What are the symptoms of depression in children?

Childhood depression is not uncommon, causing many parents to fall into endless pain. Childhood depression manifests itself in different ways, such as loss of appetite, fatigue, insomnia, or abnormal shyness, being easily frightened, disobedience, etc. These all need to be taken seriously.

1. Acute depression

This type of children often have obvious mental triggers before they become ill, such as the sudden death of their parents, unexpected disasters, or being away from their parents due to hospitalization due to illness. These children have normal mental state before the onset of the disease, but have obvious depressive symptoms when the disease occurs, such as tears all day long, slow movements, low voice, loss of appetite, fatigue, insomnia, nightmares, and gradual weight loss. They often go in and out alone and do not interact with other children. Sometimes they may reveal a sense of despair.

2. Chronic depression

These children often have experienced multiple separations from their parents in the past or have a history of other trauma, but there is no major sudden trigger. The patient had poor adaptability before the onset of the disease, and the depressive symptoms gradually worsened, manifested as timidity, fear, easy to be frightened, unsociable, poor academic performance, and less and shallow sleep. During the examination, it was found that the patient had withdrawn behavior, indifferent expression, world-weary ideas and suicidal intent.

3. Hidden depression

The depressive symptoms of this type of children are often quite hidden, and often manifest as other problems, such as disobedience, hyperactivity, stubbornness, rebellion, aggression, lack of discipline, learning difficulties, impulsive disruption or other bad behaviors. Physical and mental problems such as headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, anorexia, overeating, and incontinence may also occur. Most children do not show obvious depression, but some may experience depressive symptoms periodically.