If these activities help your children feel better, encourage your children to take part in them, and help set them up for your family. Make a list. Ask your children to suggest activities they would enjoy. Young people going through upheaval may suffer mild to severe depression. Stress is characterized by feelings of tension, frustration, worry, sadness, and withdrawal that last from a few hours to a few days.
Depression is both more severe and longer lasting.
Depression is characterized by more extreme feelings of helplessness, sadness, isolation, worry, withdrawal, and worthlessness that last for two weeks or longer. Relatively few teenagers will turn first to adults for help when they experience stress or problems because adults tend to discount or underestimate the significance of young peoples' problems. All too often, children's and teens' efforts to communicate intense feelings are minimized, denied, rationalized, or ignored by adults. Most parents simply don't remember how difficult adolescence is. That's why they need your help in the early stages of distress, to prevent them from sinking into despair or depression.