Depression
**Important Disclaimer**
This page is for information purposes only. This page is designed to provide information to help you understand anxiety, give you some tools for coping, and ideas to talk to your primary care physician about.**
What is depression?
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Occasionally being sad or feeling hopeless is a part of every child’s life. However, some children feel sad or uninterested in things that they used to enjoy, or feel helpless or hopeless in situations they are able to change. When children feel persistent sadness and hopelessness, they may be diagnosed with depression.
Examples of behaviors often seen in children with depression include
Feeling sad, hopeless, or irritable a lot of the time
Not wanting to do or enjoy doing fun things
Showing changes in eating patterns – eating a lot more or a lot less than usual
Showing changes in sleep patterns – sleeping a lot more or a lot less than normal
Showing changes in energy – being tired and sluggish or tense and restless a lot of the time
Having a hard time paying attention
Feeling worthless, useless, or guilty
Showing self-injury and self-destructive behavior
Extreme depression can lead a child to think about suicide or plan for suicide. For youth ages 10-24 years, suicide is among the leading causes of death. Read about youth suicide prevention.
Some children may not talk about their helpless and hopeless thoughts, and may not appear sad. Depression might also cause a child to make trouble or act unmotivated, causing others not to notice that the child is depressed or to incorrectly label the child as a trouble-maker or lazy.
https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/depression.html
Understanding the Biology of Depression
**These videos reference each other. Watch the Neuroscience video before the Psychology video**