What Parents Get WRONG About Child Depression

Consider sharing this video with your parents to help raise awareness and make childhood depression, not a stigma.

Our childhood years should be the ones when we feel safe, carefree, curious and the happiest, but unfortunately, for some children the dark force that we call depression finds its way to steal their time of innocence.

Just because a child seems sad doesn't necessarily mean they have significant depression. But if the sadness becomes persistent or interferes with normal social activities, interests, schoolwork, or family life, it may mean they have a depressive illness. Keep in mind that while depression is a serious illness, it’s also a treatable one.

Suicide Hotlines:
America: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Canada: 1-866-531-2600
Australia: 13 11 14
United Kingdom: [phone]
Beijing: 0800-810-1117
Hong Kong: [phone]
Japan/Tokyo: 81 (0) 3 5286 9090
Brazil: 55 11 31514109 or (91) 3223-0074
Mexico: 9453777
Germany: 0800 111 0 111
Russia: [phone]
India: 91-22-27546669
Iran: 1480
South Africa: 0800 12 13 14

This is only a short list of a few countries, however there is always somebody to reach out to.

DISCLAIMER: This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional if you or someone you know is struggling.

Writer: Stela Kosic
Script Editor: Denise Ding
Script Manager: Kelly Soong
Animator: Bry Gavino
YouTube Manager: Cindy Cheong

References:

Clark, M.S., Jansen, K.L. & Cloy, J.A.
(2012). Treatment of childhood and adolescent depression. American Family Physician, 86(5), 442-8. Depression in Children: Symptoms, Suicide
Signs & Treatment. (2020). Cleveland

INTEGRIS Health. (2021). How Parents Affect Their Child’s Mental Health.


Luby, J.L., Heffelfinger, A., Mrakotsky, C., Brown, K., Hessler, M. & Spitznagel, E.(2003). Alterations in stress cortisol reactivity in depressed preschoolers relative to psychiatric and no-disorder comparison groups. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(12), 1248-55. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.60.12.1248.

Odgers, C. L., & Jensen, M. R. (2020). Annual Research Review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age: facts, fears, and future directions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(3), 336–348.

[arthurmorganhere]

The "children can't get depressed" thing happens so many times in my house, when i start to talk to my parents about what I'm going through, they ignore it by saying "Why you're depressed? Children of your age can't get depressed, it's us who are depressed". They act like depression is a thing that only occurs for adults and not suffering children, they act like childen aren't supposed to get depressed. My whole house is filled with fake superstition and it is so bad.

[amet]

"If you dont stop crying, ill give you something to cry about". That doesnt help. Old attitudes were so harmfull.

[MURDERPILLOW.]

My mum once said something qlong the lines of "what did i do to deserve kids so lazy", ive still not gotten over it

Edit: i feel so guilty about this comment

[Anah-nah]

I was 7 when i got depression...parents never understand me. Now i am 17, i am after several suicide attempts.
I love you, remember, don't change, if nobody's there for you I AM.

[DavidIsCawl]

Depression is bad and I’m glad my mother understands that children can also go through it. She’s always been a very caring mother and I’m happy she is still with me.

[mmzchannel]

"Children can't get depressed." I've been depressed since I was 12. Now I'm 18 and it's gotten even worse. My parents never took it seriously. Even now they don't and I fear the same thing is happening to my little sister.

[rivervan]

“What do you have to be depressed about? You have a roof over your head, food, (etc.)” That’s what my mom says to me, as if depression is only caused by a lack of physical things. It’s very much the opposite where your parents can be there for you physically while completely lacking mentally/emotionally.

[kagenotatsumaki]

You can become depressed from a young age from your parents being overly critical and making you believe that you can't do anything right.

Bonus points if you have OCD and all of those thoughts hit you out of nowhere all the time...

[AVALOVERZ]

My mom one day say to me " I'm tired, you know why? Because I had you." that words sill in my mind and can never forget.

[chiakinanami]

You never too young to be depressed. And i have had it since around 6 years old and i once was admitted to a therapist, and my mother was already in denial thinking i don't get depressed since everything is "normal" and she didn't raise "depressed" kids but "normal" kids. Yet she was quick to admit me to a therapist for being "antisocial" when i am not an extrovert like the rest of my family members and prefer my own company compared to theirs

[yukihitoshi]

As a 14 y/o with probable depression, I can't explain the frustration that wells inside of me when my parents just don't understand how big of a deal depression is. As a result, I began to distance myself from my parents as they aren't going to understand anyway. Being called "lazy" and "not trying" just makes me feel worse.

