Teenage Depression And How It Influences The Mental Health

Imagine darkness so profound that it consumes you, that is the storm which many teens face daily and it is called depression. Adolescent depression is becoming more common than childhood obesity. Teenagers are affected by this mental illness, that often follows them teenager into adulthood and affects the way they interact, function, and even behave in social situations. This topic of teenage depression interests me because I feel like, at some point, most teenager - including myself - have dealt with depression on some level, and I want to find out more about the warning signs/symptoms, treatments, and even the causes of it. The escalation of teenage depression is far greater than anyone could have expected, studies show that now every one in five teens is suffering from clinical depression. 

Effects of this aren't just one thing or the other but is a combination of many things to create that sudden urge of sadness and hopelessness. However, signs are sometimes hard to catch right away due to the society view of a typical teenager which is typically seen as moody, doesn't really care about much, and just overall very emotional. Leaving both teens and parents to not think much of it and just blame it on the fact that they are growing teenagers with very overactive hormones. Usually, depression is triggered by difficult life events, such as death or divorce in the family which then causes the unexpected outbursts to occur. Scientist recently discovered that not only can depression be caused by those events but can be caused by having too much or too little of a certain type of brain chemicals. With these different things teens aren't getting the medical treatment or counseling, they need causing the adolescent depression to surpass the rate it once was. 

As stated warning signs are difficult to spot and can hide in plain sight. When looking for the red flag to identify the signs or symptoms one should look for things such as social isolation, problem with authority, overreaction to criticism, poor performance in school, poor self-esteem, obsession with death, and many other things that seem completely normal but last for a long period of time. These symptoms of depressions tend to hold teens back and prevent them from living their best life. Not only does it hold them back from life but gives them the thought that there is no going forward and causes teens to withdraw from friends and fun activities. Once they started to withdraw the process starts slow but gradually will turn into something more, when then at that point symptoms will become more noticeable. For example, a teen might start to become fixated with essays, books, poems, or drawings that heavy ling talks or involves death. Now all symptoms are import but one main one that everyone pretty much seems to know but doesn't exactly always give attention to is suicide threats. Suicide threats aren't always put out there by teens for everyone to see but can sometimes be on the down low; teens usually try to reach out for help by making comments in conversations about them dying hypothetically but in all reality is just another symptom of depression. In addition, with the teen depression rate escalating at such a fast pace scientist have begun to look into it further and see if there is a bigger picture. Looking into it scientist are starting to believe that social media is having a big effect on why so many teens are depressed nowadays. Jerry Bubrick, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute says “FOMO ( Fear Of Missing Out) is really the fear of not being connected to our social world, and that need to feel connected sometimes trumps whatever's going on in the actual situation we are in. The more we use social media, the less we think about being present in the moment.’’. Teens who use most of their time in the day on social media tend to have a higher rate of depression rather than a teen who is more active. Active teens have this sense of accomplishment when winning things as in a game, a competition, or just simply feeling the fresh air in there face enjoying it with friends which ultimately giving them the feeling of being wanted in return. Which is why on the other foot when teens really only use social media it doesn't give them a sense of accomplishment but does the opposite. 

Now yes teens get a feeling of being wanted from social media when receiving a notification or a like on a picture but that feeling doesn't always seem to stick around ultimately leaving them with nothing. When scrolling through your social media accounts like snap chat, Instagram, and twitter you seem to only see the good in someone's life never really seeing the heartbreaks or the failures which then causes you to think about how messed up your life is. This happens a lot with teens when they look at celebrities and how grand they are living or how their “ hot summer body” can just appear in a blink of an eye. Self-image is important to the average teenager and when you don't have the newest clothes or don't look like the hot girl all the boys are going after it's easy to get into that darkness of depression. And since social media is all teenagers seem to care about now of days the theory of social media causing the escalating rate roles out into a proving theory. Last but not least adolescent depression has seemed to have a tighter grip on teenage girls rather than teenage boys. The reason for this is that simply boys and girls are different. Teenage girls have more symptoms of guilt, sadness, and regret and guys symptoms, on the other hand, are more simple. For example, teenage boys are more irritable and their sleeping schedules are all over the place with not enough sleep or to much sleep. However, both girls and boys seem to care about how their bodies are perceived by their peer as mentioned in other paragraphs. Even though both genders have some of the same symptoms of depression. girls are more prone to it because studies show that girls tend to use their social media accounts more than boys. Because while boys are playing video games girls are comparing how then their body's to a celebrity they look up to like Kylie Jenner. In conclusion, teen depression is escalating rapidly and will probably continue in the upcoming years. The best thing for us to do to stop this sudden rise is to start watching out for the symptoms and warnings signs. The quicker we react the lesser amount of teens will suffer from the clinical disease of depression.