When The Day Met The Night

As Cold As Day

"Major Depressive Disorder." Dr. Kafka said, removing her eyes from her clipboard. "Your son's screening was more than positive, but you don't have to worry Mr.Stark. It's easily treatable."

Peter and his father, Tony, had been at the psychiatrist's office for only God knows how long. The brunette was trying to convince his parents that he wasn't depressed, but they weren't buying it. It took a little while, but Peter persuaded them to take him for a real depression screening instead of letting them jump to conclusions.

So here Peter and Tony were, Steve had to go to work. After the screening, they waited inside of the office. A large room with plain white walls and some weirdly therapeutic pictures hanging down. They took two seats in front of a large desk with some room for the psychiatrist to sit behind it.

Once Dr. Kafka came in, she took a seat. At first, Peter wasn't that worried about what she was going to say. He knew that he didn't have depression, he was fine. That was, until she hesitated before speaking, and looked down at her clipboard. Y'know, that thing that all doctors did when they deliver unpleasant news and were trying to hide their true facial expressions.

And once she did speak, she only made eye contact with Tony. Peter knew that his dad was the adult, but he would appreciate it if he wasn't constantly talked about in the third person.

'I'm glad that you brought your son in for treatment.'

'Peter has been exhibiting signs of depression.'

'We feel that Peter may have trouble communicating his emotions. That's very common with teenagers.'

It was extremely frustrating to feel like an extra in this situation. Peter was trying his best to stay silent, biting his tongue to keep all of the comments to himself until he couldn't handle it anymore. He didn't want anyone to do the talking for him or for a paper and pencil test to determine how he felt. Only he should know how he feels. If he said he was fine, why didn't anyone believe him?

"I'm not depressed." He blurted.

This was the first time his psychiatrist had looked at him since she had entered the room. "Peter." She said, her eyes and voice condescending. "Denial is all part of the recovery process."

"I'm not denying anything." The brunette replied. "I'm fine, seriously."

Dr.Kafka glanced at Tony before hesitantly looking towards her papers and clearing her throat. "From the Geriatric Depression Scale, it asked if you prefer to stay at home rather than going out and doing new things?"

"And you answered, Yes."

"I like staying home," Peter said.

"These questions recognize that isolation and withdrawal are common signs of depression..."

"And from the Beck Depression Inventory, it asked, 'How is your energy?' Declines in energy level are a sign of depression. The answers were: As much energy as ever, less energy than before, not enough to do much, or not enough to do anything."

"You answered, less energy than before."

"High school is stressful," Peter said. With all of the homework he had to do, Flash and Liz constantly taunting him, and this whole ordeal with Tony and Wade was stressing him out. He guessed that was why he wasn't sleeping that well. Which was why he had less energy than before.

"From the MADRS, it asked, 'How is your sleep?' The answers included were: Sleeping, as usual, slight difficulty, sleep reduced by at least two hours, or getting less than three hours of sleep at night."