Did your other children discuss their DP with her? If she doesn't know details of their DP, I'd go easy on burdening her with too much.
"I just don't feel quite right," is something a 12-year-old can identify with. I think she's too young for anything but the rough outlines. You could tell her analogous experiences, when perhaps she's been nervous or uptight, but I wouldn't expect a 12-year-old to be able to process any technical information about the illness.
Recent studies on brain development in adolescents have shown that kids are quite limited in their ability to think through things until they are well beyond the teen years. It's kind of funny; we let them vote when their brains aren't fully developed and they are cognitively less acute than they will be in five years or so.
But because she will tend to catastrophize whatever you tell her, because her brain is not fully developed yet, I think you will actually harm her by telling her the gory details. Tell her the rough outlines.
Perhaps there are booklets you can locate that are written specifically for children that deal with mental issues.
Now, if your 12-year-old has heard about DP in detail from her siblings, then she's already acquainted with what they said, so all of our comments may be quite beside the point, and because she's already heard it, your telling her that you suffer from it too should not scare her if she's NOW aware her brother and sister had it also.
In the end, it's your call. I think all the comments on this have been trying to convey the idea that the potential to frighten a child by telling him or her about a parent's illness may cause unnecessary emotional turmoil and trouble her heart deeply. You are her protector, and she doesn't benefit by having a reason to worry that you're going to go off your rocker.
"I just don't feel quite right," is something a 12-year-old can identify with. I think she's too young for anything but the rough outlines. You could tell her analogous experiences, when perhaps she's been nervous or uptight, but I wouldn't expect a 12-year-old to be able to process any technical information about the illness.
Recent studies on brain development in adolescents have shown that kids are quite limited in their ability to think through things until they are well beyond the teen years. It's kind of funny; we let them vote when their brains aren't fully developed and they are cognitively less acute than they will be in five years or so.
But because she will tend to catastrophize whatever you tell her, because her brain is not fully developed yet, I think you will actually harm her by telling her the gory details. Tell her the rough outlines.
Perhaps there are booklets you can locate that are written specifically for children that deal with mental issues.
Now, if your 12-year-old has heard about DP in detail from her siblings, then she's already acquainted with what they said, so all of our comments may be quite beside the point, and because she's already heard it, your telling her that you suffer from it too should not scare her if she's NOW aware her brother and sister had it also.
In the end, it's your call. I think all the comments on this have been trying to convey the idea that the potential to frighten a child by telling him or her about a parent's illness may cause unnecessary emotional turmoil and trouble her heart deeply. You are her protector, and she doesn't benefit by having a reason to worry that you're going to go off your rocker.
