Depression is a common, but serious mood disorder that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. During a depressive episode, the person experiences a depressed mood (feeling sad, irritable, empty) or a loss of pleasure or interest in activities.

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life. It’s a normal feeling to have, such as when you have an exam in school or when you meet people for the first time. However for some people their anxiety can be hard to control and can often affect their daily lives in which they might avoid the things that make them feel anxious.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a common and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reccurring thoughts (obsessions) and/or behaviours (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over. People with OCD may have symptoms of obsessions, compulsions, or both. These symptoms can interfere with all aspects of life, such as work, school, and personal relationships.

Social anxiety is more than shyness. It's a fear that does not go away and affects everyday activities, self-confidence, relationships and work or school life. Many people occasionally worry about social situations, but someone with social anxiety feels overly worried before, during and after them. They will try to avoid social situations and this will only increase the anxiety that they already have.

A phobia is an overwhelming and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal. Phobias are more pronounced than fears. They develop when a person has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation or object. If a phobia becomes very severe, a person may organise their life around avoiding the thing that's causing them anxiety. As well as restricting their day-to-day life, it can also cause a lot of distress.

A panic attack of anxiety disorder in which you have sudden attacks of panic or fear.
During a panic attack you get a rush of intense mental and physical symptoms. It can come on very quickly and for no apparent reason.
A panic attack can be very frightening and distressing. You may start to avoid certain situations because you fear they'll trigger another attack. This can create a cycle of living "in fear of fear". It can add to your sense of panic and may cause you to have more attack

Children sometimes argue, are aggressive, or act angry or defiant around adults. A behavioural disorder may be diagnosed when these disruptive behaviours are uncommon for the child’s age at the time, persist over time, or are severe. Because disruptive behavioural disorders involve acting out and showing unwanted behaviour towards others, they are sometimes called externalizing disorders.

ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. It is usually first diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood. Children with ADHD may have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviours (may act without thinking about what the result will be), or be overly active.

It is normal for children to have trouble focusing and behaving at one time or another. However, children with ADHD do not just grow out of these behaviours. The symptoms continue, can be severe, and can cause difficulty at school, at home, or with friends.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave. Although autism can be diagnosed at any age, it is described as a “developmental disorder” because symptoms generally appear in the first two years of life.

Autism is known as a “spectrum” disorder because there is wide variation in the type and severity of symptoms people experience.

Parenting is a process that prepares your child for independence by giving your children a good start in life—you nurture, protect and guide them. As your child grows and develops, there are many things you can do to help your child. Parenting is also tough and your emotions can get the best of you at times. At these times you can ask for help and guidance.

Self-esteem is liking yourself, feeling worthwhile, believing in yourself and knowing what you do well.

Self-esteem is crucial to children’s social relationships, academic achievement, participation, engagement in activities, and, ultimately, their sense of well being. Children low in self-esteem tend to be shy and introverted, with self-imposed limitations and a fixed mindset.

When children try new things, face challenges and bounce back, they learn and grow. This is why self-esteem can be an important part of child development.

Social skills are the skills we use every day to interact and communicate with others. They include verbal and non-verbal communication, such as speech, gesture, facial expression and body language.

Social skills are vital in enabling an individual to have and maintain positive interactions with others. Many of these skills are crucial in making and sustaining friendships. Social interactions do not always run smoothly and an individual needs to be able to implement appropriate strategies, such as conflict resolution when difficulties in interactions arise. It is also important for individuals to have “empathy” (i.e. being able to put yourself into someone else’s shoes and recognize their feelings) as it allows them to respond in an understanding and caring way to how others are feeling.

Perspective taking is the ability to look beyond your own point of view, so that you can consider how someone else may think or feel about something.

To do this successfully, you must have some understanding of others’ thoughts, feelings, motivations, and intentions. You must also have some background information about the other person or be able to make some smart guesses about their background and or how they experience the world.

Sleep issues, such as insomnia, bedtime fears, night terrors, sleepwalking, and bed-wetting can all disrupt your child’s natural sleep pattern. Sleep problems are common among children, especially when they are young. Some children may not feel tired at their designated bedtime while others have trouble falling asleep without a parent present. Some children will frequently wake up in the middle of night, suddenly wide awake, and either toss and turn or come and wake up mom and dad.

It can be frustrating to have your own sleep regularly disturbed and then find yourself having to rush around in the morning because your child’s getting up late, or having to deal with a fussy, moody child who’s low on sleep.

School problems that children worry about can include finding school work difficult, friendship issues, bullying and exam stress. Everyone worries about things that happen at school from time to time. Lots of people will experience something difficult or have to work through a problem during school. There’s a lot of pressure to get good results, make lots of friends, do well in every subject and be a ‘good student’. These stresses during school can sometimes feel too much. The important thing is to recognize when there’s a problem and ask for help.

Grief is a natural response to loss. It might be the loss of a loved one, relationship, pregnancy, pet, job or way of life. Other experiences of loss may be due to children leaving home and separation from friends and family. The more significant the loss, the more intense the grief is likely to be. Grief has no set pattern. Everyone experiences grief differently.