Question:
My 11 year old daughter is going through her second round with depression,
the first being two years ago. Naturally, we are worried and are pursuing
various avenues for treatment.
One major concern is her sense of isolation
Answer:
Is your daughter currently in counselling?
Having lead a miserable childhood up through the teen years ,
I have finally found much help with therapy (for over 3 yrs now). I
believe it is a common belief that quite often medication alone doesn't
work; nor does therapy along but the combination of the two is effective. I am 27 now and it took hospitalization to help get me on the right track
(plus I take Zoloft) after all these years. It's funny, you know, that
looking through my medical charts (I suffer from really bad headaches) that
all these doctors wrote that I was depressed but NEVER talked about it to
me or my parents - I'm angry because nobody would step in when they could
have. Now 2 suicide attempts later (one when I was 13) I have finally come
to terms with myself. Depression runs very strong in both sides of my
family. Being on medication has given me a new lease on life and I am
enjoying it to the best of my ability. I'm not sure of a real scientific answer. I think the experience is
different for everybody because we all have different personalities,
attitudes, abilities and environmental factors. When I think back on my
childhood, I think somebody should have recognized something seemed wrong.
I was quite a loner and shy but I don't think that would necessarily
qualify as depression. But the change in my abilities I think should have
- I could be sharp minded and physically active in gym class etc. for some
months, and then the rest of the year I struggled, was always exhausted,
slept a lot, cried easily. When teachers questioned me as to why I always
looked so sad, I did not know. It was just a feeling inside my head,
nothing bad was going on in my home life, no one died, I had no other
problems. I just felt detached, I couldn't reach people, people couldn't
reach me, I could not keep friends from these mood swings and eventually
was very lonely. I was very withdrawn, enveloped in a painful sadness I
couldn't shake off. But it was easier for others to just let me be - I
never got into trouble so there was no reason to pay attention to me.
Even though what I recognize now were depressions, I even still managed to
be pretty much a mostly A student, was always in the top 10 of my class.
