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We live in a modern world, but this doesn’t
mean that we are all blessed with marvelous things. Everyone has his own
difficulties, but we, the teenagers, we are the most vulnerable of all. We are
exposed to different types of stress. As a result of this,teenagers nowadays
are faced with more delicate problems. Stress at home, stress at school,
spending more time in front of the PC instead going out with friends, isolation from the world and staying home…
These are the main reasons for the
newly-discovered teen depression. Teen depression isn’t just a long-lasting bad
mood and a passing type of melancholy. This kind of depression presents a
serious problem which occupies allspheres of the life of the teen. If it’s not
cured, teen depression may cause problems at home, school, and may bring teens
in touch with drugs, and even cause irreparable tragedies like murder or
suicide. Luckily teen depression can be healed by anyone, even by a concerned
friend, and there are things which can be done to help somebody.
How to better
understand teen depression?
We are not very
familiar with this. People have much disbelief about it, especially in our
conservative society. First of all, parents should take responsibility for
their children, and they should always be a “rock of support“to him/her. The teen must be placed at the top of the most important
things, even before the carrier or the life of the parent because the teen
years are very complex indeed. Most adolescents, though, succeed in creating a
balance between the common resistance and the inner rebellion by making solid
friendships and succeeding in school or out of it, thus developing the strong
feeling of a self-confident person. Outbursts of dark emotions, which happen
occasionally, are in the margins of normality, but teen depression is something
completely different. In our small towns it isn’t understood well as it may
destroy the nature of the personality of the teen, causing enormous feeling of
sadness, despair, or anger, so we, the inhabitants don’t take it seriously and
we make fun of it.
Why are the youth
depressed?
There are many
causes according to which the teen would become depressed, but in our country
it’s normal to be a little bit depressed because the majority isn’t financially
satisfied. So this could be the reason for most of the stress we feel.
Meanwhile, there are other causes, for example, teens can feel worthless
because of their bad grades. The school, social status with their mates, sexual
orientation, or family life – every single one of these factors may have a
large effect on the teen. At the same time teens face pressure from the
questions of how puberty will change them to how are they going to fit into in
our happy society. The natural transition from child to adult can lead to
conflicts with parents when the teens want to announce their independence. Some
of them live in a so called nine-to-five society. This means that some students
just go to school and after that they go straight home without saying a word to
anybody. They just study but they aren’t definitely happy because the human
being wasn’t created to be all alone. It supposed to hang out with others, if
not, it may cause melancholy and hate for the whole society.
Signs and symptoms
of teen depression
sadness,
irritability, anger or unfriendly attitude, unexpected crying or frequently
crying, isolation from the family or the friends, losing interests for every
activity, worries and tension, lack of enthusiasm and motivation, feeling
worthless and guilty, lack of energy or fatigue, difficulties in the
concentration, thinking about death or suicide
Unwanted effects
from teen depression
These
kinds of effects go far beyond the melancholic behaviour, for example:
Ø Decreased self-respect – depression can cause
the teen to feel shame, or the sense of failure provoking eating problems such
as anorexia or yo-yo diets;
Ø Skipping class or running away from home – many
teens run away from their homes or talk about it. These conversations are a
call for help;
Ø Internet dependence – the teens often surf the
net in order to forget about their problems, but this brings them to isolation
and more depression.
Ø Taking drugs, pills or alcohol – they are
trying to “cure” themselves, unfortunately this makes things even more
complicated;
Ø Violence – some of them are victims of domestic
tyranny
Ø Problems at school – lowered grades or
frustration while doing homework for a teen who is well-known as a good
student;
Ø Suicide – depressed teens often think or speak
of suicide as “call for attention”. These thoughts must be seriously understood
and there must be some action taken so as to help the teen.
How to help the
depressed teen?
If you have a hunch that your friend isn’t
behaving as he used to, then you must immediately take measures. Depression is
very destructive, so you mustn’t wait and hope that symptoms would simply go
away. You ought to check it up as soon as possible to find out whether it is
depression or not. The first thing you should do is to talk to him/her. If you
aren’t his/her close friend you must not expect that he/she would tell you
what’s the matter. In this case the only thing you can do is to be supportive,
offer some help, and to hope that he/she would open his/her mind and that
he/she would tell you. If you are told a secret, you must keep it. You should
never betray him/her. Try not to be pushy, be gentle but persistent, and let
her/him do all the speaking. Never criticize anything and always evaluate the
meaning of his/her inner problems before making any conclusions. That way
you’ll find out what was going on and what lies in there. After that, you can
give him/her some advice or tips to set him/her back on his feet and to regain
his/her self-esteem. You are his/her friend and you would know what makes
him/her happy. Another thing is spending more time with him/her in order to
make him/her forget a little bit of his/her problems. If he/she isn’t very
sociable, help him/her to become so. Get him/her to know more mates so as to
give him/her the feeling that he/she isn’t alone in this world. For me though
the best thing to do is to support him/her and never to “spill the beans”. As the matter of fact, that’s your
friend and you would definitely know what the best thing isfor him/herto fight
the stress or the depression. If things get out of control you should inform his/her parents, or even some specialists, like
the school psychologist, so as to prevent further damage.
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