My daughter is 15 years old and an only child. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia a year ago and her condition is stable after treatment. I would like to ask you what kind of recovery environment we should create for my daughter during her recovery at home? Should we just accommodate her and tolerate her? Our child is “pampered” when she asks for something, often saying “Mom I’m going to have an attack now ……, let’s go eat hot pot, let’s go buy …… “. We sometimes feel that the child has a disease, the heart also blame themselves, but also think not to provoke her emotions, for fear of repeated, and agreed. But we also worry about the child’s inflated desires, and we can’t pick the stars and the moon for her. How should parents grasp this scale? How should they respond? Ms. Zhang Hello, Ms. Zhang! We understand your feelings very well! Parents want to give their children more care, attention and care after their only child is sick. In addition to the fear of recurrence of the disease, so many families appear to be repeatedly accommodating to their children. However, it is found that the child’s needs are increasing and cannot always be met, and the child is always unhappy. We have interviewed some patients in recovery for this problem and hope that their experience will be useful to you. Some patients told us that even though their condition is stable and their self-awareness is restored, they still have some behaviors that are unacceptable to their families, such as spending money indiscriminately. But why do they do that? It is because it is too boring to stay at home, and spending money will bring a little happiness to them. From this statement, we understand that the reason behind the child’s “capricious behavior” may be boredom and unhappiness in life. If this is the psychological experience, we should guide the child to enrich his or her life during recovery in the following ways. Hobbies and interests: Pick up your past hobbies and interests. Some children used to like painting and playing the piano, but after they got sick, their families focused more on taking medication and seeing the doctor, and completely forgot about their past hobbies. Social interaction: arrange opportunities to meet with classmates. Some parents worry that their child’s illness will be known by classmates and laugh at their child. This strips the child of social interaction and the right to have fun with peers. Self-care: It is very important to develop self-care skills. Teenage children are busy with their studies and are mostly the only child in the family, and often family members are overly concerned and caring. Self-care is also a very important part of their self-confidence. After all, children cannot always be around their parents and have to face many challenges in life independently. Cultivating good living skills and establishing a healthy routine are very important to face college campus life and even future marriage and family life. Moderate learning: Appropriate guidance to restore cognitive and learning functions, moderate arrangements according to the different stages of the child’s rehabilitation. For example, in the beginning stage, you can read extracurricular books, make some reading notes or diaries, and arrange common family time to exchange what you see together. This will help your child’s attention span, memory, and expression skills, as well as promote your child’s understanding of what is happening around him or her. Gradually transition to learning some age-appropriate curriculum. You can start with subjects that interest you, begin by reviewing what you have learned, and slowly move over to learning new knowledge. Lay the foundation for resuming academic life. Physical exercise: Due to the lack of social activities during the acute treatment, there is often a decline in physical ability. Focus on arranging outdoor activities to strengthen the system. Lay a good foundation for resuming school life while controlling weight and strengthening coordination training. Psychological adjustment: Having a mental disorder during the learning stage inevitably produces psychological pressure on the child. The child will often have the following psychological state. They do not know how to face their future life and how to face their classmates; they do not learn as well as before after the disease, they fall behind in classes and cannot accept it psychologically; they do not know enough about psychological knowledge and do not know what kind of disease they are suffering from. If you have such confusion, we recommend you to participate in the mental illness health education activities organized by Beida Sixth Hospital, and you can also participate in the rehabilitation guidance service of the rehabilitation center. It helps patients to understand their own state, learn about the disease and build up confidence. So listening to your child and paying attention to the story behind your child’s behavior may be more important for parents to focus on. Parents do not simply comply with the requests made by their children, nor do they reject them all together. It is possible to adjust the child’s emotional state and give more encouragement to their progress so that their inner needs are met through healthy means and they can find happiness and confidence through enriching their lives. The child’s needs can be met in the form of rewards. Such as a family outing to a hot pot on the basis of completing a set rehabilitation program would be delightful! We hope you find what we’ve shared helpful!