What Is This Heaviness?

John, a 15-year-old boy, described an increasing heaviness and sadness that dated from the late summer. He said that he noticed that he just could not do his schoolwork as well as in the past. He had trouble just being with his friends. He noted being very irritable at even the littlest things. He just plain "felt awful." When asked what he thought was wrong, he just shook his head saying sadly, "I don’t know…I really don’t know"

However, when I described just what a depressive episode is to him, he seemed to brighten on the spot. His head lifted from his downward glance to say that he said he has been so worried and scared. He said he had no idea what was wrong with him, just something dreadful was going on. There was even a small smile as began to understand depression for the very first time.