Covid ‘leads to depression in children’

Childhood depression is different from the normal “blues” and everyday emotions that children go through as they develop.

Just because a child seems sad doesn’t necessarily mean they have significant depression.

But if the sadness becomes persistent, or interferes with normal social activities, interests, school work, or family life, it may mean they have a depressive illness.

This is according to Child Protection Hotline founder Danie van Loggerenberg, who said one in two young people between the ages between six and 16 are at risk of developing a mental disorder – of which mood and anxiety disorders are the most prevalent.

Van Loggerenberg said the hotline was seeing a trend of children suffering from depression, or rather depression-like traits in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We, as parents, need to remember that our children see and hear what we see and hear about Covid-19,” he said.

“We tend to find that our own negative words, or our actions, influence that of our children, but where we are able to bisect what we read and hear. Our children do not have the ability to understand what is happening or even remotely interpret it. They are at school one day, off the next; then they practice sport, then it is taken away again.

“Birthday parties are now limited to mom, dad, brother and sister. Parents had a Covid-19 interaction at work and they need to isolate for 10 days. Children then hear and see how devastated their parents are when there is death in the family. They hear the conversations around money drying up and reduced salaries. They see food becoming less and no new clothing or toys being bought.”

Van Loggerenberg said this led to children trying to understand their new world, without talking to their parents, as they were dealing with enough stress already.

“Unfortunately, this sees what can only be described from the outside as odd behaviour among children. Discussions about suicide and how that would be easier,” he said, adding the pandemic had, unfortunately, left children behind.

“We do not see their depression, we find it out after an action – and that includes bullying, suicide, not doing well in school work, etc.”

Social worker Chrinsa Shmidt said the lockdown had raised a major concern about children’s mental well-being. “There’s been an increase in depression among children and also cases of abuse since the lockdown. Most of it could be because the children had to be around their abusers more and there was no way for them to seek help,” she said. –