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| Depression in our Life | Children and adolescents tend to have depression symptoms like unexplained aches and pains, petulance and social withdrawal. On the other hand, adults usually have such symptoms as slow speech and activity, sleeping excessively and believing things that aren’t true (delusions).
Depression in children may be accompanied by anxiety, disruptive behavior disorders or attention deficit disorder. Children should be treated by a physician who knows how to treat children with mood disorders. Parents, teachers and health care professionals should know the symptoms of mania, which include:
• Increased irritability
• Increased self-esteem
• Decreased need for sleep
• More talkative than usual
• Racing thoughts; lots of ideas at once
• Being eaisly distracted
• Increase in goal-directed activity or physical activity
• Excessive involvement in pleasurable activities
It is necessary to make and monitor carefully medication choices for people under 18 years old. Ask children who take antidepressants frequently how they are feeling and embolden them to be honest with someone about any major mood changes, especially thoughts of suicide. Tell children in age-appropriate ways about signs that mean trouble and need to be reported right away. Give them several phone numbers of support people they can call if they have trouble with worsening symptoms.
Parents should learn the signs of suicidal thoughts such as:
• Giving out possessions or making plans for a future when they are gone
• Talk of insufferable feelings or situations
• New or more thoughts of suicide or death
• New or worse depression
• New or worse anxiety
• Feeling very excited or unquite
• Panic attacks 
• Difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
• New or worse petulance
• New or more social isolation
• Making trys to commit suicide
• Acting aggressive, being angry or violent
• Acting on dangerous impulses
• Increased use of alcohol or substances
• Being very hyperactive in actions and speech
• Other abnormal changes in behavior, including a sudden sense of calm as if a final decision has been made
Health care providers, parents and their children must consider the risks of treating depression compared to the risks and lifetime impact of untreated depression and suicidal ideation. They should think about all treatment choices, not just the use of antidepressants. All adults who cooperate with the child should be aware of all suicide warning signs, regardless of what treatment the child is getting. Besides, parents should inform teachers about what behavior they must report.
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