Depression & Problems With Authority Figures

Depression in children and adolescents can present itself in many different ways, including behavior that seems argumentative and disrespectful. While it is easy to dismiss this behavior as "delinquent," understanding how different symptoms of depression can present themselves will help anyone parenting or working with children and adolescents find ways to correct the behavior. Furthermore, it will help the child or teenager develop better ways to cope with his depression and improve his mood.

Symptoms of Depression

• Learning to recognize and understand how depression can look in different people is important in dealing with it, especially when a child is presenting as "difficult" or "resistant" to adults in authority.

  The Mayo Clinic provides a comprehensive list of depression symptoms, which include:

  1. loss of interest in activities you used to enjoy
  2. Feeling sad or down
  3. Feeling hopeless (e.g. no matter what happens, things will never get better)
  4. Sleeping too much or too little
  5. Trouble focusing/concentrating and unable to make decisions
  6. Significant, unintentional weight gain or loss
  7. Irritability, easily annoyed
  8. Restlessness, unable to sit still
  9. Fatigue, loss of energy
  10. Feeling worthless
  11. Thoughts of suicide/suicidal behavior (e.g. self- injury like cutting)
  12. Unexplained physical pain (e.g. chronic back pain)

  Several of the above listed symptoms can severely impact someone's ability to interact appropriately with people, especially authority figures.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

• Before you can look at how depression impacts a child's ability to interact with others, it is important to understand that pervasive (meaning it seriously impacts the child's daily functioning) problems with authority actually has a name and recognizable symptoms.

  Called Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or ODD, this disorder found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) focuses specifically on uncooperative or hostile behavior displayed by children toward authority. The symptoms as described by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry are:

  1. Frequent temper tantrums (e.g. kicking, yelling, screaming, crying ... but no violence or aggression toward others).
  2. Excessive arguing with adults
  3. Questioning of rules
  4. Refusing to comply with the requests or demands of adults
  5. Deliberately trying to annoy or upset others
  6. Blaming others for one's own misbehavior
  7. Often being easily annoyed by others
  8. Frequent anger/resentment
  9. Mean/hateful when speaking to others
  10. Spiteful, need for revenge

  Note that the above symptoms do not involve physically hurting other people or destruction of property; behavior like this falls under a different diagnosis called Conduct Disorder (CD). This disorder encompasses all the symptoms of ODD with the added elements of physical aggression, property damage, and frequent rule breaking.

  Nevertheless, both ODD and CD have some symptoms and behavioral aspects that overlap with depression, making it important to understand why and how to address the problem behaviors.

Comorbidity of Disorders

• In looking for the link between depression and problems with authority, understanding how a child may have more than one mental health diagnosis can be helpful. The term used to describe this is comorbidity.

  Several studies over the past decade have examined the comorbidity of depression and oppositional defiant disorder and/or conduct disorder. One of these studies, published 2007 in "European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry," found that there is a significant increase in the likelihood of a child with ODD developing or already having an "internalizing" disorder such as depression or anxiety.

  A similar study, published in 2002 by "The American Journal of Psychiatry," also found that comorbidity rates were much higher with regards to ODD or CD and mood disorders.

  Studies like this have helped lay the groundwork for knowing that if a child has one diagnosis, chances are higher they have another, but they do not always answer why this happens. To do this, you need to look at how feelings play out through behaviors.

Connecting Feelings to Behaviors

• Children and teenagers with depression are struggling on a daily basis with the fact they just don't feel right. Imagine you yourself are sad, feel hopeless and irritable to the point you don't want to get out of bed ... then imagine yourself dragging yourself to work. Chances are you don't feel very good when you get there.

  The same thing happens with a teen who doesn't want to go to school. As the parent or caretaker, you might walk into her room and ask her to get up and get ready. Her response typically is not going to be, "I'm too sad to get out of bed." It is more likely that the child is going to either resist through saying something inappropriate back to you (e.g. yelling and swearing) or simply not get out of bed.

  The above behaviors, meaning talking back or arguing with adults and not following through with the request, are symptoms of ODD. However, if you attach the feelings of depression to those behaviors, you suddenly have an explanation for those behaviors.

  This method of thinking can be applied to nearly every scenario. The key is learning how to appropriately address the behavior you want to change while empowering the child to start feeling better on the inside.

How to Help Alleviate Depression or Oppositional Behavior

• EmpoweringParents.com published an article called "A Day in the Mind of Your Defiant Child" (see Resources). Designed to walk parents through what a child may be feeling or thinking while displaying oppositional behavior, the article provides useful tips on how to move past the behavior and address what is motivating that behavior.

  By exploring common "thinking errors" children and teens use to justify unwanted behavior, it gives parents or caretakers a way of understanding why a child is doing what he is doing.

  Furthermore, when it comes to depression, often the child is resisting authority because he simply doesn't feel good about himself. By addressing why a child feels sad or hopeless, chances are you will get much further in helping to improve that child's mood and ending the unwanted behavior as opposed to if you were to just focus on the behavior alone.