Family Support and Mental Health: A Personal Reflection Essay

This essay, titled "Building Family Support," offers a deeply personal reflection on the author's experiences with family dynamics and mental health. The author recounts a childhood incident involving a vaccination and contrasts it with their son's diagnosis of depression, highlighting the importance of sensitive and understanding parenting. The essay emphasizes the need for open communication, empathy, and acknowledging a child's perspective to prevent potential mental health issues. Drawing on personal experiences and referencing academic sources, the author underscores the critical role families play in supporting children's mental well-being and offers insights into fostering healthy parent-child relationships. The author advocates for making children understand bigger things in a sympathetic yet smart manner so that their little kids do not get mentally affected for their inadequacy of explanation to certain matters.

Running head: BUILDING FAMILY SUPPORT
Building family support
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1BUILDING FAMILY SUPPORT
Depression is a commonplace mental condition in the contemporary world. When my son was
diagnosed with this illness, I felt like the time is over to watch it from a distance and deal it with
sensitivity. I took him to the clinician who asked me of certain things like whether I was drunk
while I was pregnant among other questions. The entire experience had a very deep effect on me
as I took care of everything and was the wisdom giver of the family. It also made me recall a
similar incident of mine back in those days when I was just 5.
My parents took me for vaccination to the doctor’s chamber. As soon as I reached there, I
realized that I am going to be injected and tried to run away. I was brought forcefully, cornered
and was administered the injection. What bothered that 5 year old child was the disrespect and
the rejection of my plea outright, without even paying any heed to it (Barker, Iles &
Ramchandani, 2017). The injury inflicted in my heart was severe, and I thought of leaving the
house after I return. At home, a different experience awaited me. My grandfather was ready
waiting with a fishing rod for me. I was so devastated that I shared my little experience with him.
He said that I could have caught a disease which could have been fatal. On this reply, I insisted
that it was solely my wish whether to get the disease or refrain from it. To this, he replied by
agreeing that I could have done so, only the disease could have spread and I would have been
responsible for spreading among my younger siblings. Being the elder one, I should not act such
irresponsibly and take care of the other members too. What was enchanting to this reply is that I
immediately understood the importance of the vaccine, and stopped holding grudges about it
(Beaumont, 2018). At this point in time, I realize the importance of making a child understand
bigger things in a sympathetic yet smart manner. My parents could have said these things and
dealt with me more sensitively and taking proper care of my opinion on that matter, which in
turn, could have avoided the abuse on my little soul.

2BUILDING FAMILY SUPPORT
This incident taught me how we should behave with the children and make them important thing
digest with so less persuasion (Chai, Kwok & Gu 2018). The young parents should also take this
matter in an understanding manner so that their little kids so not get mentally affected for their
inadequacy of explanation to certain matters. When I am being called a good parent, I constantly
judge my actions and try to understand the concern of my child’s mental health. I make sure that
they do not get the undeserved treatment that might impair their mental health (Giannotta &
Rydell, 2017). For families are there for taking care of the kids mental condition.

3BUILDING FAMILY SUPPORT
Reference
Barker, B., Iles, J. E., & Ramchandani, P. G. (2017). Fathers, fathering and child
psychopathology. Current opinion in psychology, 15, 87-92.
Beaumont, D. (2018). Childhood and Adolescent Anxiety, Depression and Trauma Symptoms:
The Role of the Parent-Child Relationship and Family Context Factors (Doctoral
dissertation, UCL (University College London).
Chai, W. Y., Kwok, S. Y., & Gu, M. (2018). Autonomy-granting parenting and child depression:
The moderating roles of hope and life satisfaction. Journal of Child and Family
Studies, 27(8), 2596-2607.
Giannotta, F., & Rydell, A. M. (2017). The role of the mother-child relationship in the route
from child ADHD to adolescent symptoms of depressed mood. Journal of
adolescence, 61, 40-49.