The Boxer Rebellion

My report is about depression and loneliness in children between the ages of two and seven. While some experts believe children should not be able to be affected by depression at such a young age, other are prescribing medications and drugs to cure them.

It is completely possible for a young child to deal with depression. Childhood depression is a type of mental illness that affects children of all ages but seems to be more common in the adolescence stage of life. These feelings are usually followed by additional symptoms that affect a child's appetite, sleep, and activity level. Although one in every thirty-three children has some type of childhood depression, only five-percent of children are actually diagnosed and take medication (Brooker).

The reason why depression is not usually noticed in children is because children are not always able to express how they feel. Depression is much more than sadness and because children cannot express their emotions, adults do not look at their sadness as being sick. An adult would be able to say, "I feel depressed," but a child may not recognize or understand why he or she feels sad. If depression continues without being noticed it can lead to failure in school, alcohol or drug abuse or even suicide ("Can Preschoolers Be Depressed"). It influences the way the child feels, think, and acts.

There are many different things in a child's life that can cause depression but the most fluent issue are their parent's issues and struggles. When adults go through divorce, stress, and worry, they usually take it out on their child, causing the young one to go into a state of depression ("Depression in Children and Adolescence"). Experts agree that the second leading cause of child depression is bullying. When young children do not fit into a certain environment they tend to become stressed and sad ("Child Depression").