Who has depression in their family?

Coming from a child who's father had severe depression growing up, I can wholeheartedly say that is did affect my family and our living environment. One second he'd be lifting me up and smiling and the next he'd just look empty and you'd know not to go near him for a while as anything he said just seemed distant and forced. He called me his little angel as he had a shotgun to his head when he got the call that my mother's water broke. He tells me often that I saved him but after about 4 years of me being alive, you could tell he was depressed and empty again. It hurt deeply and all I wanted to do was to make him happy but, that's the issue with depression, it's not about being sad or being happy. Depression consumes your life and you often doubt that you will ever get better. Therefore, when others try and cheer you up, more often than not, you tell them that they're not helping or they just don't understand. So being a child to someone with depression hurt. It hurt because I blamed myself for him being unhappy and nothing I did made his situation better.

I was born with a genetic predisposition to depression. Combine that with physical punishment as a child which released my depression by the age of 13 that was not taken seriously by my mother when I told her sometimes I just felt really sad and then I proceeded to mask with drugs. It has taken me a few bouts of severe clinical depression with suicidal ideation and impulses to get a handle on the situation now that I'm in my early 50s. Antidepressants, talk therapy, exercise, acknowledging this is an inherited condition. I am keeping a sharp eye out for my daughter and hope that the lack of being physically hit and demeaned will not unlock any depressive genes that may be locked into her subconscious waiting for a trigger.

Actually, I cannot speak to the reasons teens with loving, kind parents become depressed to the point of suicide. They have as many disputes with their parents as any teen, so love and support--or their lack--are neither a cause nor a solution.

Adolescent depression and suicide are very real. They happen in the kids you least expect. Don't read their journals or blogs. Talk to the child in private frequently. Make special time for each child. If you really know your kid, you'll see beyond normal sturm und drang. Get professional Adolescent depression and suicide are very real. They happen in the kids you least expect. Don't read their journals or blogs. Talk to the child in private frequently.. Make special time, but you must be there.

Not quite sure why (at that time) I had suicidal thougths but I guess I just had them. I tried to understand myself andother around me. But I was constantly failing at it.

That's why in high school, I began working as a freelance essay expert in order to take my mind off the unnecessary things. Also, I found a small group that were in a quite similar state I was (guess now you can even find them online). Emotionally, we were years older than our classmates. We'd learned to live without an emotional or financial safety net. While teens' moods are all over the place, we didn't suffer from true depression. We didn't discuss the hell we found with our parents because it couldn't hurt us.