What Does A Depressed Child Look Like? - Examples of Dysthymia in Children

Written by HealthyPlace.com Staff Writer

Examples of Dysthymia in Children

4-7 years old

Lynn's parents didn't really notice anything unusual about her until they had another child when Lynn was 2 years old. Now Lynn is 5 and Andrew is 3. Andrew gets excited about stuff. He is enthusiastic about life. He is happy when he can do something new and he is excited to tell everyone. Lynn, on the other hand, never gets that excited about anything. If everything is going exactly her way, she is happy. the rest of the time, which is mostly, she is upset at someone or something for ruining her day. Most things seem to be an effort for her. She would spend endless hours watching TV if her mother let her. When Andrew watches TV, he is sometimes interested or bored or scared. Lynn is just vacant. Lynn is the same way with other children. Her parents hate to compare, but Lynn is a hard child to love. She is so hard to please and so rarely upbeat about anything.

7-12 years old

Daryl is 9. He spends a fair amount of time thinking about the good old days. For him, this was when he was in grade primary and grade 1. Then life was fun. School was easy, there was nothing to worry about and he was happy. He goes for walks and wishes he was in grade 1 again. Now life is not to good. School is hard for him. Many days he tells the teacher that he just can't do the work. His teacher encourages him to try and lots of time he can, but he is very tense the whole time. One night out of the blue he asked his mom what it was like to be 35 years old. She said it was pretty good. Daryl couldn't imagine living that long. "You know, mom, I don't think I can live that long. Life is so hard and there is so much work." His mother was so stunned she forgot to remind him to eat his dinner.

13-17 years old

Yvette is 16. She saw a school counselor and the counselor asked how long she had been feeling blue. Yvette looked at the calendar. "Only 16 years, 4 months, and 14 days", she said. Yvette could never remember feeling happy for more than a few days at a time in her whole life. Not that you would usually notice it. At school she did her work, had some friends, and participated in the church youth group. She tried very hard to make her face look like the other's. At home, she let down her guard. She was usually exhausted. She could come home from school and sleep two hours and go to bed at 9:30 and sleep all night. If her parents let her, she would just sit in her room and read to try and not think about everything. The main thing she thought about was what could she do to make herself really happy? She had decided that if she could just find the right guy, maybe she would be happy. Sure, she thought, but who would want a dirtball like me?

Double Depression in Children

Many children with dysthymia will go on to develop episodes of major depressive disorder. When they do, their episodes of depression plus dysthymia are more serious. The illness lasts longer, is more severe, they are more disabled, and these children more likely to kill themselves.

Example of Double Depression in Children

Martin is now 14. About the time he started school, he became a little more irritable and not quite as easy of a child as he had been before then. At about age 10, he worsened just a little more. It took more push on his parents part to get him to go do stuff. He almost always had trouble sleeping and was quite irritable most days. Sometimes he would have a few good days back to back. One time, his mom decided that she was going to enjoy this good day herself. She pulled Martin out of school for the day and they went and did all sorts of fun things. She is so glad she did that. Now there are almost no good days. His self esteem has gone right down the tubes. He is losing weight. He can't sleep. He is doing worse and worse in school because he can't concentrate..

Martin first had a few symptoms of depression, but not even dysthymia. Then he developed dysthymia. Now he has a full Major Depressive Disorder episode.

Psychotic Depression in Children

Some children will develop signs of psychosis along with their depression. A child might have hallucinations. The child might be very paranoid. The child might develop all sorts of bizarre and unusual ideas. Psychotic Depression is the most serious type of depression. It is also quite uncommon..

Example of Psychotic Depression in Children

Shelly is 14. Since Christmas she has not been herself. She knows she is no good. She tells her parents that everyone hates her and says bad things about her. They call her all sorts of obscene things and she doesn't want to go to school any more. She wants to just get away from them forever. At home she just eats, sleeps, listens to music and occasionally irritates her sister. So her mom decided to go to school and see what was going on. Amazingly, no one had noticed any teasing, but they had noticed that Shelly was much more withdrawn and inattentive in school. The next day she was able to get Shelly to come with her and go shopping. As they went in mall, Shelly was telling her mom, "Do you see what I mean? Listen to those two girls over there." Shelly couldn't stand it more than a few minutes. She pointed out to her mother a couple groups of kids who were saying bad things about her and talking behind her back. She noticed that they had scratched "Shelly sucks" on the window. Shelly's mom did not see or hear any of this. Shelly's mom saw something far worse. She saw that her daughter was very, very ill..

continue: Bipolar Disorder and Seasonal Affective Disorder in Children