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How to Manage Depression in Children?
Post On. Depression caused more death per year than war, cancer and death combined. Depression, especially among children, needs to be taken seriously. Most of the depression is caused by genetic factors, with less than 30% caused by the environment.
Environment that might cause depression are:
• Problem at home
• Issues at school
• Feeling unwanted
• Lose a loved one
• Death of a friend or close relative
• Bullying
• Failure
Suicide among children is increasing, depression is one of the top causes of death among children. Usually children don’t talk about their depression. However, there are some factors that can be monitored such as:
1. Low mood that seems not to go away
2. Being lazy all the time
3. Like of appetite
4. Always complaining
5. Never satisfied
6. Trouble sleeping
7. Lack of confidence
8. Unproductive
9. The
feeling of uselessness
10. Weight change
11. Thoughts of self-harming
12. Thoughts and attempting suicide
Talking to children specially in the early stage of depression is the best approach. If the child doesn't open up, keep trying or ask someone close to him such as an older sibling or a close aunt or grandfather. If all doesn't work try to see the root of the problem, by analyzing the environment, talking to their friends and teachers. If all doesn't help you, then should seek medical advice before it's too late.
It is difficult to find a good doctor who will make your child feel comfortable and will be able to open up. Medication if needed should be the last resource given its side effects.
At Ziyyara one-on-one tuition with our child expert we will try to match your child with a consular or a child psychiatrist. Usually the first session is free, you can change the psychiatrist anytime if you or your child is not satisfied until there is a chemistry between the two. Ziyyara’s psychiatrists come from different backgrounds and nationalities. Ziyyara is not only focusing on our children to pass their final exam, but we also try to help each child manage stressful environments that will benefit him throughout his life.
Depression needs to be managed early to avoid breakdown, once the child is broke, he will be difficult to fix and will affect not only his exam and school performance, but it will be with him throughout his career.
In this era of social media and competition among the peers especially in children, with “I am” being and playing a major part in the child's day to day life. The sense of left behind, the sense of not belonging increases the rate of depression among children.
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Depression needs to be managed effectively, if left untended the cycle will occur again, and the depression cycle keeps occurring the likelihood of having more depressive episodes increases. Depression is a disease of loneliness; children even though are more connected today than previously the rate of depression is much higher. Touch and the feeling of being loved is more needed than ever.
Let’s encourage our children to read, to learn about the causes of depression, to learn about people who had depression and the way they fought. The world is divided into the learner and the not learner. The more we understand about nature and the cause of depression, the more we will be able to conquer it, fight it or just live a simple normal life ignoring the mind. We need to teach our children to have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. Children with a fixed mindset tend to have a high depression compared to the one with a growth mindset. We need to teach our children to be optimistic rather than pessimistic. You can be depressed but if the child is determined, understand the root and the cause of depression he or she will grow out of it.
In today's life, we need to teach our children to work hard, not spoon feed, we need to teach them to be focused and minimize the day to day and minute to minute destruction such as Instagram and Snap Chat. We need to teach them how to handle pressure regardless of the situation, we need to teach them to be mindless. We need to teach our children to be what they love, to be what they are, sometimes us parents tend to apply so much pressure which might lead to depression if the child falls to meet our expectations. We need to embed to our children passion and desire for work to be done and things that need to be accomplished.
Parents think they can give their children confidence by praising them all the time. This doesn't work and it might lead to the opposite effect. This will make the children doubt themselves when they fail or face any hurdle whether in school or the playground. Parents need to encourage their children to love challenges, make mistakes and learn from it by finding alternative solutions. Depression cannot be fixed in one day or one month, it is a continuous solution which needs to be handled correctly in small steps at a time.
Life is not a winning and losing game. If our child fails to come first, we shouldn't blame them, we shouldn't question them, we should make them know that they have to do their best, if they believe they did their best but failed maybe the other child did better or they have better genes or they just maybe a little better than others. There is always another round. We need to analyze our children in all aspects we need to encourage them to do what they can, to be the best they can.
If depression is genetic you might say there is nothing to be done, however we need to teach our children to be optimistic, to look forward and to think positively. They should spend less time on things that make them more depressed such as social media, bad friends, and influences. We should seek a solution to depression rather than focus on the problem, and at Ziyyara we try to change that one child at a time.
