Teen Depression Resource

Teen depression is one of the major setbacks that teens face, during their teenage years.   These years are focal points of their lives, because at this age, on one hand, they are discovering who they really are and on other, they have various expectations to live upto. So when they get depressed it only weakens their resolve and they find it hard to be themselves. It is a tragedy that barely one fifth of depressed teens actually address this issue (Source: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_teen.htm).  The reason for this low statistic is that they don’t identify depression when they are young or in their teens.  They’d rather have someone older, or someone who they look up to, to lend a hand.

The symptoms are many – the most common ones, being - dynamic mood swings, irritability, isolation from loved ones, restlessness, absence of motivation and the extreme thought of suicide or death. The reason for teen depression may be either a response to certain tragic events, unhealthy environment at home, excessive sleeping or even shoplifting in some cases.  Suicide can very often spurn many reactions including suicide – the pre signs of which are the victim of depression using the prospect of him or her committing suicide to garner attention and thinking and speaking about suicide a lot.

A large percentage of teenagers give suicide a thought. Studies show that suicide is the third most common cause of deaths in the 15 to 24 age bracket. A majority of teens attempt or commit suicide out of reasons leading from teen depression. Teen depression induced substance (drug and alcohol) addiction is also a major cause of suicides.

Signs leading to suicide out of teen depression can be very dubious and are most often ignored. They are passed off, as light remarks and good humor and otherwise are not taken to be serious signs of probable suicide. Some of the most common among these signs are persistent remarks made about death and suicide like “I wish I was dead”, “Oh the sweet release of death” or “I’d be better off dead”.

Similar statements made which are optimistic about death, are also signs of probable suicide - like wishing that you’d die or get admitted to the hospital so that you can see how many people will actually come and visit you, by which you can get to know who is there for  you and who is not. Any other form of expression that showcases a fascination, liking or eagerness toward the whole prospect of death is equally dangerous and need to be paid attention to.

When it comes to treatment of such cases, it is a misnomer that medication is the treatment that is best.  Parents of children who are teen depression victims often opt for it instead of the therapy route as it takes lesser. Contradictorily, medication is required only if the victim is considered a high risk case.