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Depression in Children
Depression in children can look different from depression in adults and may not always appear as obvious sadness. A child experiencing depression may become more withdrawn, irritable, tired, or lose interest in activities they once enjoyed. They may also experience changes in sleep, appetite, concentration, school performance, or relationships with family and friends. Some children may have difficulty identifying or expressing what they are feeling, which can make their emotional struggles harder for adults to recognize. When these changes persist or begin to interfere with a child's daily life, relationships, or well-being, it may be helpful to seek counselling support.
How Do I Know If My Child May Have Depression?
Depression in children does not always look like sadness, although you may see various symptoms closed to depression - patterns of social withdrawn, tiredness with no obvious clues, or becoming less interested in activities they previously enjoyed.
Other signs may include:
- changes in sleep or appetite,
- difficulty concentrating,
- declining school performance,
- frequent physical complaints,
- low self-esteem,
- feelings of worthlessness,
- changes in relationships with family and friends.
What matters is not simply whether your child shows one of these behaviours, but whether there is a noticeable and persistent change in their mood, behaviour, or functioning.
What Do I Need to Do If My Child May Have Depression?
If you are concerned that your child may be experiencing depression, it's very important to not label or jump into conclusion that they must have depressive disorders. It's too early to determine if a child has pathological depression when we do not know what's happening in their life and their inner worlds. But it doesn't mean we have nothing to do to help or just wait for miracles happen. We start to:
- start by creating opportunities for them to feel safe talking about what they are experiencing without judgment or pressure.
- Listen to your child's concerns and acknowledge their feelings rather than immediately trying to solve the problem or telling them to “cheer up.”
- sometimes it's helpful to set up a supportive network by speaking with your child's teacher or other professionals involved in their care to understand whether similar changes are occurring at school or in other settings.
- If the changes are persistent, worsening, or affecting your child's daily functioning, consider speaking with a qualified mental health professional for a more thorough assessment and appropriate support.
- If your child talks about wanting to die, hurting themselves, or not wanting to be alive, seek immediate professional or emergency support rather than relying solely on counselling.
How Can Counselling and Psychotherapy Help?
Counselling and psychotherapy isn't just about mental health assessment to diagnose your children. Healing can actually start right off the bat when before placing any diagnosis on a child.
Age-appropriate counselling can be very effective to provide children with a safe and supportive relationship where they can explore difficult emotions, thoughts, relationships, and experiences at a pace that feels manageable for them, including depression, disappointment, grief and loss, and other feelings that they find it hard to express like adults. Therapy can also help children develop a greater understanding of their emotions, recognize patterns that may be contributing to their distress, and develop healthier ways of coping with difficult experiences. Depending on the child's age, developmental stage, and individual needs, play therapy would be a suitable option for children to understand abstract things through experiential individual work, pretend play, art, and other types of play materials they prefer by themselves.
Collaboration with parents or caregivers is also the key. Parents can also receive support in understanding their child's emotional needs and learning ways to respond to their child more effectively. The goal is not simply to make difficult emotions disappear, but to help the child develop greater emotional awareness, coping abilities, and a stronger sense of connection and well-being.
Sam Lam Counselling in Burnaby supports children (3 and above) with emotional challenges.
Book with us and we can personalize a treatment plan particularly for your unique situations:
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