Depression Wellness Guides for children and teens with depression and their parents

These guides are designed to help you:

Help your child get well faster and stay well
Understand how to respond to adverse reactions from the Food and Drug Administration's Black Box warning on antidepressants
Know what helps your teen and what doesn't
Avoid hospitalizations and suicidal behavior
Helps you communicate better with your child

There is one guide for teens with depression and one for parents of teens and children with depression. They help you and your teen monitor your teen's depression treatment with daily and weekly tools. They are for families with children who are already diagnosed with depression (not bipolar disorder) and are in treatment (in talk therapy and/or taking antidepressants).

We tested this guide with parents and teens across the country. Based on the feedback, we are creating a revised guide. We can email you the PDF files of the guides for free.

From Parents:

"Gave me the RIGHT words to use with my daughter. Also explained technical terms in simple, plain, layman's terms." - M.D., Oklahoma

"The guides helped me to feel less alone in dealing with my son's depression, affirmed what I was doing, and helped me discuss it with family members. I am now starting a support group as a result of this experience to reach out to other parents." - N.L., Maine

From Teens:

"When I was really depressed, I used the Guide to talk to my psychiatrist and to explain how my symptoms were getting worse. Together, we realized that I needed to be hospitalized." - A.H., Texas

"Helped me to remember what went on. Stuff came out that I never told my therapist before." - R.S., Massachusetts

"Before I was always answering, "I don't know" or "maybe"...now I can better describe what I am feeling and thinking and know my parents will understand. We talked almost daily about how I was feeling, doing...Felt less weird or angry about having this illness" - M.L., Maine