Humberto Nagera, a child psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at the University of South Florida School of Medicine, says that children and adolescents can get depressed very easily. Like depressed adults, depressed children can be sad and gloomy. Children with depression may have sleep problems. They may wake in the middle of the night. Younger children may revert to past behaviors they have outgrown, such as bed wetting, or be suddenly unable to do a task they have already mastered.
Depressed children grow up to be depressed and unsuccessful adults.
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that adults who had onset of depression as adolescents have higher rates of impaired functioning in work, social settings and family life. They also have higher suicide rates. I would sometimes feel down, real sad. At times I used to pull myself away and just watch the other kids and wonder why I was standing there, not joining. Fortunately, none of the symptoms have surfaced.