As a child psychiatrist, social observation is indispensable for me. I follow the new fashion trends very closely, especially in the world of children. In this way, I feel that I reach their world better. The applications that have been made consecutively in the last 3 months have caught my attention. I’m talking about children between the ages of 8.5-11, who think that cardboard characters are real, who are afraid of them, who think that they will emerge from a shadow or through a wall, looking for these characters with fearful eyes / predicting that they will appear, or who think that they have their magical powers…
The common feature of these children is that they cannot or barely maintain their sense of reality about the outside world. They spend most of their time talking about these characters or displaying a behavior that shows that they are influenced by them. Let their families try to explain that these characters are fictional as much as they want, but they can be convinced of a single character. After a while, they begin to experience similar mental processes regarding another gripping cardboard character.
“I am also immortal like ……….character. If I stab myself with this knife, nothing will happen to me!” saying, they can try to stab their stomach with a knife they picked up from the kitchen.!!!!!!! They spend at least 6 hours a day thinking about these characters. They can’t stop these thoughts that come to their minds while they are obsessed. They get scared and shudder when these characters hurt themselves. Some may experience these thoughts as if they were “real” for a moment, even though they know that it is nonsense. Some people can’t get these thoughts out of their minds, even if they know it’s “nonsense.” They cannot sleep alone at night. They cannot move from one room to another on their own. Some perceive these characters as “real”. They can perceive themselves as “strong, invincible and immortal” like these superior characters and attempt to act accordingly! Some children, on the other hand, are able to isolate themselves from their real friends and completely imitate the life of cardboard characters and fall into the flow of parallel thought processes!
In terms of the development of the nervous system, children are at the stage of concrete thinking until about 9 years old. In addition, they are under the influence of magical thinking. They can easily believe in unrealistic concepts. They can occupy their minds with them. After the age of 9, children enter the stage of abstract thinking. Only after this age can they realize the difference between the real and the unreal and their figurative meanings. The fact that the ability to evaluate reality is impaired after the age of nine in a normally developing child brings to mind the preliminary diagnosis of “childhood psychosis”. Such early processes, before the brain completes its normal development, limit and impair brain development. So much so that it can prevent the child from catching up with normal mental development. The disease, which progresses with obsessions (obsessions) and rituals performed to neutralize them (compulsions), is called “obsessive compulsive disorder” (OCD). In the course of normal childhood, children aged 4-5 may insist on performing certain rituals with the theme of “persistence of sameness”. These include passing the same place while going somewhere, wearing the same clothes, doing some things in the same order. These symptoms usually go away with age. In unresolved cases, childhood OCD may manifest itself starting from the ages of 7-8 or 11-13. Excessive thought preoccupations with such cardboard characters can trigger “childhood-onset OCD”. Compulsions to confirm and explain, one of the main symptoms of this disease, can occur suddenly in these children. They can shower their parents with questions and confirmations for hours and are not satisfied despite hours of persuasion. What can parents do to prevent the emergence of such situations that pose a great risk for the child’s mental development?
-First of all, watch the cardboard movie that your child will watch. Do not make your children watch movies that are exaggeratedly beyond the truth and/or scary-creepy, contain brutality and violence, and advocate the themes of making evil a hero.
-Limit the time. A child up to the age of eight should watch no more than 3 cardboard films a day. It is best to spread it in the morning and evening.
-Talk to your children about the heroes and themes covered. Make them see the truth by giving them realistic messages. If you sense a “hang-out” in your child’s mental processes that exceeds the purpose of these heroes, consult a child psychiatrist and seek professional help without wasting any time. Do not forget that the long explanations you will make to your child about these issues will reinforce their obsessions and pave the way for mental illnesses rather than satisfying them.
Finally, I would like to add the following:
I believe that producers who are going to make such effective cardboard films that will touch the mental processes of children should definitely seek counseling from a child mental health professional regarding the script. A fact that should not be forgotten is that “children with good mental health are the pioneers and indispensables of a healthy society”.
