Depression is on the rise in kids—but the signs are hard to recognize
06Young people have stress, too
At the same time that kids are grappling with the new challenges brought on by carrying their social circles in their pockets, they also seem less equipped to cope. Kathleen Pajer, chief of psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, says more kids are turning to hurting themselves to deal with the stresses in their lives—whether they have a mental illness or not. “There is a huge increase in visits to the emergency room and in-house admissions for mental health problems. And when you start to look at kids’ reports of how they feel, there’s an increase in some types of problems, like feeling suicidal,” says Pajer.
According to a US study published in Pediatrics this past May, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts are a growing cause for kids’ hospital visits, accounting for nearly two percent of visits in 2015—more than double what they were in 2008.
Bancroft has seen an increase in kids who practise self-harm, like cutting, or who talk about wanting to die, but when a formal risk assessment is done, the majority don’t actually want to end their lives. Of course, any time a child mentions suicide, caregivers should take it seriously and seek immediate help. Bancroft explains that for some kids, harming themselves isn’t a desire to die but a craving to feel something—anything—amid the numbness of the disease.
