Major Depressive Disorder is also referred to as clinical depression and is a significant medical condition that can affect many areas of a child's life.
Instead of sadness in children and adolescents, you may see that they are irritable for no apparent reason. In older teens and college students it is more common to experience a depressed mood or a loss of interest and /or pleasure in things that one used to enjoy doing.
Some, but not all, of the symptoms for this disorder, are:
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
- Difficulty thinking or concentrating
- Somatic complaints (complaints of aches and pains throughout the body)
- Inability to make decisions
- Suicidal ideation or suicide plans or attempts
- Recurrent thoughts of death
- Increase or decrease in appetite
- Changes in one’s weight
- Changes in one's sleep patterns