My daughter is often in tears and says she always feels sad | Ask Philippa

This may be to do with the period of her life you refer to as the ‘terrible twos’. You sound like a great mother who could talk to her about that

The dilemma My daughter, 20, tells me she feels sad “all the time”.

It’s been going on since she started secondary school, although she was a troublesome toddler and we had really terrible twos that went on for a few years. She always comes to me and not her lovely, sensitive, understanding dad for these talks. She’s doing well in her first year of uni and is popular. We have a comfortable, affluent lifestyle, as well as an emotionally warm home. Indeed, so comfortable is our lifestyle, she often feels she is very “privileged” and has no reason to feel sad and this only contributes to her low mood by adding guilt. She’s been asking for antidepressants for years and during this time I’ve known many of my friends with girls the same age agreeing to prescription drugs. However, my father, who works with people coming off antidepressants, convinced us this isn’t a good idea.

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