Last year, in 2018, was our most successful NAMIWalks event to date. With over 500 attendees, we reached our fundraising goal of $80,000! 


Will you join us for our 17th Annual NAMIWalks event on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at Glasgow Park in Newark?

Register here

As a parent, you need to be prepared for dealing with problems—big and small. That includes taking care of your child’s mental health. It’s important to step up when things get serious.

Teen depression is not as rare as we’d like it to be. In fact, a 2016 study shows that 12.8% of US adolescents had at least one major depressive episode.

If you suspect your child might be experiencing depression, here are some steps you can take.

Learn How To Recognize Warning Signs

Teenagers go through various phases. There’s often a lot of mood swings and emotional episodes that come with adolescence, and it can be hard to know when their behavior is a part of growing up and when it’s more serious. The first step towards helping your child battle depression is to learn how to spot it. Become familiar with the warning signs.

• Low self-esteem
• Withdrawal
• Lack of interest
• Hopelessness
• Academic success deterioration
• Drastic changes in eating habits (too little or too much)
• Feeling guilty and ashamed
• Lack of energy and motivation
• Fatigue and aches
• Thoughts of suicide and death

If your child is experiencing one or a combination of these symptoms, they may need professional help.

Get Them Professional Help

There are several ways you can provide professional help for your child:

• Talk to their pediatrician to seek further guidance
• Take them to see a mental health professional
• Contact a local mental health service
• Look online for resources such as the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The most important thing is that you don’t ignore the problem, but give your child the resources and support to fight it.  

Give Your Child Emotional Support

Your child needs emotional support, and you need to be their number one person. Emotional support from the family is the building block of further social relationships. But, how can you manage to establish this kind of a firm base?

• Spend quality time with your child
• Encourage open and honest conversations
• Listen to what your child has to say
• Acknowledge their inner struggles

Showing support, without being pushy, can help you gain your child’s trust allowing them to talk about their problems and worries when they come up. This will help you be able to spot potential warning signs and react accordingly.

Encourage A Healthy Lifestyle

Physical and mental health are closely connected. And a healthy lifestyle can help manage symptoms of depression. Of course, you can’t order your child to lead a healthy life but you can provide healthy options and adopt a healthy lifestyle yourself. Being subtle in your suggestions and providing a good example can help encourage them to want a healthy life for themselves.

Here’s what you can inspire your child to do:

Exercise regularly: Physical activity can reduce the severity of depression and is known to be a great stress reliever. Encourage your child to play a sport or even just take regular walks with them. You can offer your company or suggest they find an exercise-buddy.

Eat healthy meals: Food affects our brain and can be vital for reducing stress and coping with depression. Provide healthy meals and promote eating quality food as much as possible. You can try filling the fridge with fruits, veggies, and nuts, and remove all the sugary drinks and refined sugar.

Sleep regularly: If our body doesn’t get enough sleep, it feels threatened and tired. Consequentially, we start feeling exhausted, unmotivated and it can worsen depression. If you can, try motivating your child to sleep regularly and stick to a consistent bedtime.

Help Them Feel Connected

Depression can lead to isolation. Loneliness is a common experience with 80% of the population under 18 years of age. A lack of interaction and connection can worsen depression symptoms. Obviously, you can’t make your child have friends or force them to socialize. Some children find it hard to socially interact and make the first move with new friends. That’s why this subject matter is delicate and takes time. You can:

• Inspire your child to join a club at school or attend activities
• Give them ideas on attending various social events
• Encourage play dates and sleepovers at your house
• Organize family gatherings

Whatever makes your child stay in contact with people will help. Just remember, don’t leave loneliness unattended. It won’t go away on its own.

In order to help your child battle depression, you need to be alert and ready to react. Do your best to provide a supportive home environment and a great example; listen, talk and encourage.

By making sure you have a healthy and open relationship with your child, you’ll be able to help them overcome depression.

Daniela McVicker is an editor for Top Writers Review. She is also an experienced writer with a degree in social psychology from Durham University. Daniela is primarily focused on writing about self-improvement. She has authored a number of insightful and motivating articles like “Making The Right Choices Every Day” and “7 Steps To Open Yourself To New Opportunities  & Possibilities.”

All teenagers worry about their appearance. Self-esteem can be precarious during adolescence, and body consciousness comes with the territory. But if you’ve noticed that your child is fixated on weight, you’re probably worried. So what is the difference between normal behavior and behavior that might indicate an eating disorder?

• Distorted Body Image: While other people see a normal (or painfully skinny) kid, teenagers with eating disorders look into the mirror and see a different person entirely. They have a distorted perception of their own appearance, and no amount of reassurance from family and friends—all of them saying, “You’re not fat”—will change that conviction.
• Fixated on Appearance: Young people who develop eating disorders are extraordinarily focused on their appearance as a measure of self-worth. While other kids tend to stake their identities on their interests and accomplishments, these teenagers have their emotions, and their lives, wrapped up in thoughts of food and appearance.
• Extreme Dieting: Anorexia nervosa, the most common eating disorder, is self-imposed starvation, usually by a young woman who is otherwise high-functioning. Personality types more likely to develop the disorder include athletes, perfectionists, and over-achievers. They are driven to maintain a dangerously low body weight because of a distorted self-image. Detecting anorexia can be very difficult because it typically affects high-performing kids.
• Overeating: Kids with bulimia nervosa, the other most common eating disorder, indulge in periodic and usually secretive binges. Many kids with bulimia say they feel out of control during their binges and describe them as “out of body experiences.” To compensate, many will purge afterward or diet strenuously. Teenagers with the disorder may be very influenced by body ideals perpetuated in media and popular culture. It can be difficult to diagnose the disorder because people with bulimia can have a normal body weight or may even be overweight.

What signs to look for

Kids with eating disorders often try to keep their unhealthy eating habits and behaviors a secret, but there are still some signs that parents might notice.

Signs of anorexia:

• Losing weight unexpectedly and/or being dangerously thin (Despite their extreme thinness, kids with anorexia usually don’t think that they are unhealthy and actually want to lose even more weight.)
• Obsessing over calorie counts, nutritional facts, and diets
• Spending many hours exercising to burn off calories
• Skipping meals
• Avoiding eating socially
• Irregular periods, thinning hair, and constant exhaustion

Signs of bulimia:

• Exercising excessively or using diet pills or laxatives
• Going to the bathroom immediately after meals
• Spending a lot of time in the bathroom
• Having a sore throat, sore knuckles, discolored teeth, and poor enamel
• Hoarding food in her room
• Having large amounts of food that go missing at home

What can parents do?

• Try to establish healthy eating habits. Make a routine of eating healthy, balanced meals as a family.
• Discuss foods in terms of how healthy they are, not how “good” or “bad” they are.
• Don’t criticize your child’s weight or appearance. Adolescence is a difficult time for most kids, and it’s essential to provide them with a nurturing and supportive environment.
• Some kids are more likely than others to develop eating disorders. Be extra vigilant if you have a family history of eating disorders or if you know that your child is under extreme pressure to look a certain way.

Eating disorders in children are very serious and can be deadly. If you think your child has an eating disorder, you should contact a doctor for help immediately.