how did i get depressed (more details)?

Question

i am only 13. my mom said that up until age 1 or 1 and 1/2, i always slept more than i was awake. i have been terribly depressed for my whole life. do these two things relate to each other?

Answer 1

Your sick. It is a chemical imbalance in your brain that is causing these emotions to overwhelm you. Tell your mother you want to go to the doctor he can help you either through medication or therapy.

Answer 2

Brain disorders (mental illnesses) can be genetic and/or hereditary.

So, if someone else in your family like your mom or your dad had a brain disorder, then you would have about a 20% chance* of also having something. You wouldn't necessarily have the same disorder though.

Environment also plays a role in your development. How early on is still somewhat disputed by scientists. In general though, if you were raised in a household with a lot of environmental stressors like parents yelling all the time or poverty, then it would have a very negative affect on you.

I can remember back to being 4 years old and knowing something was wrong with me. I remember being depressed. In my case, both genetics and environment played a role.

The fact that you slept more as a baby doesn't signal anything specific to me. There's a list of several criteria that need to be met before you can be diagnosed as depressed. You wouldn't have been able to meet the medical criteria that young. It doesn't mean you weren't troubled.

You and your mom can learn more about depression and how to cope with it at: http://www.nami.org

Answer 3

Sleeping too much or too little is one of the signs of depression. Sleeping alot as an infant is unrelated to any depression you're feeling now. People who are depressed usually sleep too much because they just want to escape their pain and being unconcious seems any easy way to do it. Naturally as a baby, you could not have made a decision to escape by choosing to sleep. Now, to address your current depression. Feeling sad and having clinical depression are two different things. Most people feel sad from time to time and some feel sad all the time but this still does not mean they are clinically depressed if this is the only symptom they have. Other symptoms of depression are: Lack of motivation, isolating, eating too much or too little, crying alot, lethargy (not wanting to get up and move/being really tired), slowed thinking, stomach and body aches/headaches, thoughts of suicide, and not caring about anything. If you have several of these symptoms, please tell your parents. If you feel like you don't want to talk to them about it, please tell a school counselor so they can help you. But it would be best to tell your parents so they could get you professional help with a good therapist. Today there are good anti-depressants that could help you if your depression is caused by an unbalance of chemicals in the brain. The other reason would be your life's circumstances, but either cause can be worked on to improve your feelings. Good luck, and take care.

Answer 4

There might, and there might not be a connection. Usually things like depression are always there, and are usually triggered by a traumatic event. That happened to me... I was a rather pessimistic person all my life, and had some bad times, but I was never really depressed. Then I had to deal with the sudden rejection of a friend, and that's when everything went downhill. I became paranoid, depressed, apathetic, unmotivated, and I have barely any self-esteem left. My therapist says it was probably losing that friend that made the depression known. =(
Try to get your mom to bring you to a therapist if you haven't already... it's not helping me at the moment, but at least somebody listens to you. Nobody wants to listen to me, so I guess it's a bit of a relief having somebody to talk to.

Answer 5

It sounds like to me you were just a good baby. Why not go get check out by your doctor just to see if there is a problem. And then don't waste your precious life being depressed. You only go around once. Oh, to be 13 again. Wishing all the best for your life.

Answer 6

Hey my name is Dan Im 17, they did studies on depression a bit ago, and they say that its a chemical problem in the brain, and they ussually go away , I think that your sleeping habits from when you were little we just cause that you were little, try to be more happy , meet new people and stuff, and don't let little stuff bother you lol.

Answer 7

no cause you can't exactly be depressed when you are 1