Much thanks to the Psych2Go team for putting this video out, bringing awareness to such unnecessarily large problems. I owe everything to this channel for helping me through the toughest of times and bringing me information everyone should know. <3

[gyu]

"if you watched as a parent who suspects your child is depressed, " **I am that child**

[ana-mariachirila]

A friend of mine got divorced. She has a 10yo who she tries to help express his emotions as much as possible. 2 days ago, after discussing with him just a little bit, he knew pointing out that he feels lonely and that life is hard. I find that excelent that he knows how to talk about it, but I felt so sad that at this age, he feels such heavy feelings. We HAVE to help and support children and parents if we want to have a healthy future society ❤

[Randrp]

I remember first watching this as a mostly carefree happy person. Now I have depression and thoughts of hurting myself. Hits hard.

[RosieTheAwesomeGamer]

I have a lot of trauma, my bestie committed suicide and my other best friend backstabbed me. So I got stuck in thinking “I’m a bad person” and then “I’m awesome!” Because the friend who backstabbed me made me think I’m horrible but then my other friends said I’m kind and awesome. That’s how I got my overthinking. By thinking whether I’m nice or horrible. I tried telling my parents about it but they didn’t really help. And they yelled at me when I tried talking to them. Which made me scared to talk. It got so bad I didn’t even want to walk to them. They also made me feel I needed to be perfect. They would check my grades and make me feel I’m horrible, so I would do anything to be perfect, but I couldn’t do it which made me cry in class, but I didn’t because I was in a class where my classmates would laugh at you for anything. So I didn’t cry and held it in. I tried telling confronting my parents but every time I did, they got mad. And said “I didn’t do anything!” Meaning they didn’t care or didn’t want to admit it. It made me keep wanting to do bad things cuz it made me so mad that they didn’t care. But if I did, my parents said I couldn’t have a sleepover with my besties. And my besties were one of the only things that made me happy. As my overthinking got worse, I started questioning things like gender and religion etc. I’ll edit this comment if anything else happens, and I hope you don’t overthink or grow depression either. You’re awesome and trying your best. It’s ok to be sad or mad or overthink, it’s ok. Just Remember, you’re still human and Atleast one person will always care about you.

[islandtoysandhobby]

I can't show this to a parent because they will just say "it's fake, don't believe everything on the Internet" so I can't...but now I know that I am depressed..

[dragonflower]

I'm going to send this to my family all over!! Last summer I (20F) had suspicions that a young cousin(10) had depression and I was basically told by everyone to shut my face so to prove I might not have been wrong, since they kept trying to say it was impossible for my cousin to have depression at their age, I'm going to send this for them to digest

[AlexWillard-fr]

What’s really sad though is that in this day and age no one really takes mental health seriously or is given the physical or mental bandwidth to do anything about it 😢

[gujojyw]

I'm that one person who suffered from depression since my childhood. When I was 3 my parents divorced, and to make it worse, I was very attached to my father, since he was kind and understanding, unlike my mother. And after this, I felt like my whole life was crumbling.

My mother was quite rude and critical to me, damn, even scolded me for things I didn't even do. She constantly compared myself to others... Not like it doesn't happen now. My mother's ex-husband, not my father, is right now searched by the police and, well, the court hearing to deprive him of parental rights is already prepared, he was the cause of my little sister. After about a year, a whole year of hearing arguments between them, seeing him drunk on the floor, and all the mental abuse, she finally divorced him. But that didn't stop anything.

My mother was still pretty much gruff and overly strict to me. Why am I saying "she was" and not "she is"? She died 3 months ago. Not that I feel bad about it... She was the cause of my depression and trauma (I'm now afraid of adults, including my teachers, because I think they'll only shout and insult me, like my mother did).

Now I live with my father. Did anything change? No. The only thing that changed is the fact that he constantly scolds me about carrying my phone everywhere. He was that person that brought me to a psychiatrist, though.

Since then, I'm now getting stuffed with antidepressants and pills. I was prescribed with severe depression, severe anxiety, and PTSD.

This is a 13 year old russian girl typing without using any translators. This may seem hilarious, but I'm serious here. My life is really messed up.

(Damn I made this whole comment so long how will people read this)

[TacticalGuy]

i've been having depression for a while now, i never told my parents, just cry in my room every day.