But even in the teen years, your child shouldn't seem like a different person. And, she says, broach the subject by telling kids depression affects one fifth of women and one tenth of men at some point and may run in families, as it did in Bartel's. But if you do, you don't need to live with it. Community awareness, says Jamison, may help prevent conversations like the one Jessica Bedard, now 24 and married with two children, had with her gymnastics coach. And that, he says, is both suicide's specter and its beacon of hope.
Teens are less likely to pull back from friends than from family.
If you're worried, ask your child's friends.