Childhood and adolescent depression, an invisible reality with dramatic consequences in the life of those who suffer from it
Children and adolescents have emotions, did you know? They feel and suffer for a wide variety of reasons. They even carry the genes their parents contributed at conception. However, these self-evident truths, known to everyone, are often forgotten in the hustle and bustle of adult life: ultimately, depression in children and adolescents exists.
Let's look at different situations that often indicate a possible emotional disturbance and for which we usually find completely erroneous explanations.
We provide parents and teenagers who visit the website with three mood assessment tools
I will only refer to the childhood stage (approximately up to 12 years old), since depression in adolescents takes on different clinical dimensions.
- The: The family environment can be a protective factor against children's emotional problems, but it can also be a decisive risk factor. Parental "excessive demands" regarding childcare—sleep, food, schooling, play, etc.—overprotection, which so often diminishes children's freedom and need to explore, disagreements between parents when making decisions about childcare, and parental arguments in the child's presence—all these situations undermine positive emotional and social development. Without realizing it, we are raising a child who is quite volatile in their emotional development, a fragile child without the resources to cope with the setbacks they face daily, either because they have been subjected to excessive demands or because we have been unable to tolerate their reactions to frustration, always rushing to solve their problems for them.
Work and financial difficulties within the family. Children are more often aware of their parents' difficulties and problems than we realize, even though the parents try their best to keep them out of the spotlight.
Although it is not the most common occurrence, it is important to recognize that a history, or presence, of affective disorders in parents makes children especially vulnerable to depression.
Finally, attachment difficulties are very common and pose a high risk for affective and relational disorders during early childhood. This is especially relevant for adopted children and those from single-parent, separated, or other families.
-The school: We tend to look for a quick explanation, true or not, when our son or daughter presents psychological or behavioral problems related to school.
We must keep in mind that when a child experiences unexpected changes in mood or behavior related to school, there is a wide variety of situations that can explain it: a change of teacher, a change of classmates, pedagogical mismatches (poor teacher/student relationships), bullying (or simply teasing or hurtful comments…), changes in their social relationships, problems adapting to the dynamics with classmates, learning difficulties not detected until that moment…
- La peer relationships: Our children need to be accepted by the group, although not all of them have the same abilities to achieve this. They suffer when they are given little consideration by their peers. Some react with aggression, and others by isolating themselves. In both situations, they suffer. In the first case, we will find the explanation that others reject them because they are unbearable; in the second, because they are very shy, or even because they are given a psychiatric diagnosis: "They have some symptoms of Asperger's."
- We must also consider depression in situations where our son or daughter has already been diagnosed with other difficulties.. The most frequent are:
- Children with physical disabilities. The greater the awareness of their handicap, the more vulnerable they are.
- Children with significant intellectual disabilities.
- Children with specific learning difficulties (language, reading and writing, etc.).
- Children with difficulties in social skills.
- Children who are overly demanding of themselves.
- Children with ADHD.
- Children with Asperger's syndrome or other ASDs.
- Children with childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder (sometimes it goes unnoticed, especially when the children themselves are unaware of their difficulty).
In conclusion, Childhood depression is more common than many of the more fashionable disorders (ASD, Asperger's, ADHD, etc.), yet it remains largely misunderstood. Its medium- to long-term consequences are significant, as they shape socio-emotional development and play a crucial role in the formation of adult personality.
Let us not forget that another significant cause of depressive symptoms in childhood can be SEXUAL ABUSE, first within the family and its immediate environment, and also among peers, teachers, coaches, etc.
Today is World Depression Day in Europe. Psychiatry Infant, a specialty recognized throughout the EU, in Spain it does not exist when.1 For me, this data is a good indicator of how little our leaders care about the psychological problems of our children. I am a child and adolescent psychiatrist because I trained in France, and I have reached retirement age without the specialty yet being officially recognized in our country.
Today we have some professionals with absolutely no training in developmental psychopathology practicing as child psychiatrists with quite disastrous consequences: children not treated properly, children over-medicated, when they are not incorrectly medicated.
I feel sadness and anger. A lot of talk, talk, talk, and a lot of institutional and, on many occasions, professional negligence.
