Is Your Child or Teenager Depressed?
Children and teenagers are prone to depression. The changes in their growth and all the other developments in themselves and around them can lead to signs of depression. It is unlikely for this mental illness to be noticed in youth since many adults may just dismiss the youth’s characters as part of growing up or as nothing but an immature personality. How would you know if your child or teenager is depressed?
Symptoms of depression
The manifestation of depression is like an accumulation of different common emotions – sadness, anger, boredom, and the like. However, it could only just look normal in the surface, especially that some depressed people are masked behind smiling faces. Behind your child’s laughter or underneath your teenager’s irritability might just be his constant struggle with depression. Watch out for these symptoms as described by the National Institute of Mental Health.
- Persistently sad, anxious, or feeling empty
- Feeling hopeless and consistently pessimistic
- Strong guilt feelings and worthlessness
- Lost interests on things that used to be interesting
- Decreased energy and constant tiredness
- Problems with focusing, remembering, and making choices
- Insomnia and oversleeping
- Sudden weight gain or weight loss
- Irritability or always angry
- Suicidal thoughts
- Self harming
How depression feels like?
Unlike the normal feeling of sadness, depression is very different. It is not something one can just sleep on. A depressed person can surrounded by the happiest people in the world or watch the funniest show but still feel lonely. Depressed individuals cannot just get over their sorrow on a whim especially that most of the time the reason they are depressed is just because they feel so. There are not tangible or actual reasons sometimes for depressed people to feel bad. They just feel empty and maybe worthless. The fact that they do not know what makes them sad, just drives them even more sad and afraid because they know that what they are experiencing is not something everybody goes through.
Although people with major depression are aware that they are having a mental illness, they less likely reach out for help. Their depression includes feeling of worthlessness and hopelessness. Consequently, they do not feel that they are valuable enough to bother people to help their hopeless state.
Having this insight as to how your child may be feeling, suggests that you should show more compassion and appreciation to your child that he himself may be inspired and motivated to get well.
What causes depression?
Depression can be the imbalance of chemicals in one’s body. Your child could lack the hormones that could keep him happy, calm, or excited. It could also be due to your child’s brain structure. According to studies, there is a correlation between hippocampus size and depression. People with depression have smaller hippocampus. Chemical imbalance and the shrinking of the brain can be helped through medication, exercise, and diet.
Other causes of depression however are external like loss of a loved one, bullying, abuse, and other traumatic experiences. These can be helped through a series of therapy sessions with or without the aid of drugs.
What to do
When your child is manifesting two or more of these symptoms, it is important to approach them carefully. Scolding or telling them to just get over it is least likely to help anything. When you do not know how to talk to your child, you can seek help with a medical professional. Remember that your child or teenager is in his formative years and so when his mental illness is not addressed while he is young, he could bring such problem with him in his entire life, which hopefully would not end too soon due to thoughts of terminating one’s life or through substance abuse.