He usually telephones his mother to make sure she's all right and then goes to bed until his mother comes home. Cheryl usually went to school and to her part-time job, and then came home and played with her cats, rather than go out with her two best friends, as she used to. Looking back, her mother realized that Cheryl hadn't gone to the movies or shopping for the past month and seemed to have lost weight. Then her mother found a bottle of sleeping pills on Cheryl's dresser. Both Alex and Cheryl have been diagnosed with depression.
All children feel sad sometimes.
However, some children are sorrowful beyond the range of normal sadness. In general, for children to be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, they will have experienced depressive symptoms constantly for at least two weeks to such a degree that it interferes with their lives. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - IV, children will also have had at least five of the following symptoms. Depressed children can have trouble paying attention, feel tired, feel mad, cry, stay in their room, stop participating in favorite activities, think about death, or do risky things and not know why. Teens often exhibit symptoms of dramatic sadness more similar to those found in adults.