[Night*Blossum]

Why do parents and adults think it's so taboo for children to experience things like depression?

Child: "Mom, I've been feeling really sad and depressed."
Mother: "Depressed?! Why don't be silly. Kids don't experience adult feelings like 'depression'."

I'm seventeen and have been going through depression for quite some time. Every time I would talk about it to an adult they would always blow me off and say "[I'm] not suppose to feel that. Those are adult feelings...blah blah blah." It's only now that my mom has finally realized this and my psychiatrist given me medication. However, before the medication, I developed another way of dealing with my depression....self-harm. I don't do it anymore (although I do have relapses from time to time). My parents do not know about my cutting, and neither does my therapist. The only people who know about this are some close friends of mine.

The thing that makes me so mad though is that this could have been all prevented if not my parents had not blown me off of my feelings. If my parents would have taken my feelings into consideration and got me help sooner than my self-harm would have never happened. And I'm not the one going through this, other kids are too. Parents don't take their child's feelings into consideration as much. They just believe "Oh,...well it's just school. How tough can it be?" or "Kids are resilient. They'll tough it out on their own." Then later when they find out that their children are out doing drugs, drinking, or God forbid, commit suicide or feeling suicidal. They take it like a brick to the head and then they're questioning as why "all of a sudden" their children are doing such dreadful things to themselves.

I'm not saying all parents do this, some do everything in their power to prevent this. I know that. However this isn't always the case. There are some parents out there who really don't find it necessary to help out and talk to their kids about their problems because they don't think they have any real problems to begin with.

I wanted to post this so that I can show the adults on here that believe kids don't have real problems when they do.

I've found some articles where young children are now escaping there problems with suicide because no one realized how bad it was until it was too late.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011...autopsy-report

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/scho...icle563538.ece

[Callmebj]

Night*Blossum thanks for the reality check..you are very right. I hope you get a lot of folks reading this to perk up awareness. Hugs, bj

[mgran]

I'm really sorry your feelings were denigrated in this way. Same thing happened to me. The first time I self harmed I was about four or five. I remember knowing that what I was feeling was called depression when I was about six. First time I was suicidal I was ten. First time I told anyone I was depressed I was twelve. My parents' response was exactly as you describe: "you can't be depressed, you're a kid."

By the time I was sixteen I was pinching my Mum's meds, when I was seventeen or eighteen I took an overdose. And can you believe... THEY DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE! I threw up, was delirious for three days... they said I'd had the flu. They didn't even call a doctor!

Yes, it makes me really angry when people are dismissive like that. It's one reason I try so hard to validate my son's feelings. There's no reason kids should have to go through this parental rejection. We need a lot more education to prevent needless suffering.

Thanks for posting this. I hope some parent somewhere reads this, and thinks again.

[Mylifeisdepressing]

My mom was just yelling at me for "being lazy, moping around and getting nothing done." yes, I sat on my bed alone for a while today. Know why? I'm DEPRESSED. Its the worst feeling in the world, not being able to bring yourself to do anything. And I have told her this, yet she refuses to believe that this MENTAL FREAKING DISORDER could possibly hinder the cleaning of my room. Because I'm so LAZY. She just doesn't try to understand it, so it must be due to my laziness and irresponsibility. Whatever. Sometimes anger is better than sadness. I have someone to be angry at. >:-(

[nicoleb2]

Unfortunately, a lot of people think that kids just don't deal with stressful stuff like adults do.

They may not deal with work issues, but they deal with school issues, interpersonal issues, self-esteem issues, grief issues and everything else we as adults do.

The big difference is that kids have no idea how to deal with it, and unfortunately behave the way they think the adults want them to. The same adults that don't think the kids can have those feelings.

The fact that young kids have to deal with depression is really sad, but needs to be understood

[BuggsBunny]

I, too, had my illness ignored. As a teen, I knew something was wrong with me. I was different from the other kids. My mom kept telling me I was perfectly normal, despite my mood swings. She was in major denial, and I had to suffer with my bipolar until I reached college and could get myself some help.

You are not alone.

[edelgran]

I feel exactly the same. i tried to tell my parents, but they just denied it. my dad even yelled at me for being selfish and lazy