Teen Depression Resource

Depression happens to people of all ages. Depression is more than just mere reference to being depressed (read feeling sad, down). It is a dangerous mental disorder that affects all parts of our daily lives, if left unattended to. That’s why it is so important to recognize it and nip it in the bud.  Both adults and children go through depression but adults have a better ability to control and fight against it.

What differentiates depression that an adult goes through from that that a young child goes through is, the intensity of the experience. Depression in a child is a lot more intense and volatile as compared to depression in adults. A prolonged period of an otherwise normal reaction or behavior is a sure sign of unrecognized depression.  For example, feeling sad is a normal reaction when one goes through periods of disappointment. After a while, it’s normal to get over the disappointment and bounce back.  When one doesn’t bounce back after a while and continues to be sad continuously over a long time, it is a clear sign of unrecognized depression which needs to be tackled.

To keep a tab on whether someone is depressed or not, you will need to be able to identify the characteristics of teen depression.  These are the things that you can do to identify a probable case of depression before considering consulting a medical professional about it.

Observe symptoms: As mentioned earlier, one of the symptoms of depression - after observing which it is safe to assume that someone is under depression - is a prolonged period of an otherwise normal reaction or behavior. The response or behavior can be an expression of extreme sadness, violent outbursts, an obvious disinterest in doing most things and a continuous sense of gloom to name a few. Another common symptom is the fear of rejection by peers.

Take into consideration environment around the affected person: There are some factors that help contribute to depression. Among these, existence of a history of depression in the family, other mental, psychiatric or physical disorders and substance abuse (drug and alcohol addiction) are just some of the most common factors.

What has aggravated the percentage of teenagers affected by depression over the past few years is that there is huge amount of expectations from them at a very young age. So they fight a battle between finding themselves, caving into peer pressure and living up to the expectations of mostly their parents.

At any point of time if confused or unclear about these characteristics, you should not hesitate to take a doctor’s opinion, in order to prevent any possible further worsening of the situation.