I have a 15 year old son who seems very depressed to me and has been so to some degree since the age of 13. His father and I separated earlier this year and he had to live with both of us all last year knowing that we were eventually going to split up. He doesn't see much of his father [who lives nearby], who is an emotionally absent man who had problems in his own childhood which perhaps explain his lack of commitment towards his own children now. My son has poor self-image, especially now in the middle of adolescence. He professes not to mind about his father and I, unlike his sister I have never seen him cry or express anger or particular distress at what has happened. However, he is changing before my eyes. He has always been a quick-tempered child, can't cope easily with the every-day frustrations and disappointments, but this has got worse the last few weeks. He seems cold and hard and has started being verbally abusive to me in the way his father was, he says he's fed up with feeling like he does, he has isolated himself, barely leaves the house when he's in it and has no social life at all out of school, it's TV and the Internet, any suggestion to do anything else is resolutely refused. He's clearly unhappy and bored and doesn't like himself much, and even says at times that he doesn't know how I can put up with him. We've always had a good relationship before this but I am seriously worried now and don't know best how to handle this correctly.