A child with an existing psychiatric disorder is more likely to develop depression. The treatment of mental illness is a tall order, and for children it can be downright overwhelming. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will be discussed in depth later, but assume for a moment that your child has just been diagnosed with ADHD. His symptoms are moderately severe. He takes medication and is in therapy to help him learn coping strategies. In school, his ADHD has caused him to have behavioral problems, and his grades are suffering due to poor concentration.

In just about every area of his daily life, some attention is being paid to his ADHD and the difficulties it and he are causing. As a parent, you might think, “Well of course I am paying attention to it. I'm trying to help him!” A good treatment plan will include strategies for home and the classroom. What a parent tends to forget is how the child interprets the illness.

Too much focus on the ADHD and not enough on the child as an individual will lead her to believe she is the illness rather than she has the illness. At school, her peers may tease her because she has to sit in front of the classroom or by herself. At home, her study routine may be markedly different from the other children and she may have a more rigid schedule. Siblings are usually the first to throw out such names as “psycho” or “crazy” at this child.

A child does not want to be different from her peers. In her mind, having a mental illness makes her stand out even more. She may feel as if people think differently about her, and in turn, she may begin to see herself as different. The combination of family, teachers, and peers is powerful, and their opinions matter to a child. If those opinions are negative, she is in peril when it comes to depression.

Remember that depression can occur along with a preexisting mental illness, so the impact can be even greater. When there is a mental illness already present, if it is not being treated properly, a child's relationships, her self-esteem, and just about everything in her world can be affected. If that damaged self-image is not challenged, there's hardly a way to prevent depressive symptoms from taking over.