Protcting children from depression.

 Depression is a mental state of low aversion to daily activities. It generally affects a person’s behaviour, thoughts and well-being. People suffering from this condition feel hopelessness, guilt, restlessness and a feeling of unworthiness.

This affects activity in the person and appreciation of once pleasurable experiences. Problems begin to manifest when there is lost of appetite, poor decision making and concentration. Depression leads to insomnia, excessive sleeping, fatigue, digestive problems and the worse side of it is suicide attempts.

Report have shown that 1 out of 10  kids are affected by this at one point in their life. The alarming side of this is that 80% of the people showing symptoms have not received specific treatment on depression.

Depression is prevalent among ages 45 to 64. Parents are sometimes unaware that they are already depressed and this affects the home environment they live in. Children are susceptible to these factors and does great risk to the children's mental growth and well-being.

 Resilience against Parents who are depressed

Study shows that teens suffer mental health problems who have parents affected by depression. This passing of depression effect can eventually be cycle that later on could be passed to the grand children. Coping with depression and protecting the children from it is one way of eliminating the cycle.

It has been found that one out five kids suffering from these mental problems have traits or behaviours that protect them from depression. The study explains that having a warm and supportive home environment, good social relationships and regular exercise lower the risk of troubled mental health.

Dr. Stephan Collishaw, author and an associate at Cardiff University School of Medicine, noted, “Some children appeared remarkably resilient. One important novel finding is that multiple protective factors are needed for children to show sustained good mental health. Enhancing mental health resilience in children at familial risk requires focusing on multiple aspects of children’s lives… their own thinking and behaviour, family functioning and support, as well as social relationships.”

“Most mental health problems including depression are partially inherited but patterns of inheritance are different for different mental health problems. There is some increased likelihood of getting a mental health problem if a close family member is affected but for many individuals with mental health problems there may be no definite history of mental health problems in close relatives,” Collishaw continued.

Depression Study and Analysis

262 families were selected that had adolescent kids with one of the parent being diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Their behaviours were assessed three times in a year in a span of four

years. 20 percent of the teens surprisingly showed no sign of mental disorder and satisfactory behaviour that would not lead to suicidal tendencies.

Collishaw emphasized on other factors that could increase mental health issues such as bullying, maltreatment and stressful life events.

“Evidence from study suggests that quite simple changes in young people’s lives may help reduce risk like children taking regular exercise, co-parents being available and supportive to young people when their other parent is depressed, spending time with friends who are supportive,”