Deborah that was a very good subject.  I also had depression since I was about 5 years old.   My parents did not know what the problem was so I just suffered in silence.    This depression continued thru my school years and followed me into my army days during the Korean war when I was in combat.     It continued while I was completing my engineering schooling.   It made my life totally empty like an egg shell.   I missed going out like my friends and that made my depression even deeper.

After I got married and we had children I would try so hard to take them places for a good time even though I felt like I was dying inside from my depression.  I was a engineering manager for a high tech company.     When I retired I wrote a book on my life long depression.   I had it copyrighted.   The title of my book is

"DEPRESSION FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE"

"A MEMOIR OF LIFETIME OF DEPRESSION

Its about 220 pages and a lot of the entried came from my over 50 years of diaries.     I am now in the process of bringing it up to date.  

Over the years I have seen many children with signs of depression.  If I knew the parents then I would say something to them.   A number of times I was right.  I am sorry that this is so long.   I will be 80 next year.    A great summer to all.

Irwin

IRWINHAM@VERIZON.NET