Can "carefree" children also get depression? No doubt!

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Hearing that a child may have depression, parents may be surprised and unacceptable, right? How can a child have depression in a simple life? Children's growth at different stages will have different pressures, when it is impossible to relieve that pressure, there will be negative emotions to show, parents can check their own way of discipline, whether it is the cause of the child's emotional tension can not be relieved. Finding the crux and solution to the problem is the right and feasible way.

Do young children also have depression?

Relevant studies abroad have reported that after the separation of infants from their mothers, emotional attachment depression occurs; and children with depression suffer three times more stimuli than the average child before illness.

According to relevant surveys in the American clinical community, the incidence of depression in preschool children aged one to six years accounts for about one percent, and about two percent of preschool children, which is more serious in adolescence. It is worth noting that depression that occurs in children and adolescents often delays the opportunity for treatment because parents find out very late.

These studies have shown that not only adults suffer from depression, but also children who accumulate negative emotions such as crying, withdrawal, oppression, and self-harm over a long period of time may also lead to depression or emotional psychosis.

In fact, the growth process of young children from complete dependence to independence must be carried out in a stable, caring and accepting environment, if the child is in a family discordant, vicious, or even violent environment from an early age, it will cause great harm to its psychology, and it may induce depression in children.

Recognize childhood depression

"Children's depression" does not show depression, insomnia, depression and other typical symptoms like depression, young children are limited by mental development and expression ability, rarely can take the initiative to clearly describe their mood, at this time, the most obvious feature is often suddenly sluggish, easier than usual angry, inability to concentrate, no longer look at favorite picture books or TELEVISION, smiles on the face less and less, and even inexplicably cry.

Children who have already entered kindergarten or elementary school will obviously be inattentive in class, and they will now behave proudly in classes or activities they like to participate in, do not like to play with their peers, are prone to tantrums or quarrels with classmates, and sometimes even say shocking words such as "bad mood and want to die".

Childhood that loses a smile

When many people hear "children's depression", they will have this reaction: "At such a young age, what is there to worry about?" In fact, each stage of life has its own different life problems and pressures, although the child's age is small, but the feeling of life events is quite sharp and direct, emotional response is even stronger than adults.

Many small things that seem trivial to adults are very likely to trigger strong emotions in children, such as accidentally losing a beloved eraser, losing a long-awaited chocolate candy... Wait. However, under normal circumstances, the child's emotional response, although intense, lasts shorter than that of adults, and the child may have just been howling and crying, but after a few minutes, he is happily playing with his companions.

What is Depression in Children?

"Childhood depression" is not a child's temporary mood swings or personality defects, but a pathological mental disorder that affects thinking, feeling, emotions and behavior. The causes of depression are multifaceted, including physical factors (e.g., imbalances in brain neurotransmitters) and psychosocial factors (e.g., family life stress or school relationship frustration).

The core symptoms of typical depression are depressed or unhappy, and in childhood, it is prone to emotional deviations such as irritability and irritability. Other symptoms include a significant decrease in activity and interest, a significant change in appetite and food intake, abnormal sleep, fatigue and lack of vitality, decreased thinking ability and concentration, a negative outlook on life, and even the thought of death.

Psychiatric studies have found that the following children are at high risk of depression:

● Experience of losing a loved one: for example, the death or divorce of a parent in childhood.

●Abused children: including physical or psychological abuse, or severe neglect.

●There is a family history of depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, or other mental illness.

●Children with physical and mental development delays or disorders.

●Chronic physical illness: e.g., epilepsy, cerebral palsy, sensory integration abnormalities, etc.

Poor family support system, lack of good communication habits or ability to cope with stress.

Early detection, early treatment

More and more studies show that children with depression who do not give appropriate intervention will most likely not get better on their own, and the consequences of failing to receive treatment in time not only affect the improvement of depressive symptoms, but also have a significant and far-reaching negative impact on children's self-identity and personality development. In order to avoid the vicious circle caused by the delay in medical treatment, when it is found that the child's words and deeds are abnormal, it is necessary to consult an experienced child psychologist as soon as possible to give appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

How to prevent depression in children?

