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A
Family Affair
Depression
is a 'family affair' and is best managed that way. You may
have felt that your situation was totally unique and that
perhaps you are to blame. You're not. This chapter is your
opportunity to learn from the hindsight of the other families
and gain solace from their understandings.
Also in the chapter there is
a section dedicated to young children and how to explain depression
to them. This is especially useful for families perhaps dealing
with post natal or teenage depression where the younger family
members are directly impacted upon
Let's Not Forget the Little Ones.
The importance of family involvement cannot be emphasised
enough. We have spoken about sharing caregiving responsibilities,
taking care of each other, going for family therapy sessions.
What we haven't covered is how to involve the younger children
in the family. They will know that something is wrong, but
they won't know what it is. And the longer it goes on, the
more confused they will become, and they will also start to
feel that they are somehow responsible.
In her book How Do We Tell the Kids?, Pinky McKay describes
it beautifully: "Depressed people are very, very sad.
They may want to sleep a lot. Sometimes their illness saps
all their energy so they can't play with you or talk to you.
This doesn't mean they aren't interested in you any more,
or that they don't love you. The doctors will give them treatment
to help them get energy back and they'll learn to be happy
again and join in with family activities."
In the second edition of the book an entire chapter will be
addressing the very controversial are of Depression in Children
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