Depression continues to claim teens

This is an article that i had to write for school :l

Depression Continues To Claim Teens           

The statistics about teenage runaways, alcoholism, drug problems, pregnancy, eating disorders, and suicide are alarming. The common link to all of these crises is often depression.

 

 

Today, more and more innocent teens are being diagnosed with depression.  The lucky ones will gain support from their friends and families and will receive the help that they need and will, hopefully, be able to return to their “normal” selves. But sadly, there are some teens that wont get any help or support and will have to battle through their dark days alone. If depression is left untreated, it can increase the chances of it lasting longer and more fatally, getting worse. And depending on the victim’s type of depression, it can lead to suicidal or self-harming thoughts, which if they aren’t decreased and then put to an end, can lead to the actual acts themselves. 

 

The media can play a role in depression, with teenage girls going through glossy magazines full of celebrities and unrealistic looking models; celebs that seem to have the high life full of money, fame, love and looks , models with their extremely thin and altered body frames and pictures that have been airbrushed to the max. Thus creating low self-esteem which can increase the chances of someone becoming depressed. Other influences can be from peers, family, stress, death,  chemical imbalance, home life, feeling that they don’t measure up to certain expectations and experiences from their childhood.  

 

If a teen feels different, inadequate, has low-self esteem or is deprived in some way, depression can easily result. Children of parents that push them academically may feel that they’ll fail their parent’s expectations, teens that are put under pressure from their peers or friends, teens that are being or have been bullied, can feel that they aren’t good enough and/or feel alone and isolated. Adolescents that have had trauma in their childhood from areas such as family violence, abuse and divorce, can feel alone, unwanted, neglected, abandoned and that if they were to leave, be harmed or killed that no one in the world would care, that if they died no one would notice or that people would rejoice over the fact that they are gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depression is a mental illness and is said to be more than one illness, but a group of illnesses characterised by excessive or a long-term depressed mood. Depression is, most of the time, not noticed and as well as that, ‘Many people who show signs of depression don’t recognise a problem,’ says Ian Stone, MRMA Health Insurance Head.

 

 

• Statistics show that approximately 2o% (or 1/5) of the teenage population will experience clinical depression at one time in their adolescent years. They also show that adolescent girls are twice as likely as boys to experience depression. A family history of depression makes children more likely to have depression.
• The number of suicides among males aged 15 to 19 years has generally been decreasing over recent years.  In 1997, 121 males in this age group died by suicide (18.5 per 100 000).  In 2009, 72 males aged 15 to 19 died by suicide (9.3 per 100 000). This was slightly less than the rate for the previous two years.
• The number of suicides observed for females aged 15 to 19 years has also generally been substantially less than in 1997 (33 suicides or 5.3 per 100 000).

 

 

An example of a teenager living with depression is Antoinette*, 17. Antoinette was 15 when she was diagnosed with depression, “I was sad all of time, and I didn’t want to do anything. I stopped going out with friends, didn’t even bother with socializing I had no interest in it. I was fighting with my family all the time and I started skipping school and when I did go, I just sat there like a zombie, completely and utterly numb.” Antoinette was always a quiet and shy, but happy, girl with only a few close friends that, thankfully, helped her out of her depression and are still with her today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She says that “My friends and I may not have been popular and that was okay, none of us cared about that, but eventually I started to care about the small things that I wasn’t or didn’t have and then everything that was negative throughout my entire life just hit me and from then on I only focused on them. I was bullied when I was younger’, she says, “but that wasn’t the main reason for all of my negative thoughts. I felt abandoned by my family, that they didn’t care about me and that they wouldn’t if anything bad happened to me. I know now that they would, but back then I didn’t see that. So the bullying that I received from when I was younger just made me believe more that I was a nuisance to everyone, that no one cared. One of the main things that made me start to believe that no one wanted me was the fact that my dad left just after I was born. I started thinking, ‘well he didn’t want me, so no one else really does do they?’ Those were definitely the dark days. ”  

 

Thankfully Antoinette told one of her close friends and they became worried from the second she told them her innermost thoughts and feelings, and they made her get the help that she needed.

 

 

 

 

Another story of teenage depression is from Noah*, 21. “Everyone said to me that high school will be some of the best years of my life, I only see those years as my worst. I was 16 when I started to question what was wrong with me. For years I had been feeling sad and alone but I covered those feelings up by putting on a smile, not just for the people around me, but for, myself.  I denied that there was something wrong with me for a long time, but after a year and a half of feeling isolated, a failure and days of feeling absolutely nothing, I finally got the well needed help.” Noah ended up with a severe case of depression, “I had tried to kill myself on two occasions and I had self-harmed many times before that. I think that if I had tried to get help at the start that it wouldn’t have gotten to a point when I wanted to end my life before it had even begun.” Noah received full support from his family and friends and is now happier and mentally healthier than he has ever been.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depression can wipe some ones personality from them and turn them from a happy life-loving person to someone that wishes that they no longer existed. These days many young teens are suffering from depression, many of which aren’t getting help and are turning to suicide, self-harm, alcohol, drugs or their just locking themselves away from the world completely or as much as possible.

 

 Parents of teenagers today should let their child’s school know if they have any suspicions that they may have depression or any other illnesses or issues. Teachers should also look out for warning signs in their students as well as other teenagers and if they notice anything wrong with their peers, they should let someone know. Adolescents should also talk to a trusted adult if they are feeling down or are facing any other issues in their life (i.e. eating disorder, bullying, ECT).

 

The path into adolescence is a difficult one, and the choices a teen makes can leave lasting scars on the lives of an entire generation of young men and women. There is a growing realization that teenage depression can be life changing, even life- threatening. If you know someone that you think may have depression, has depression,  or you notice someone that is beginning to show some of the symptoms of depression, talk to them. Get them the help that they need, before they become another statistic.

 

Article by L.Locke

*Names have been changed

 

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[Dixie Jones]

I love this, My friend has gone through dispersion read about it here please http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/HipstaDixie/1080689/