Qin Xiaohong was shocked to see her 13-year-old daughter beating
the family's pet cat.
She decided to have a talk with the girl who is getting more and
more distant from her parents.
"My daughter told me she might be suffering from mental
illness," Qin said. "At one time she was very fond of the cat, but
attacked it when she thought no one was at home."
The daughter also told Qin, a journalist, she had thoughts of
suicide, and often banged her head against a wall.
"Teenagers tend to have psychological problems. Parents must pay
more attention to them," Jiang Li of the Shenzhen Women and
Children Psychological Consultant Center told China
Daily.
During the summer vacation, the number of teenagers visiting the
center daily had shown a marked increase.
Deng Menghong, a psychological consultant with Yangguang Yizhan
Psychological Consultancy Co, urged parents to seek treatment for
their children once they showed early signs of abnormal
behavior.
"Teenagers are very sensitive. When they cannot find a normal
channel to release their emotions, they start to behave
irrationally such as abusing animals or hurting themselves to
attract attention," Deng said.
"Living in a city like Shenzhen, working parents have little
time to communicate with their children - a major reason for the
rising number of teenagers with psychological problems."
A survey by a group of psychological consultants last year,
showed 17.3 percent of middle school students in Shenzhen had
various psychological problems.
(China Daily August 31, 2007)