The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) have reported that approximately 80,000 children in the UK are believed to suffer from severe depression, with 8,000 below the age of 10.
Experts believe that modern childhood are become stressful for children, with causes of depression coming from social media and cyber-bullying, school testing and rising family breakdowns.
Lucie Russel, director of campaigns for a charity program called Young Minds, said:
“Modern childhood has become really stressful: there are family breakdowns, increasing pressure from school with testing from a very early age, and then the really significant factor in recent years is social media.
“It used to be the case that while some children might have a hard time at school, they could go home and switch off. Now there isn’t that escape, children are on devices all the time.
“As well as the problems with cyber-bullying, we have developed this culture where even young children are trying to create a brand, based on how they look – which can make girls especially feel very anxious – and about how many Facebook friends they have.”
Experts say that children who suffer from depression would often find it hard to fit in with others, and were most likely withdrawn from a group. They would also suffer from physical symptoms like feeling constantly tired, suffer from unhealthy sleeping patterns, loss of appetite and complaining of aches and pains.
Professor Gillian Leng, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health and Social Care at NICE stressed on the importance of providing aid to healthcare professionals in order to treat children and young people with depression, as depression in children can be distressing for both the parent and child. [Source]
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