Bipolar Depression in Children: Signs, Causes & Treatment

Signs of Bipolar depression in children are often dismissed by parents citing as normal emotional and psychological changes that occur during growth. Usual parents and adults fail to recognize Bipolar depression 30-50% of times.  

Statistics show how 3% -9% of teens would meet the criteria for depression at any given time. And 20% of individuals would develop depression by the end of adolescence. Prevalence of depression in school for children above 15 years is 8% to 11%.

Signs of Bipolar Depression in children to look for

The signs of Bipolar Depression in young children include:

• Severe mood swings
• Unhappiness
• Fearfulness
• Irritability
• Lack of energy
• Social Isolation
• Inability to function at school.
• Lost interests in activities that were previously enjoyable.
• Extreme and or prolong reaction to a distressing situation.
• Issues with sleep and eating.
• Issues with focusing, concentration, attention.
• Inability to make choices
• Psychosomatic symptoms; aches and pain.
• Feelings of worthlessness, poor self-esteem or guilt
• Thoughts about death or suicide

Helping your child deal with Bipolar disorder Depressive Illness

• Create a nurturing environment

Strengthen your parent-child bond. Develop healthy diet and sleep habits for your child. Encourage them to take up the physical activity like a sport, etc. Help them create positive connections with people at home, outside of a home and at school.  Spend good quality time with your child and praise their good behavior.

• Provide them with safety and security

Talk to your child; find out what is troubling them and find out about the cause. Talk about the difficulties faced by them in schools like bullying or academic pressure or stress, check if the stress rises from grief or loss. Do not trivialize their problem. Be supportive and help them cope with these issues. Reduce stress at home; avoid involving children in family, spousal or partner discords. Watch out for signs of suicide, as depression is a major cause of suicide.

• Educate yourself about the illness

Psycho education is essential for you to understand the symptoms and the treatment plans for your child’s illness. Help your child understand their illness better and not succumb to it. Learn about signs and symptoms of suicide, like thoughts about death, talking about suicide, indulging in drug and alcohol, engaging in risk-taking behaviors, etc

Child Bipolar Depression Treatment

• Counseling for children.

Counseling helps your child identify their maladaptive behaviors and would help them develop better coping strategies and skills.

• Family therapy

Children of broken or divorced families find hard to cope with the ongoing stress. A lot of time depression amongst children stem from toxic environments created within the family dynamics.

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

This therapy helps your child identify distorted thinking patterns and helps them overcome and change these thoughts.

• Interpersonal therapy (ITP)

ITP helps deal one on one parent-child relationship; stressors between parents children are dealt with in this therapy.

• Psychopharmacotherapy

Antidepressants and other medications are essential for dealing the chemical imbalances in the brain that are the main causes of depressive illness.

• Neurofeedback

Neurofeedback treatment lowers unwanted brainwave frequencies while encouraging healthier frequencies. This is done through simple repetitive training while being connected to the Neurofeedback application

• Biofeedback

Biofeedback majorly helps with reduction of physical manifestation of stress and depression and helps you deal with symptoms in a healthy fashion.

Bipolar depression treatment- Seek help through Professionals

Lack of understanding about the difference between sadness and depression is the root cause of depression in children going untreated. Parents believe that if they divert attention and asking children to play some game and depression would fade away.

As parents, identification of bipolar disorder depressive illness in your child is a first step in getting the help your child needs. For Bipolar Depression treatment in children, call us now on +919741476476. Or visit Cadabam's Hospitals.