Is Your Child Sad…
so much that they never really want to do anything? They could be suffering from depression.
I vividly recall…
the first time I felt sad and like I didn’t belong.
It was a beautiful, sunny day. I was outside running and playing with my sisters and a neighbor when the feeling came over me.
I didn’t know why I felt what I felt. But it stopped me in my tracks.
One day, as an adult, while writing this blog, I asked my big sister what grade I was in when we lived in a particular apartment (the one where the above “feeling” came over me).
She said I was in kindergarten. So young with such big sadness.
“When feelings of sadness…
become a part of a child’s everyday life, even in situations they’re able to control, it could be depression.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Children’s Mental Health
Signs of Depression in Children
We can look at a child’s behavior and say, they need a “time out“, or, the parent doesn’t know how to handle them. But maybe what’s really happening is the child is depressed, and nobody knows, especially not the child!
And if nobody knows, you can be sure no one is trying to get him/her help.
Take a look below at some symptoms of childhood depression. Let’s keep our eyes, and ears, open to recognizing this issue early, and get our children the help they need.
Some symptoms of childhood depression (from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
o Feeling sad, hopeless, or irritable a lot of the time
o Don’t enjoy doing the things they’ve always enjoyed doing
o Changes in appetite: eating a lot more or a lot less
o Trouble concentrating
o Moving slowly/sluggishly most of the time, or the opposite, being fidgety and restless
o Feeling Guilty
o Feeling Worthless
o Feeling Useless
o Decreased and/or little energy
o Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleeping too much
My Prayer for Our Children:
O Lord, Please Hide our children under the shadow of Your wings,
from the wicked who oppress them,
from their deadly enemies who surround them.
Please give Your angels charge over them,
to keep them in all their ways.
In their hands they shall bear them up,
lest they dash their foot against a stone.
And Lord, if they feel that darkness covers them,
and the night is the only light around them,
I know that even the darkness is not
dark to You and conceals nothing from You,
But the night shines as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
For you formed their innermost parts;
You knit them together in their mother’s womb.
They are fearfully and wonderfully made!
Thank you for keeping them in the palm
of Your hand!
Amen
Psalm 17:8; 91:11; 139:11-14
