Child is crying on seeing mother and step-dad together. Why?

Question

Hello doctor,

I have two children with a different father but my eldest seems to experience trauma or stress. I saw her crying at night whenever she saw her step-father lying beside me or beside her brother. Please help me. I want to know if it is a sign of depression. She feels happy when she gets my full attention and her step-dad's attention but suddenly fades when she sees us playing with each other.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

You have a very beautiful and cheerful daughter. I just saw her picture and she looks great (attachment removed to protect patient identity). Depression is a very major disorder to tag her with, so definitely, she is not having depression. With the amount of data, you have given me it does not seem like she is having depression. She is not being able to accept the change in her life. As an adult, it is easy for us to accept and move on with the change in our life but for her, it is not easy to replace her father with someone else and she is having lots of insecurity. That is the reason she becomes sad when she sees you with them because she still cannot accept two other people in her life. She is having dysthymia and identity crisis. She needs some social support and venting about her feeling. I think a few psychotherapy sessions will help her a lot. Medications will not be of any help to her. It is not a very uncommon thing in children of these age group so do not panic, be calm.