Although many myths and misunderstandings surround adult depression, even more surround childhood depression, and these people who dealt with children for hours each day knew no more about the topic than anyone else. This statement reveals two major misconceptions. One is the lack of understanding about clinical depression. It is not necessarily caused by an event or state of affairs in a child's life. The other misconception is that childhood is a carefree, trouble-free period in our lives.
Adults often forget that children are powerless and have no control over their own lives.
This can be a frightening and frustrating state of affairs to live through day after day. Causes of Childhood Depression As with adult depression, diagnosis of depression in children is not as clear-cut as it is for other ailments. The medical community still knows relatively little about the brain, how it works, and what makes it malfunction. In fact, anti-depressant properties of certain medications were discovered by accident in the 1950s while seeking a cure for tuberculosis. However, some infants exhibit depressive symptoms at an early age before most of these factors come into play, so there is an argument to be made for depression being wholly chemical in some children.