December 05, 2003

Childhood Depression

One of the many reasons we chose to home school was to spare our children some of the more serious affects and influences associated with being in an institutional school environment. Bullying, peer pressure, drug use, worldy views, inappropriate sexual behavior--all these things can crowd in on a child to causing them adverse feelings, often leading to depression. But just because we have protected our children from those issues does not mean they will automatically be immune to depression.

Statistics given by the National Mental Health Association's National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare show that "As many as one in every thirty-three children and one in eight adolescents may have depression." Further, "Once a child experiences an episode of depression, he or she is at risk of having another episode within the next five years."

Even though we don't have the same issues in our schools, there are many other factors that can cause childhood and adolescent depression. In fact, because we home school, because our children are 'set apart' from their peers at church and in the community, we have a unique set of circumstances that could contribute to those same feelings of despair and sadness.

We hope and pray it will never happen to us, but for the sake of our children, we should at the very least familiarize ourselves with the symptoms of childhood depression. It never hurts to be prepared!