psychosocial treatment and prevention

According to Leon Cytryn and Donald Mcknew, in “Psychosocial Treatment” and “Prevention” in “Growing Up Sad” in the United States, 1998, page 119-129, and page 129-144, psychosocial treatment is a way to help children to alleviate their grief. In this article, the writers showed us four ways of psychosocial treatment, which are “holding situation, mutative interpretation, interpersonal psychotherapy and behavior modification (positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement)” (Cytryn and Mcknew, 1998, page 120-121). The authors discussed that except those four psychosocial treatment, and we also need to draw more attention on public, the first step we need to solve the problem, which is to educate the public in order to let those depressed children have the same rights and privates as those non depressed children. Another way to help those gloomy children, which is to find a consoler to the children and help them to get out of the miserable situation, the authors explained. Cytryn and Mcknew resulted that parents are responsible to chose the best method to help their children to get out of the dismal situation.

Critique:

After i read this book, i feel that it is easy to read and understand, because the organization and explanation in this book are very well organized and clear.

The author divided one chapter into several sections by using subtitle in big letters, such as, goals and types of psychotherapy, parent counseling, and educate the public. After i read those subtitles, i can easily to predict and figure out what the authors are going to say and what kind of information will be included in that section. The other advantage by reading the subtitles, which is to help me to skip those sections that are not related to my topic as soon as possible, I don't need to waste my time to read those unrelated section.

Besides, the writers used good explanation to help us to understand the context. For example, in this article, there are four ways of psychosocial treatment, such as, holding situation, mutative interpretation and behavior modification. After those terms, the author always give a very clear explanation and several examples to explain those terms. The other reason why the author gave explanation to those terms, because this book is not for those experts to read, it is for those parents who want to help their children out of the miserable situation. If the authors didn't explain those terms, how those parents understand and how can they those the best way to help their children.

In a word, I love the organization and explanation, because the organization and explanation helped me to understand a lot and learned a lot.

I Wish I wan't Alive

According to Leon Cytryn and Donald Mcknew, in “I Wish I Wasn’t Alive” and “Guideline to Handling Depressed Children” in “Growing Up Sad,” 1998, page 65-80, and page 144-152, in recent year, more and more depressed children have suicidal ideas and the rate of suicidal children are increasing rapidly. The writer indicated that mother’s leaving, sibling’s arriving and childhood sexual abusing are the factors that contribute to suicidal children. Suicidal child’s mother gets upset more often than no suicidal child, the article explained. The authors described that suicidal child feel “hopelessness, worthlessness, depression and wish to die” (Cytryn and Mcknew, 1998, page 74) and they worried about their family member’s dying and the idea of death appear to their mind more often than non suicidal children. The writers also showed a equation to us, which is represented depressed young children: “sad= mad =bad” (Cytryn and Mcknew, 1998, page 73), when the depressed children think they are bad, “suicide appear to be a solution” (Cytryn and Mcknew, 1998, page 69) for them. When a child say that he/she wants to die, parents and teachers should take this seriously, and don’t think they are just kidding, because they are kids, the authors suggested. The article reported that parents should be initiative and talk to their children first; don’t wait for their kids to talk to them, and they need to be patient and listen to their kid. Parents are not supposed to blame their children for everything that goes wrong in their family, they have to pay more attention and five more love and emotional support to their children, Cytryn and Mcknew resulted.

Critique:

After I read the chapter, I was shocked. In my opinion, young children are always very happy, even they get sad sometimes, but they are children, they can become happy immediately. I never think that young kid will have suicidal ideas. According to the article, there are more than half depressed children want to kill themselves and the suicidal thoughts come to their mind very easily. Children are really sensitive, when their parents need to go out or their parents are so busy, therefore they don’t have enough time to stay with their children. Then, the kids will start to blame themselves and think that they are very bad, so, their parents don’t care about them anymore. Then, their solution to this kind of problem is suicide. I think if I have a child, and my kid told me that he/she wants to kill himself/ herself, I will think they are just kidding. I won’t take this serious. After I read the article, I changed my mind, if I have a child, I have to listen to my kid and talk to them and don’t regard child as child. Maybe depressed children are not kidding; maybe they really suffer from difficult situation. I think parents should spend more time in talking and playing with their children.

The causes of childhood depression

According to Leon Cytryn and Donald Mcknew, in “The Causes of Childhood Depression” in “Growing Up Sad,” 1998, page 80-108, the main factor of childhood depression is family. The authors represented that childhood depression is totally related to their parents depression and influenced by their parents. The environment of family is very important, however, there are still lot of problems exist in some families that cause childhood depression, such as, abuse, anger, violence and divorce, the writers indicated. Leon Cytryn and Donald Mcknew described that when parents become extremely close that is not normal, they never want to go out, because they are so afraid of the world outside, which influence their children a lot and make their children become depress and stressful. When parents set goals too high for their children, which also bring a lot of stress to their children, the authors said. The article also showed than when parents move to another new place from the place that their children get used to, it will also become a factor that causes childhood depression. Leon Cytryn and Donald Mcknew resulted that parents should provide a comfortable and peaceful environment to their children in order to help their children get out of stress and grow up happily.

Growing Up Sad

Tang Na

September,17^th, 2007

According to Leon Cytryn and Donald Mcknew, in “What is Childhood Depression” in Growing Up Sad, 1998, page 31-51, depression is a way to show your sadness and worthlessness, however, there are two ways to distinguish the differences between mood or affect and disorder. Cytryn and Mcknew showed that one way to measure the differences between mood or affect and disorder which is to figure out the duration and the degree of the depression. Another way to notice that, which is to pay more attention on the children's ability to their daily life, Cytryn and Mcknew said. Then, Cytryn and Mcknew also revealed that there are three types depression in childhood, which are “acute, chronic and masked”(page 35). Moreover, unipolar and bipolar are the two rarer kinds of “children affective disorder”(page 47), Cytryn and Mcknew explained. Cytryn and Mcknew stated that there are several ways to against depression, which are “sublimation, rejection, dissociation of affect and reaction formation”(page 38). Cytryn and Mcknew resulted that the way to notice children's depression which is to ask the children themselves instead of asking their parents, friends and teachers.

HEY, EVERYONE

Hey, everyone, how are u guys??????My name is Tang Na.................i created a new blog now, hahaaaaaaai like singing, dancing, shopping and sleeping...............I have dance class today, haha, i am so happy..............cannot wait to danceeeeee:Di like to make a lot of friends, so.............let's make friendssssssss:P