Posted On: 2023-05-02 11:44:27
“Depression is being colorblind and constantly told how colorful the world is”.
- Atticus
Depression is a common mental disorder. It’s characterized by persistent sadness and lack of interest or pleasure before rewarding or enjoyable activities. It disturbs one’s sleep and appetite making that person feel lethargic and poor concentration.
Depression has become a leading cause of disability around the world and eventually contributes to the global burden of disease.The effects of depression can be long - lasting or recurrent and can dramatically affect a person’s ability to function and live a rewarding life.
Sometimes parents or caregivers notice certain behaviour changes in children, they may be upset or moody and such emotional fluctuations are normal but when these persist for more weeks it may be a sign of depression which is called Childhood Depression.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4.4% of children aged 3-17 years (approximately 2.7 million) have diagnosed depression in 2016-2019. This rate of childhood depression is increasing in the last few years and thus to create an awareness ‘Childhood Depression Awareness Day’ is observed every year on the 2nd of May.
It’s created to protect and help children who are suffering from this draining disease. We often have a picture in our mind that childhood is filled with children playing and living their life to the fullest but this is not the case always. Childhood Depression does exist and if left untreated it can cause different mental health issues.
This day is important because it creates awareness and contributes in prevention by saving the lives of children, it is also necessary to know the symptoms and fight against it and break the stigma around mental health to help children grow.
Childhood Depression may have symptoms that are common to adults but these little birds have hard time in expressing their feelings because of their limited emotional vocabulary. Certain kinds of symptoms children would face is irritability, anger, change in behaviour or temperament, decrease in appetite or sleep, frequent physical illness, and expressing negative thoughts.
There can be various reasons for a child to go through depression like Physical health, Stressful events, the atmosphere where a child grows or family history. In such scenarios, it's the responsibility of parents to identify their child’s problems and help them in coming out from this situation.
Parents should make their kids comfortable and help them in speaking up with their sadness and depression, they should get their children to consult a therapist and provide accurate treatment, be patient and kind: connect with them in a calm way and guide them to get better with their behaviour, they should also spend time with their child doing things that both can enjoy.
These things encourage positive moods.
The Bottom line…
Every youngster has the freedom to have a lovely and remarkable life without any restrictions. To foster a child's development, society and parents have a duty. We also want to make these kids happier by helping their emotional health along with their physical health.
Author: Athira Pradeep Nair
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