Overcoming Depression In Children

Kapanlagi.com - Your child is aged three years, it was not as cheerfully as usual, he did not 'nosy' when morning comes, is not impossible that he also refused to eat.
Instead of joking with his brothers, or drawing in his book, he tends to be on the edge of the window, staring blankly at the outside, maybe a toddler suffering from depression?
Like most people, you might assume that pre school children are too small to feel sad. But there was a recent study which stated that clinical depression was apparently knows no age. Depressed - even suicidal - as influential on children and adolescents as in adults.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, suggests that children are experiencing symptoms of depression are the same as those commonly found in adults, even the same level of severity. According to the National Mental Health Association, one of three children in America suffer from depression. However, despite already talking about statistics, depression is a disease that remains undetected and untreated among children and adolescents.
Unlike red spots on measles disease, or a red nose on the flu, symptoms of depression is not too concrete, and as a consequence, this is often not detected by parents.
What signs of childhood depression? What are the behaviors that need to be supervised by a parent? Usually the children who suffer persistent depression is always disturbed, withdrawn and lethargic, said Dr. Elizabeth Rody, medical director of child and adolescent psychiatrists as well as for Magellan Behavioral Health in New Jersey.
Children are depressed are also losing interest in activities previously done so they like, while other symptoms include:
• Constantly crying and persistent sadness
• Lack of enthusiasm or motivation
Increased anger
• Chronic Fatigue or lack of energy
• Pulling away from family, friends and activities that had favored
• Changes in eating and sleeping habits (increase or decrease in body weight evident, likes to sleep, sleeplessness)
• Of the most frequent complaints about physical problems, such as stomach pain or dizziness
• Lack of concentration and love to forget

• Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt
• Excessive sensitivity to rejection or failure
° developmental delays major (in toddlers - not walking, talking or expressing self)
• Play that involves violence, either to yourself or others, or with a sad theme.
• Frequent appear talks about death or suicide.
It is not uncommon for children to continue to feel sad from time to time. By knowing this, how can parents distinguish normal fluctuations in mood from serious depression? The answer is in the duration of depressive behavior.
According to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, children's depression experience episodes of depression that usually lasted from seven to nine months, although some child development experts who say that the depressive behavior that lasted more than two weeks requires further examination.
But somehow, it is best to let professionals in the mental health section to decide.
Depression is not the only reason for the behavior of 'naughty' children. Physiological problems, such as malnutrition, mononucleosis, allergies and other diseases can cause an angry mood, fatigue and withdrawal. This is why Rody stressed that parents should bring their children to the family doctor first, before making an appointment with a mental health professional.
If your child was not a public health problem, then the next step is to make an appointment with a psychiatrist or psychologist for evaluation of children and adolescents. In addition to the series of psychological tests and blood work, parents should also be prepared to review the entire history of child health.
Although the exact cause of childhood depression is not well known, the study of depression in adults state that depends on genetic predisposition and environmental influences. "Some of the environmental and genetic," said Rody. "When compared between depression with heart diseases. You can have a history of heart disease in families and at the same time you do not maintain your lifestyle. Both may cause you a heart attack. Depression is like that, caused by a complex combination of various factors. "
Children who have parents or / and his brother was suffering from depression are more likely to develop symptoms of this disease. Not capable of learning (Learning Disabilities), such as inability to concentrate / hyperactivity, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia are also contributing to the incidence of childhood depression. Environmental factors that make children at risk of suffering from depression include physical abuse, sexual, and verbal, displaced children and the history of medicine consumption in the family.


Divorce and the loss of loved ones can also cause emotional instability in children, but not always a cause of depression.
Although your child's new toddler, her emotions are very real. Experts believe that the more parents pay attention to the feelings of her child, then more and let his ability to seek help in depression. "If your child says, 'I am very sad and wanted to jump from the window', you should seriously look at these words," said Rody warned.
Ask your child these things below to find the cause of your child's grief:
• What happened today that you very sad?
• What makes you happy?
• What the hell are you looking for?
• What do you want to happen to you?
• If you can change yourself, what would you change?
Care for children and adolescents who suffer depression include a combination of individual psychotherapy and family counseling. To be optimal, according to Rody, therapy should involve parents, siblings and people that are important in the life of the child, such as teachers and grandparents.
Other treatments include play therapy, continuous evaluation and in some cases, using drugs. Antidepressants are often used to treat cases of secondary depression. What is important, too, has not been allowed to give anti-depressants in children under the age of 8 years (male clinic / *)