Depression in children

Children are supposed to be well-taken care of by adults. They are supposed to have their basic needs met. These include the need for food, warmth, physical comfort, adequate clothing and a healthy environment. In addition to these basic, mostly physical needs, they also have a right to have their emotional needs, such as comfort, closeness to other human beings and love, met. With all these needs provided for them children should have no reason to be concerned, anxious or worried. However that is not necessarily so. These needs are not always met one hundred per cent for each child. So that there is some concern, anxiety and worry in children. And this can in fact lead to children feeling depressed.

Depression is not just feeling sad for a while, or being "down-in-the-dumps" for a few days. Depression is long lasting. It usually persists for more than a month at a time and is life-threatening. It has been easy to miss the signs of depression in children because it is usually associated with other behaviours such as aggressiveness, irritability, delinquency, or hyperactivity. These behaviours can be symptomatic of or associated with several other disorders in children including learning disabilities, emotional disorders, alcohol and substance abuse, and therefore it is easy to misdiagnose a child suffering from depression. In addition, particularly in older children, signs of depression could get covered up or confused with the emotional turmoil that is thought to be characteristic of adolescence. Therefore moodiness or withdrawal in an adolescent could be dismissed as merely being a result of hormonal changes at that time.

What to look for? ·Persistent sad mood. This can be observed in young people by signs such as wearing black clothes, writing sad stories or poetry, listening to music with morbid themes and words, frequently expressing feelings of worthlessness.

·Decreasing interest in activities that once were important or enjoyable. This is accompanied by withdrawal especially from friends- not wanting to hang-out or play with friends any more, complaining of being bored all the time.

·Change of sleep patterns. There may be difficulty sleeping- he may be up late at night watching TV, or having difficulty getting up for school in the mornings, falling asleep often during the day.

·Lack of motivation and low mental and physical energy level. Seems very lethargic, sits around doing nothing often, misses classes or football practice, academic performance drops, has difficulty concentrating.

·Frequent complaints of physical pains such as headaches, stomach- aches, tiredness.

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