How severe is Childhood Depression?
Childhood depression, depression and children or child depression sounds very strange.
It is difficult to pin down why children become depressed and often it is rather a combination of factors.
But some classical situations may seriously
affect kids and precipitate child depression, such as:
Parents often
wonder what is wrong with a child who seems out of sorts a lot of time.
Here is a guide to what to look out for childhood depression symptom:
Babies and toddlers
They can not tell us if they are sad, so they express themselves
through their behavior and
Preschoolers might
-
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 kids
-
start telling lies
-
behave destructively.
A
few children can put their sad feelings into words, like: The world
does not feel right, mum.
Children quickly blame themselves if things
go wrong and think they are worthless.
Then their behavior seems to
ask for punishment - lying, stealing or playing truant from school. Remember - a naughty, depressed child is not an innately bad child!
School-age children
If they are depressed they may:
-
find it hard to concentrate and lose interest
in schoolwork and play
-
become loners
-
refuse to go to school
-
complain of feeling bored all the time
-
say they are lonely
-
lose confidence
-
become difficult to control
-
become slovenly.
Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it. Harold Hulbert
By
themselves children simply can not make sense of feeling depressed,
they feel helpless.
Depressed children need a caring adult to take a loving interest in them and show understanding. Loving, caring
attention is a very powerful medicine for every depressed child. Then
they can help them deal with their feelings over time.
Good
parents encourage their children to talk
about their worries from a
very early age, always listen and offer help. Children quickly feel
isolated, misunderstood and ignored if parents are preoccupied with
their own problems.
Use our online childhood depression test to scale depression in child and adolescent.
Do you have your own
experience with
childhood depression? How could you recognize it? What treatments, ways
of healing have you tried? Which one was successful? Share your story...
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