Preschool early childhood is an important stage in the beginning of life, psychological research points out that the formation of personality traits and early childhood life experience is closely related, if parents can give enough and appropriate care in early childhood, will be able to effectively establish children's sense of security and self-confidence, reduce the probability of depression or other behavioral and emotional disorders.

Effectively helping children solve emotional disorders requires the following four factors: unlimited love, unlimited patience, correct knowledge, and correct methods. Parents love their children, not to mention, about "love" is mostly not a problem, the crux of the problem is usually that the parents are too busy, not enough patience, lack of correct parenting knowledge, or use the wrong method.

Psychosocial treatment of depression

1. Effective communication and support

Children's depression is greatly affected by psychosocial factors, if parents can effectively communicate with their children and give necessary assistance and psychological support, it will greatly reduce the child's chance of emotional disorders and help depressed children return to normal.

● Establish the habit of talking with children: Many parents are too busy, often wait until the child is out of the situation, and then think of communicating with the child, for example: after a fight with the neighbor's child, hurry to find the child to "communicate" What is wrong? The usual answer at this point is, "I don't know!" This kind of answer has angered the parents, the problem has not been resolved, and the conflict between parents and children has increased. When parents wait until the child is in a situation before rushing to find the child, if you accidentally "communicate" it is easy to become "interrogation", when the child is faced with "interrogation", how can you say the words in your heart?

Therefore, if you want to understand the child's inner world and effectively help them grow psychologically, the most important thing is to establish the habit of "chatting" on a daily basis, for example: spend an hour and a half in the evening every day to understand the child's life of the day, and know what he thinks and feels in his heart. In case of a situation, because there is a habit of talking on weekdays, it is easier for children to speak their inner thoughts frankly, and parents have the opportunity to give appropriate help.

● Patient listening: Although children are always "fairy tales", if adults can calm down and listen patiently, there will often be surprising discoveries. For example, if the child falls out with a classmate who is better on weekdays, he is both aggrieved and sad, crying and red-eyed, at this time, if the mother is indiscriminately anxious to comfort: "It doesn't matter!" It does not matter! Mom hugs, mom loves you! ", usually do not get the desired effect. Because the child's grievances and sadness are "the betrayal of friendship", and "mother's love" are basically two different things, without carefully listening to the child's voice, the mother's comfort may be disappointed. At this time, you should first take the time to patiently listen to the child to explain the origin of the matter, try to experience his grievances and sadness from the child's point of view, and then use warm care to help him calm down.

Unconditional support: Parents must convey a clear message to their children: "Whatever happens, parents will support you!" This message for children means: "Whatever happens, there are parents who love me and a home to rely on." And this is the foundation of self-confidence and security in childhood; so that when children encounter setbacks, they will not be discouraged and desperate to go to extremes. Of course, "unconditional support" is not the same as "connivance", when the child has a deviant behavior, parents still need to give appropriate discipline, out of love the purpose of discipline is not to punish the child, but to help him recognize right and wrong, learn appropriate words and deeds.

● Constructive guidance: Guiding children to re-examine the difficulties encountered from a constructive perspective is an important key to recovering from depression. Setbacks in life provide a good opportunity for children to learn the correct and constructive way of doing things, and parents can use this to let their children face up to their shortcomings and learn a positive attitude towards life from the experience of failure. For example: children quarrel with friends, parents should not rush to appease, but fully criticize each other is not, but should guide the child, stand in the position of both sides to look at the dispute, and teach him to deal with people to solve disputes skills, so that children know how to learn from setbacks to grow.

Say goodbye to depression and laugh again

Depression can lead to a child's low mood, reduced mobility, poor learning, poor interpersonal relationships and behavioral deviations, and further affect his self-identity and personality development. However, depression can be effectively treated, parents or teachers suspect that children have depressive tendencies or abnormal behavior, do not hide the disease, early diagnosis and treatment, in order to effectively help children shake off depression and regain laughter.

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