Depression is on the rise in kids—but the signs are hard to recognize

The first time Nicholas told his mom he wanted to kill himself, he was just nine years old. “He went in the kitchen and he put a knife to himself, and he said, ‘I just want to die. I can’t take it anymore,’” Suzi remembers, her voice breaking. “Hearing those words is the hardest thing ever.”

Suzi and Mark rushed him to the emergency room, and their paediatrician got him into a local mental health program. Within a year, his psychiatrist diagnosed him with major depressive disorder. Nicholas saw a psychologist for therapy and was given worksheets to help him learn to recognize and cope with his emotions. Suzi took courses on anxiety, mental health first aid and emotion-focused therapy. She learned about tools, like a fidget box, that can help distract Nicholas from the sadness before it gets out of control. Because his depression was so severe, he was also put on Prozac, which helped ease the pain.

Sarah attended classes in psychosocial rehab to learn how to support people with mental health conditions through recovery—so she would have the skills to help Emily and Amy. She says Amy’s depression can come on so quickly at times that she needs the tools to help her on her own, and she has turned to private therapy so she can get her daughter in to see someone fast when needed. “There are times when she’s said to me, ‘I feel like I need someone to talk to,’ and there isn’t somewhere we can go in that moment,” says Sarah. “I sort of armed myself, so she can come to me and hopefully I can stabilize her or at least know when it is more of an emergency situation.” Many days are still a struggle, but Amy has worked hard to learn self-regulation.