When Your Child Feels Sad
© John McManamy
There is an enemy in our midst, one that used to attack only adults and the elderly. Now it is preying on teens and children. The name of the monster is depression, and it is robbing ever increasing numbers of our off-spring of their childhoods and youth.
Some 3.4 million Americans under 18 are seriously depressed, one in every 33 children, according to estimates, and a staggering one in every eight teens, most who go undiagnosed and untreated.
The personal toll can be enormous: Homework not done, lessons not learned, ostracism by peers, alienation from family, run-ins with authority. A typical depressive episode can rage on for nine months or more, the length of a school year, enough time to brand a youth as undesirable and sabotage forever his or her brightest hopes and dreams.
The victim may retreat into his or her inner world or take comfort in alcohol or illegal drugs. Or the opposite may happen in the form of aggressive behavior that has neighbors dialing 911. Ultimately, all too many seek the wrong way out: Child and teen suicides have quadrupled since 1950. In 1995, some 2,227 Americans under age twenty took their lives, the second leading cause of death in our youth.
Until a short while ago, our society refused to admit to depression in our children, much less acknowledge they had anything to be depressed about. Deborah Deren, on her Wing of Madness web site, describes addressing a group of classmates several years back, many experienced teachers: "I was saddened," she writes, "though not surprised, by the number of them who told me after class that they had no idea children could suffer from depression."
She adds: "Although many myths and misunderstandings surround adult depression, even more surround childhood depression."
And she's not exaggerating, either:
Child and teen depression is often bound up in other behaviors and disorders, ranging from anti-social behavior to attention deficit disorder to over-eating to substance abuse. Confusing the issue is the fact that early-onset depression can manifest itself in ways not normally associated with adult depression, such as high anxiety and agitation.
And in case you hadn't noticed, normal teens exhibit many of these same mind-boggling behaviors.
All too often, parents fail to recognize the symptoms or respond with ill-advised boot-in-the-backside remedies. Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker is a case in point: "My guess is," she writes, "we wouldn't have most of today's crop of afflictions - drug abuse, promiscuity, attention deficit disorder, violence - if we'd take a break from examining our navels and starting kicking a little anatomy."
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