Teenage Depression

Depression affects everyone; whether you are affected or your loved one, you will see an episode of depression at least once in your lifetime. Teenage depression is a major issue with youth today. Faced with the pressures of academics, extracurricular activities, home, and personal problems, teen suicide as a result of teenage depression is a tragedy that many parents want to avoid.

The teenage years are the hardest years of our lives. Forget the 40-hour workweek, the deadline of bills, and the stresses of maintaining a family; the pressures of being a teenager are often forgotten in adulthood. Not only does a teen have to live up to the expectations of their school, parents, and friends, but they have to live up to the expectations of what they are going to be. They have to worry about both the present and the future. There is no other point in your life where what you do today will have such an adverse affect on your future than your teenage years.

Teenage depression is usually onset by peer pressure or family problems among other things. At a time in their life where they are only trying to develop who they are, the words of a fellow classmate can come at them like a knife in the back. If a teen is anything but all-American, they will hear the criticism of their peers. Far be it for a teen to identify as homosexual, be fat, or rebel against society’s idea of what to wear because the high school population is full of the biggest critics you could ever meet.

The breakup of a family unit or the loss of a close family member can also bring about teenage depression. Their routine is broken or they have no way of coping with a loss they have never experienced before. If it is as close as a mother or father or even a sibling, it can be even more detrimental.
 
Teenage depression causes an increased risck of suicide. The numbers are alarmingly higher in guys because they are more likely to use more immediate means such as a bullet to the head. Girls tend to take less extreme measures so theirs are often unsuccessful. It is very important that teachers and counselors take talks of suicide seriously when it comes to these teens.

It is teenage depression that is the biggest conquest of a teen's career. Learning to cope and deal with peer pressure, the pressures of their parents and society, and shaping themselves into who they want to become is a daunting task. But teenage depression is depression nonetheless and should be handled with the same sensitivity.