Slumping posture, agitation, aggressive behavior, lack of eye contact, sudden and unexplained weight loss or gain, slowed movement and speech or sad, angry, worried or bored facial expressions can all indicate depression. Bad, lousy, rotten, yucky, sad, bored and lonely are all ways kids say they're depressed. They may also say OK because they've forgotten that there's any other way to feel. When a child is depressed, even the most minor incident may cause an outburst of tears, anger, frustration or other overreaction. On the other hand, a depressed child may respond to the world with complete apathy.
Children express depression in different ways as they grow and develop.
In infants, look for severe withdrawal, excessive crying or failure to grow and thrive. Toddlers with depression often have prolonged temper tantrums, loss of interest in activities and disturbed play. School-age children often display their depression through withdrawn or aggressive behavior, excessive anger, frequent aches and pains, interest in morbid topics, lack of concentration and poor school performance. As for adolescents, they may lose interest in family or friends, engage in antisocial behavior, cry excessively, use drugs or alcohol, feel chronically fatigued and perform poorly at school. Depressed children are often more reckless with their bodies during play and appear more likely to engage in pretend play that centers around loss and retrieval, rescue and fantasies about superheros.