The Symptoms of Depression In Young Children
Depression can be a devastating mental disorder. It can easily cause someone you know to become unapproachable and distant. But what do you do when a young child is starting to show the early symptoms of depression? Today we’ll explore exactly how you can identify a depressed child and what you can do about it.
What Are The Signs and Symptoms of Depression In A Child
Many parents can easily mistake depression for the usual childhood blues that one can experience. Depression is far more sinister than these childhood blues however and can easily affect a child’s development. Many children experiencing depression will begin showing a number of adverse signs and symptoms.
Loss of Interest
A child losing interest in the things they used to find fun can be an early sign of depression. This makes them unable to enjoy their lives and can cause them to grow into unsatisfied adults. Depression will make them feel as though their actions don’t matter in the grand scheme of things and eventually they’ll just stop doing what they love doing.
Focusing on The Negatives
Depression can easily affect a child’s outlook on life. Instead of smiling at the roses along their path to success, they’ll start looking at the thorns and how much it’ll hurt them. The negatives start outweighing the positives in everything they do and it can be difficult for them to be satisfied in what they do.
Insomnia and Lack of Appetite
Depression can also have a profound effect on your child’s ability to sleep and their interest in eating. Teenagers on the other hand experience an increase in their appetite as they use eating as a coping mechanism. Younger children on the other hand simply refuse to eat and are kept up late at night by their negative thoughts.
Low Self Esteem
A child going through depression will have very low self esteem. They commonly self deprecate and consider themselves weaker, dumber, uglier etc than their peers. In the long run this can cause them to get stuck in a loop where they think that they or the work that they’re doing doesn’t matter.
What Are Your Options?
Depression’s effects can easily affect a child’s growth and development as they get stuck with a negative mindset while they grow older. You can prevent depression when you’re older and feel like you’re about to enter a depressive episode, but children don’t know better. In some cases, depression can even be found in young toddlers that can’t even speak.
Depression is a crippling mental disorder that no one wants to deal with. Growing up with depression can lead to a number of complications that could have been prevented. Whatever you do, don’t sit back and hope that it goes away. Depression is a very real mental disorder that only gets worse over time so you have is to make sure to catch it early.
The best option you have is to bring your child to be diagnosed. Many underlying illnesses can easily mimic the symptoms of depression. These can be anything from hormone imbalances to other mental disorders like ADHD or OCD. A proper diagnosis can help you figure out what you need to do to support your child. Treatment can come soon after it’s been positively identified as depression.
We at CNS Center Arizona believe that we can help your child fight through the pain of depression. Contact us today for a consultation!
