Whether you are a teen suffering from feelings of sadness, hopelessness and low self esteem, or a parent trying to understand why your teen is behaving erratically, you need to consider the possibility of teen depression. No one wants to think that there is something wrong with themselves or their child, but teenage depression is an important issue to realize and take an active role in treating. The number of cases of teenage depression is reaching epidemic proportions so you should realize that you are not at all alone. You may find that the treatment yields incredible results or requires a great deal of time and effort to produce even a small improvement. The first thing you need to do is determine whether or not teen depression is what is going on and what level the depression is at.
Signs
There are many signs and symptoms for depression; depression in teens is no different. The pattern of behavior and recurrence of behavior is an important part of recognizing teen depression. Teenage rebellion is a commonly held notion that, at some point, teens want to be different from their parents and will act out to do so. This notion is fine in and of itself, but when there is a pattern that includes the following behaviors teenage depression may be to blame:
Irritability
Hopelessness
Hostility
Belligerence
Anger
Interpersonal withdrawal
Extreme fatigue
Lack of concentration
Significant weight changes
Sadness
Feeling worthless
Feeling guilty
Changes in sleep habits
Pessimism
Thoughts of suicide
If there are five or more of these symptoms present regularly during a two week span, depression may be the cause of the symptoms. It is important to contact a medical professional if depression is suspected because a mild case can jump to major and then to suicidal very quickly. The sufferer may sometimes behave normally or seem simply down rather than always being extremely sad, episodes can be long or short term and range in expression. Sadness is a completely normal emotion, but when that feeling takes over your life it becomes depression and can be debilitating.
Brain Matters
It is important to realize that depression is typically caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Chemicals known as neurotransmitters sent messages between the brain cells to tell the body what to do, how to manage and how it feels. Some neurotransmitters regulate your moods and when their normal balance is off, they can cause depression. This is why some drug medication is needed in conjunction with verbal types of therapy to improve the feelings and behavior of a depressed individual.
Types
There are a few different types of depression, teen depression can fall into any of the categories and can be just as mild or severe as any adult depression. Often, major depression is intense and short lived. The sufferer may feel horrible, be unmotivated and even hinge on suicidal for a a few weeks and behave normally otherwise. In mild depression, the person can have the feelings of low level sadness and hopelessness long term. The short term depression is known as major depression, the longer term is mild depression (dysthemia or chronic depression).
There is another major type of teen depression known as adjustment disorder with depressed mood. This means a major event in life caused the depression and the symptoms are more severe or adjustment to normal life takes an extended period of time.
One more major type of teenage depression is bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive illness. The manic or mania end refers to the high energy feeling that comes on one end of this disorder; the depressive end involves bouts of major depression. There are reports that this type of depression in teens is predominant and increasing.
