如何发现孩子们的抑郁和焦虑

When we lose a beloved superstar like Robin Williams to an apparent suicide and learn he had been battling severe depression before his death, it's natural to think about our own loved ones.

当我们得知罗宾·威廉姆斯(Robin Williams)在自杀之前一直在与严重的抑郁症作斗争时，我们很自然会想到自己所爱的人。

We might look around at our adult family members and friends who are suffering and try to get them the help they need, but what we might not see is that children and adolescents can get depressed and anxious, too.

我们可能会环顾周围正在遭受痛苦的成年家庭成员和朋友，试图帮助他们，但我们可能没有看到的是，儿童和青少年也会抑郁和焦虑。

And it's more common than we probably realize.

这比我们想象的要普遍得多。

On any given day, according to studies, it is estimated that 2% of elementary-school-age children and 8% of adolescents suffer from a major depression, and one in five teens has had a history of depression at some time, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness .

根据国家精神疾病联盟的研究，在任何一天，据估计，2%的小学生和8%的青少年患有严重的抑郁症，五分之一的青少年曾有过抑郁症史。

But how does a parent differentiate between what might be considered normal irritability and moodiness, especially during those teenage years, and signs that something more serious is afoot?

但是，父母如何区分正常的易怒性和情绪化呢，尤其是在青少年时期，以及一些正在发生的更严重的迹象呢?

"I think you should start worrying ... when you go, 'Oh, my God, they don't seem like themselves,' " said Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

亚利桑那大学医学院精神病学教授查尔斯·雷森博士说，“我认为你应该开始担心了…当你说‘哦，天哪，他们看起来不像他们自己了’的时候。”

Raison says parents should perk up if, for two to three weeks, their children are "unremittingly down," feeling hopeless and negative, if they start to withdraw from friends and activities, and if they experience dramatic changes in sleep.

雷森说，如果孩子在两到三周内“持续地情绪低落”，感到绝望和消极，如果他们开始远离朋友和活动，如果他们的睡眠发生剧烈变化，父母们应该警觉起来了。

Depressed teens might have difficulty falling asleep, not be able to fall back asleep after they wake up in the middle of the night or wake up very early in the morning. At the other end of the spectrum, they could be getting excessive amounts of sleep, sometimes sleeping 12 hours or more, psychiatrists say.

抑郁的青少年可能难以入睡，半夜醒来后无法再次入睡，或者早上很早就醒来。精神病学家说，另一方面，他们可能睡眠过多，有时睡12个小时或更长时间。

For younger kids, detecting depression gets "more complicated" for parents, Raison said, because children below the age of puberty don't necessarily show the same signs of depression as teens and adults.

对父母来说，发现年幼的孩子是否抑郁变得“更加复杂”，雷森说，因为青春期以下的孩子不一定会表现出与青少年和成年人相同的抑郁症状。

"The younger the kid, the more scrambled the symptoms can be," he said. "They're easily upset. They cry more. They're scared to sleep alone at night. They become irritable. They act out more."

“孩子越小，症状就越复杂，”他说。“他们很容易心烦意乱。他们哭得会更多。他们害怕晚上一个人睡。他们变得易怒。他们会有更多的动作。”

In younger children, parents aren't likely to see the "classic depressive pattern," Raison said. "But you're still looking for that same larger idea, which is if your kid shows a real maladaptive change in their emotions [and] their behavior, the light needs to go off in your head, because something isn't right."

在年幼的孩子身上，父母不太可能看到“典型的抑郁模式”，雷森说。“但你仍然在寻找一个同样的更大的想法，那就是如果你的孩子在他们的情绪(和)行为上出现了真正的不适应性变化，你的大脑就需要亮起红灯，因为有些事情不对劲。”

Melissa Atkins Wardy, a mom of two in Janesville, Wisconsin, and author of "Redefining Girly,"said she was never aware that children as young as her daughter Amelia, now 8, could develop anxiety.

梅丽莎·阿特金斯·沃迪是威斯康星州简斯维尔两个孩子的母亲，也是《重新定义女孩》一书的作者。她说，她从来没有意识到，像她现在8岁的女儿阿米莉亚这样的孩子可能会产生焦虑。

But halfway through first grade, Amelia said she didn't want to go to school, and reluctance to go to school and then tears and worry at bedtime, too, said Atkins Wardy, founder and CEO of the company Pigtail Pals & Ballcap Buddies, which creates empowering T-shirts for girls and boys.

但是在上一年级的时候，阿米莉亚说她不想去上学，抗拒上学，然后睡觉时也会流泪和担心，Pigtail Pals&Ballcap Buddies公司的创始人兼首席执行官阿特金斯·沃迪说，该公司为女孩和男孩制作有力量的T恤。

Her daughter was eventually diagnosed as having general anxiety and has been seeing a "wonderful" therapist, Atkins Wardy said, for about a year.

阿特金斯·沃迪说，她的女儿最终被诊断出患有一般性焦虑症，并在大约一年的时间里一直在看一位“很棒的”治疗师。