How does depression affect family relationships?
Depression can change family relationships dramatically. Depression often places significant stress on a marriage because the depressed spouse may seem argumentative, negative, and/or distant. In response, the nondepressed spouse may try to avoid confrontations, creating even greater feelings of hostility or isolation for the depressed spouse. Depression also can create serious difficulties in relationships between parents and their children. Depressed parents often neglect or become overly critical of their children because they don’t feel capable of nurturing children at a time when they can’t take care of themselves. Likewise, depressed children or adolescents also can create problems within families. They may grow overly dependent, or they may become belligerent and confrontational or solitary and sullen toward their parents. Many parents find it difficult to distinguish signs of depression from those of “normal” adolescent rebellion. Also, the two parents often find that they disa
