The childhood depression it is characterized by sadness, apathy, irritability, negativity, hypersensitivity, negative self-concept or even attempted suicide. Children may express this sadness through crying or by being irritable, moody and difficult to please..
Depression can appear at any age, although its prevalence increases with the age of minors. It can also occur in boys and girls, although it is true that women are more likely to suffer from this problem.
There is an increasingly growing tendency for this problem to appear in developed countries. Thus, the incidence figures for this disorder are estimated to be around 10% in total of children affected by depressive mood problems..
Normally, parents go to professionals expressing concern for their children, especially with complaints about their bad behavior at home or at school and irritability, thinking that the problem they have could be anything but depression.
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In general, psychological problems are often poorly understood, especially when minors suffer from it, whose only mission should be to play, have fun and enjoy life.
It is quite frequent that parents tend to misinterpret and belittle children's problems, since they apparently lack responsibilities and problems and have to be happy.
Because we are selfish and it is very hard for adults for a child to suffer, so we tend to pretend nothing is wrong.
However, it does happen. Children feel and suffer just like adults. The basic emotions: joy, sadness, fear, anger ... do not discriminate according to age. Both the positive ones, as well as the negative ones, the ones that make you feel good and with which you have a little worse time, they are all part of adults and children..
The world of children is complex and, although we adults have a simpler vision of it due to learning and experience, they have many things to discover and understand and they have the right to feel insecure, nervous, afraid ...
The problem is that their way of expressing their discomfort is sometimes not understood by adults since, for example, they can express a great feeling of sadness with tantrums.
Thus, this misunderstanding influences that they tend to put aside the problems of the little ones, when really what we have to do is pay more attention to them and know how to see what they want to tell us..
As in most psychological problems, not all people have the same symptoms or in the same intensity. In the case of childhood depression, the most common symptoms that we professionals use as criteria for diagnosis are:
To find the origin of a child's depressive state, it is important to know their life history from all areas (family, school, social life ...), since it is likely that some event or lifestyle could be the trigger.
A direct cause-effect relationship cannot be established between a specific event and depression as the same event can have different emotional consequences for each person.
How each one copes with the different situations that life presents depends on both their personal characteristics and the environment in which they find themselves. For example, if the environment around you is highly conflictive and stressful, it is very likely that you will develop this and / or some other type of psychological or behavior problem.
It is also important to take into account the biological vulnerability of certain people that will make them prone to depression. Here is a list that summarizes the main personal, family and social factors associated with depression in children:
The approach to depression in children can be done from different fronts both medical and psychological.
The same medications are used as in the case of adults, these are called tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Its use is controversial since its efficacy and safety in children has not been fully proven
Within psychological intervention, the approach from this approach is the one most used due to its efficacy and utility. The techniques used are:
Although these mentioned techniques are applied directly with children, it is necessary for parents to be involved in the treatment and work with them on those aspects related to the children's problem..
They are usually taught more positive methods of discipline, how to help increase children's self-esteem, improve communication in the family, plan leisure activities as a family ...
Also, on the occasions when parents have emotional problems or some psychological pathology, it is necessary to work on them to improve the state of the children.
Part of the idea that childhood depression is a consequence of a malfunction of the family system, so the intervention focuses on modifying the patterns of family interaction.
Normally, most of the interventions carried out with minors must include the participation of parents and this is often not to their liking.
Recognizing that your child has problems, in part, because you encourage them is usually quite hard to accept and many are reluctant to participate in change for this reason.
However, it is important that they understand that they are an important part of your child's recovery. After all, parents (and the family in general) are in charge of showing the world to children, being their main source of socialization and discovery.
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