I think I might be, but I can sometimes be happy. It's just mostly, I will go to my friends, or do something fun, and have a great time. But when I get back, at the end of the day, I'm all alone, and just feel sad so I wonder what the point of being happy is if I'll just be sad later anyway. I don't know if I have depression, but I just feel like having fun is useless now, because it always comes back to sadness. Also, my Dad has depression, if that changes anything. Thanks for reading this, and I just really want to know, before saying anything. Thanks.

How old are you?

How old are you?

I'm eleven.


I'm eleven.

Almost twelve.

I am not a big fan of labels and at 11 almost 12 years old I don’t think you should put any labels on yourself. You have a lot of growing to do, changes to your physical body, changes to your emotional health, growing up, and going through all the different levels of school. Allow all those things to happen without labels.

If you think about it, we ALL have more fun with friends versus making our bed, washing the dishes, or mowing the grass. There are things we have to do and things we want to do. That won’t change no matter what your age is. You can choose to only do the things you want to do and ignore your homework or not do any chores around the house. But that ends up getting you nowhere.

Here’s what I do – I don’t believe anything is worth doing unless you are having fun doing it. So I make everything fun. Once you do this a few times then it becomes very easy and becomes the natural way you do things. It makes me smile and makes people around me smile.

How do you know your father is depressed? What does he do about it?

Talk to your parents, a teacher or an adult who knows you and who you trust.

At eleven they are your people, they are the ones to support and advice you, not strangers on an Internet site.

Go do that.