Are her worries and fears at age 11 just a sign of growing up, or something worse?
She was curled up on the floor beside my bed, playing with the dog so she didn't have to look me in the eye when she asked. “You and Daddy have depression. Am I going to have depression, too?”
My daughter is 11, all hormones and aching joints. Her body and her whole outlook on life is in flux. She's begun to express fears of things that until recently she seemed not to know existed. Death. Terrorism. Climate change. A discussion of the polar ice caps ended in tears. Talk of the presidency sometimes sends her to her room, the door slamming behind her. Are they signs of depression, I asked my psychiatrist, or signs of growing up?
