cash by taxing the sheep farmers. As a result of the new taxes, one third of the price of a sack of wool went to the king, one third to the church and the last third to the farmer. Nothing was left for the shepherd boy, crying down the lane. As it happens, black sheep are also bad luck: the fleece can’t be dyed, and so it’s worth less to the sheep farmer. Baa Baa Black Sheep is a tale of misery and woe.

3. Lady Bird

Ladybird ladybird fly away home

Your house is on fire and your children are gone,

All except one called Anne

For she has crept under the frying pan

    This poor little ladybird is really a Catholic in 16th century Protestant England. Ladybird is a word that comes from the Catholic term for Our Lady. It was illegal for Catholics to practice their religion, and non-attendance of Protestant services meant hefty fines for absentees. Catholics were forced to say Mass and attend services in secret, often outdoors and in outbuildings. The fire may refer to the Catholic priests who were burned at the stake for their beliefs.  

Courtesy: http://listverse.com/2012/11/28/10-sinister-origins-of-nursery-rhymes/

Playing violent video games makes one aggressive

A new study provides the first experimental evidence that the negative effects of playing violent video games can accumulate over time.

Researchers found that people who played a violent video game for three consecutive days showed increases in aggressive behaviour each day they played. Even a single session of playing a violent video game tends to increase short-term aggression.

Researchers compared playing video games to smoking cigarettes. A single cigarette won’t cause lung cancer, but smoking over weeks or months or years greatly increases the risk. In the same way, repeated exposure to violent video games may have a cumulative effect on aggression.

p. 10, Hindustan Times (Mumbai), 23 Dec 2012, http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

Eat with your kids to boost their vegetable intake

    Eating meals together as a family, even once or twice a week, increases children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake, according to the researchers at the University of Leeds.

Children, who always ate a family meal together at a table consumed 125g (1.5 portions) more fruit and vegetables on average than children who never ate with their families. Even those who reported eating together only once or twice a week consumed 95g (1.2 portions) more than those who never ate together.

Even if it’s just one family meal a week, when children eat together with parents or older siblings they learn about eating. Watching the way their parents or siblings eat and the different types of food they eat is pivotal in creating their own food habits and preferences

p. 10, 23 Dec 2012, Hindustan Times (Mumbai), http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

overcome speech impediments

Don't Stop

Speech impediments, however conspicuous, can be overcome with therapy and, in some extreme conditions, surgery

    Hiten Vyas, 33, from Leicester in UK first realised he had a speech impediment at the age of 10. His teacher asked him a question, and though he knew the answer, he found himself unable to do so despite repeated attempts. Every time he tried to speak, he would stammer.

    What followed next was 13 years of ordeal. Vyas stopped talking altogether for the fear of being laughed at. He missed out on a normal teenage, missed having girlfriends, shied away from classroom presentations. He was so upset with his speech abnormality that he could not focus on his selected field of study computer science, which required minimum public speaking.

    “Most of my formative years were spent in anxiety, fear and pain. I was so afraid of being mocked that I could not share the problem of stammering even with my family. I had learnt to hide my defect by either keeping quiet or skipping the problem words,” says Vyas, who is now a certified master practitioner of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and a life coach who teaches people the art to build self-confidence.

    “When I was pursuing a PhD it struck me that by shying away from my problem, I was making things worse. I took several rounds of speech and language classes, NLP training and joined online forums for self-help. Failed many times but kept going and slowly won my selfconfidence back,” he says. Vyas now talks almost fluently. He has also created ebooks to help people overcome speech defects, available on pothi.com.

According to speech therapists, at least 1% of all population suffers from some kind of a speech defect. In India, there are at least 12 million people suffering from speech problems.

    Such disorders have different causes, and may range from a few speech sound errors or repetitions of sounds or words to a total loss of the ability to use speech to communicate effectively.

    “Why does this happen is a big question. One doesn’t always have answers to this question, especially in cases of sudden onset of stammering. However, some known causes of speech impediments are hearing loss, neurological disorders, brain injury, mental retardation, autism, physical impairments such as cleft lip, and vocal abuse or misuse,” says Dr Raj Sharma, consultant speech and language therapist at Fortis group of hospitals.

   “About 50% more number of children are suffering from these problems,” says Sharma. He attributes this trend to decreasing interaction between parents and children. “Children get most of their verbal knowledge and skills from television, laptops and radios. It is a reality that in most nuclear families kids are left to the maids — as they are their first point of contact for most part of the day — children acquire their language skills,” he adds.

   Experts, however, believe that most of the developmental speech defects can be easily corrected with the help of speech therapy. “Therapy will vary depending on the nature and severity of the problem, the age of the individual, and the individual’s awareness of the problem,” says Dr Mani Bansal, consultant speech therapist at Max group of hospitals.

   “The process to cure physical deformities might include surgical intervention followed by therapy,” she says.

   In most cases, therapists usually teach patients breathing and oral exercises, primarily to train them to correct the pitch and improve rate of speech and voice modulation. “These are the basic interventions especially when working with children, to overcome developmental errors such as stammering and lisping,” said Dr Bansal. “We train children using lots of toys and books as it keeps them occupied and happy and they learn much quicker,” she says.

TYPES OF SPEECH PROBLEMS

     Fluency disorder: An interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech characterised by hesitations, repetitions, or prolongation of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases

   Articulation disorder: Having difficulties with the way sounds are formed and strung together, usually characterised by substituting one sound for another (wabbit for rabbit), omitting a sound (han for hand)

   Voice disorder: Characterised by inappropriate pitch (too high, too low, never changing, or interrupted by breaks); quality (harsh, hoarse, breathy, or nasal); loudness, resonance

p. 10 of Hindustan Times (Mumbai), 23.12.12

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

>>>> 

SPEECH THERAPY CENTRES (in Mumbai)

    Dr LH Hiranandani hospital at Hiranandani Gardens, Powai

    Fortis Hospital at Mulund, Kalyan and Navi Mumbai.