Parents Universal Resource Experts and Sue Scheff: Is Depression Contagious by Psychology Today

Entire families can be depressed together and not even know it. But healthy communication can prevent you and your loved ones from getting down.

Like the flu, depression is a highly contagious disorder that can be transmitted socially. It is especially apt to take up residence in a household, jumping from one family member to others. And just as individuals can be depressed, so can whole families, often without their awareness.

Depression in a family can suck up all the energy of a household, turning a home into a black hole of swirling negative emotions. Usually, such depression is disguised as physical illness or a general air of irritability and negativity. Family members withdraw into their own spaces, in the protective custody of a TV or computer. And pessimism, sarcasm or silence becomes the dominant style of family communications.

Families can prevent depression from taking up permanent residence and commandeering their interaction patterns by:

Being on the lookout for signs of depression in a family member.

The sooner you spot it, the faster you can help the individual out of it and contain the risk to others. In young children, it may take the form of defiant behavior but not overt sadness. In school age children, depression can be underachievement and withdrawal from school and social activities. In teens, it is often disguised in smoking, drinking or drug use, in older people as lack of appetite for food or life.

Developing skills around positive thinking and positive talking in the household.

Families often inherit a negative thinking style that carries the germ of depression. Typically it is a legacy passed from one generation to the next, a pattern of pessimism invoked to protect loved ones from disappointment or stress. But in fact, negative thinking patterns do just the opposite, eroding the mental health of all exposed.

When Dad consistently expresses his disappointment in Josh for bringing home a B minus in chemistry although all the other grades are As, he is exhibiting a kind of cognitive distortion that children learn to deploy on themselves — a mental filtering that screens out positive experience from consideration.

Or perhaps the father envisions catastrophe, seeing such grades as foreclosing the possibility of a top college, thus dooming his son’s future. It is their repetition over time that gives these events power to shape a person’s belief system.

Instead, set up guidelines for healthy communication. Make everyone aware of the common types of distortions:

Catastrophizing, exaggerating the harmful effects of a disappointing event
Personalizing, seeing yourself or your child as the cause of a disappointing outcome
All-or-nothing thinking, reducing complexities to absolutes, like knowing you’re not perfect but seeing yourself as a loser
Overgeneralizing, interpreting one disappointment as part of an inescapable pattern
Filtering, focusing on negative aspects of an experience while ignoring the positive side

Make an agreement among family members to be habit breakers for each other (at home) when someone slips into negative thinking. Remind each other and support each other.

Make sure that your family has an ongoing supply of positive experiences and a bank of them to call on when times get rough. Negative experiences carry so much psychological weight that positive experiences need to seriously outnumber negative ones. A ratio of 2 to 1 is realistic when you start to build positive interactions, and 5 to 1 is the long term goal.

Inventory positive and negative interactions as a family. When you eat breakfast together, how does it go? Is it on balance a positive or negative experience? What action plan does the family need to use to build more positive experience and lessen the negative? For example, encourage activities in which family members include each other in various combinations. Just going to the movies together can be a highly positive shared event.

Get together often to survey emotional needs for the next week. Ask, what do you need to make this work for you? That way challenges can be anticipated and met with minimal stress on the whole family. What emotional needs do family members have in order to get done what is on their schedule? If Sara has a big test on Friday, then one parent might plan to be especially available on Thursday evening for support

Checking in on people’s well-being and not just on their activity schedule contributes to a sense of connectedness that is a major buffer against depression at every stage of life. Paying as much attention to family feelings as family activities is one of the best protections you can use to combat family depression.

This content is Copyright Sussex Publishers, LLC. 2007. This content is intended for personal use and may not be distributed or reproduced without the consent of Sussex Publishers, LLC. Please contact licensing@psychologytoday.com for more information.

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Sue Scheff: Book Reviews By Parents for Parents

At P.U.R.E. parents share reading recommendations to help other parents.

It is about parents helping parents.

Click here.

