The child mental health crisis: ‘I felt like a failure, but it was school who failed me’
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By Sarah Ingram
During the Easter holidays last year, five-year-old Harry had a panic attack and said he didn’t want to live any more.
‘He was saying he didn’t have any friends and that he was ugly,’ remembers his mum, Sophie*, who adds that of course neither was true. Her son then told her: ‘I want to die mummy.’’
Hearing these words from anyone is hard enough, but from someone so young is harrowing, especially in the knowledge that suicide is the main cause of death in people under the age of 35 in the UK.
Harry had experienced a period of ill health and gone through a number of traumatic procedures and an operation, followed by lockdown and all the disruption to his schooling that entailed. He lost all his confidence and was overcome with fear.
His mum recalls how her little boy didn’t even want to go outside because he was scared of his own garden. Then last spring the anxiety attacks started.
‘He starts feeling sick, and he gets a tummy ache,’ explains Sophie. ‘Then his breath ...
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