Good parents encourage their children to talk about their worries from a very early age, always listen and offer help. Children can quickly feel isolated, misunderstood and ignored if parents are preoccupied with their own problems.
It’s difficult to pin down why children become depressed and often it’s a combination of factors. But some classic situations seriously affect children and precipitate depression, such as:
• Death in the family
• Bullying
• Exam anxiety
• Feeling ugly
• Unsympathetic parents
• Parental illness
• Inferiority complex
• Parental discord
Tell-tale signs for parents
Parents often wonder what’s wrong with a child who seems out of sorts a lot of the time. here’s is a guide to what to look out for.
Babies and toddlers
They can’t tell us if they are sad, so they express themselves through their behavior and become unresponsive and clingy but can’t accept comfort. Some toddlers refuse to eat and suffer from sleep disturbance. If these are the symptoms, your baby is probably suffering from some sort of anxiety problem.
Do not bother much because things get okay with time in toddlers. Only thing you need to do is right food and attention.
Pre-schoolers
Some of the common symptoms of pre-schoolers depression are:
• Be tearful all the time
• Stop eating
• Wake up during the night
• Have frequent nightmares and night terrors
• Become very demanding and naughty
• Bully, hit and bite other children
• Start telling lies
• Behave destructively
Sometimes too much discipline can create a sense of inferiority amongst pre-schoolers. This is the time when a child must run on imaginations, play with his or her accord and do whatever he or she like. Do not hold tight on the mesh of discipline and scolding. Give positive feedback about his or her development and learning.
School-age children
Some of the common symptoms are:
• Find it hard to concentrate and lose interest in school work and play
• Become loners
• Refuse to go to school
• Complain of feeling bored all the time
• Lose confidence
• Become difficult to control
• Become slovenly.
Adolescents
Almost without exception, adolescents go through period of being moody and antisocial and it can be difficult to spot the difference between what’s normal and what’s depression. Look out for these signs of depression – one or two signs could be a passing phase but three, four or more mean you should see your doctor.
• Being much more moody and irritable than normal
• Becoming withdrawn, giving up on friends and hobbies
• Losing interest in or not doing well at school
• Taking no interest in hair, clothes, music
• Not eating enough, even anorexia, or eating too much, even bulimia
• Taking drugs
• Not being able to get out of bed until mid-day
• Getting drunk
• Becoming preoccupied with thoughts of death
• Harming themselves by cutting their skin.
What is the treatment?
Getting professional help early from your GP for any child whose unhappiness is more than a passing phase can often prevent long-term depression. The mainstay of treating childhood depression is what’s called talk therapy, sessions with a psychotherapist, clinical psychologist or family therapist, where the child can vent their anger, frustration, fear and hopelessness. Loving, caring attention is very powerful medicine for every depressed child.
How can adults help?
By themselves, children simply can’t make sense of feeling depressed; they feel helpless. Depressed children need a caring adult to take a loving interest in them and show understanding. Then they can help them deal with their feelings over time.
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