Sue Scheff articles on Teen Depression and more

My new Blog has news articles from around the world about subjects such as teen depression, teen anger, teen suicide, teen pregnancy and more.

Sue Scheff on Teen Depression

For more information on Teen Depression click here.

Here is another interesting article on Teen Depression:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070821.wlteen21/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

About Teen Depression - By Sue Scheff

Depression, as a clinical illness, will affect about 20% of teens before they reach adulthood.

Many young teens suffer from depression as result of situations surrounding their social or family life, but many are succeptable to the disease regardless of race, gender, income level or education. It is very important for parents to keep a watch on their teens - and to maintain a strong level of communication.

My name is Sue Scheff and I understand how difficult it can be dealing with a troubled teenager. Through my organization Parents Universal Resource Experts, I work with parents like you every day, looking for help and answers in desperation. You are not alone!
Here we have compiled some of the best articles and resources on teen depression for parents in need of help.

Depression is the most common mental health disorder or illness in the US among teenagers and adults. Statistics show that this is a very large and concerning problem.

• 
  About 20 percent of teens will experience teen depression before they reach adulthood.
  Somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of teens show symptoms of depression at any given time.
• 
  About 5 percent of teens are suffering from major depression at any one time.
• 
  As many as 8.3 percent of teens suffer from depression for at least a year at a time.
• 
  Most teens with depression will suffer from more than one episode. 20 to 40 percent will have more than one episode within two years, and 70 percent will have more than one episode before adulthood. Episodes of teen depression generally last about 8 months.
• 
  Dysthymia, a type of mild, long-lasting depression, affects about 2 percent of teens, and about the same percentage of teens develop bipolar disorder in their late teenage years. 15 percent of teens with depression eventually develop bipolar disorder.
• 
  A small percent of teens also suffer from seasonal depression, usually during the winter months in higher latitudes.
• 
  30 percent of teens suffering from depression will also develop one or more problems with substance abuse.
• 
  Less than 33 percent of teens suffering from depression successfully seek and receive help for their disorder.

Common warning signs/symptoms of teenage depression

• Changes in eating and sleeping habits (eating and sleeping too much or too little)
  
• Significant change in weight (loss or gain)
  
• Often misses school and/or shows bad school performance
  
• Reclusive, withdrawing from friends or family members
  
• Quick to show anger/rage
  
• General restlessness or anxiety
  
• Overreacts to criticism, even constructive
  
• Seems very self conscious, guilty
  
• Unusual problems with authority
  
• No longer partakes in or enjoys activities and events they once loved
  
• Indecision, lack of concentration, or forgetfulness
  
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
  
• Frequent health complaints despite being healthy
  
• Lack of motivation and enthusiasm for every day life
  
• Drug/alcohol abuse
  
• Mentions or thoughts of suicide

There are many causes of teen depression. The most common causes are:

• 
  Significant life events like the death of a family member or close friend, parents divorce or split, breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or moving to a new school/area.
  Emotional/Physical neglect, being separated from a nurturer, abuse, damage to self esteem.
• 
  Many changes happening too quickly can cause depression. For some teens, any major change at one time can trigger symptoms.
  Stress, especially in cases where the teen has little or no emotional support from parents, other family members, or friends.
• 
  Past traumatic events or experiences like sexual abuse, general abuse, or other major experiences often harbor deep within a child and emerge in the teen years. Most children are unable to process these types of events when they happen, but of course, they remember them. As they age, the events/experiences become clearer and they gain new understanding.
• 
  Changes associated with puberty often cause emotions labeled as depression.
  Abuse of drugs or other substances can cause changes in the brainÕs chemistry, in many cases, causing some types of depression.
• 
  Some medical conditions such as hypothyroidism are believed to affect hormone and mood balance. Physical pain that is chronic can also trigger depression. In many cases, depression caused by medical conditions disappears when medical attention is sought and treatment occurs.
• 
  Depression is a genetic disorder, and teens with family members who have suffered from depression have a higher chance of developing it themselves.

For more information visit www.suescheff.org or www.helpyourteens.com