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0916 SEPTEMBER
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the fall season is hard for allison
miller
. as the weather cools and the leaves turn, the 24-year-old teacher resists the urge to hide away and lose herself in memories of her father and his animated stories. she tries not to think about the day after his 51st birthday, the day before she turned 18. the day her dad gave her one last hug, sent her a text to say, ?i love you? and ended his life by overdosing on a cocktail of prescription pills. ?i spent my birthday planning my dad ?s funeral,?
miller
remembers. ?[?at summer] he had told me, ?you and your mom and brother are what keep me going in life.? and when he died, i thought, ?are we not worth it anymore?? it was really hard for him to tell me that and then turn around a few months later and have it all mean nothing.? when he was alive, the fall season was hard for
miller
?s father, too. like clockwork, the waves of sadness, isolation, and hopelessness, the emotions that would inevitably combine and combust into a nervous breakdown (a yearly episode stemming from his manic
depression
), would roll in like the cooler weather.
miller
remembers the pungent, but not altogether unfamiliar, sting of her father?s absence at her high school graduation. in many ways, she says, he had been gone a long time. ?even when he was alive, i went through a lot without him mentally and emotionally present,? she explains. ?it?s not that i felt unloved, but i felt like i missed out on that relationship.? clinical
depression
, which includes major depressive disorder, manic
depression
, and dysthymia, a milder, longer-lasting form of
depression
, will affect an estimated one in five american parents at some point in their lifetime. while symptoms may be associated with the ? head ? (dark thoughts, anxiety, etc.), the condition frequently seizes the entire body (think muscle aches, chest tightness, fatigue). according to the national academy of sciences, more than 15 million
children
live in a home with a depressed parent. research tells us that
depression
knows no boundaries, crossing socioeconomic and racial lines and affecting both men and women (though women are twice as likely to develop
depression
). but what research has only recently begun to explore is the heavy toll parental
depression
takes on the millions of
children
caught in its web, an issue that is often ignored. kelli l. ewing, lpc, says, ?it's necessary to focus on the mental and physical health of
children
living with depressed parents. deviations in a parent's way of functioning (while depressed) can directly impact the child's sense of safety and stability. ?e child may also incorrectly assume that he or she is the reason that mom or dad aren't acting or feeling like themselves. in younger
children
, the expression over the confusion of the parent's illness the scars of sadness by nicole jordan 62 brparents.com | september 2016
depression-says-children-63.html
