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Help! Depression devil preying on girls
CASES OF depression among adolescent girls are more than boys, says Noor Manzil?s Child and Adolescence Guidance Clinic psychologist Juliet Karmarkar, attributing it to the fact that boys have many ways to vent it out whereas the girls do not have as many ways.
CASES OF depression among adolescent girls are more than boys, says Noor Manzil’s Child and Adolescence Guidance Clinic psychologist Juliet Karmarkar, attributing it to the fact that boys have many ways to vent it out whereas the girls do not have as many ways.
The observation is based on the cases handled by the department over a period of time. Interestingly, the findings are in contrast with the famous Betty Merten and Peter Lewinsohn study which holds that boys are more prone to adolescent depression as they don’t like sharing their traumas with others and subsequently fall victim to depression.
“Well this could be true for western countries as their social, cultural and family environment is different from what we have in India,” says Karmarkar.
“Generally boys do not pent up feelings, as they either vent it out discussing with friends, cousins, and through recreation,” she says and adds but girls have limited options. “They fear that sharing thoughts with their mothers and friends could lead to misunderstanding,” says Karmarkar. “Therefore,” says psychiatrist S Dutta, “Pent up feelings and depression could lead to suicidal situation.”
Other vital observations among the youngsters are anger, short temper and irritability. “All these could be taken care of provided the energies are properly chanallised,” the duo. The child-centric problem is mostly related to learning disorders. The disorders could be treated through the Learning Disability Therapeutic Intervention. Dutta appealed to the parents to desist from pestering their children for studies. “Negative comments, like ‘you are good for nothing or you would not achieve anything in life and remain where you are,’ can prove detrimental to children,” says Karmarkar.
There have been cases where children were afraid of talking in front of their parents. Well, this is not a good trend. It may lead to serious depressive tendencies in a child.
The main objective of setting up the department, she says, is to cater to the needs of the children in 3 to 18 age group. “Nowadays the parents are getting aware of the need for psychological counselling for their children, and are taking advantage of such institutes,” she says.
