Bad moods, loneliness, irritability, and a persistent feeling of helplessness are characteristics of teen depression. There is no limit for the occurrence and existence of teen depression; it could be days, weeks, months, or years. However, early diagnosis of depression in teens is difficult as these characteristics and symptoms are common with growing teenagers. The only difference is their persistence.
There is no particular cause for teen depression. Besides, different adolescents attribute different reasons for their depression. Common amongst them are divorce of parents, breakup of relationships, death, or separation of a loved one, bullying of peer group, very fast changes in life, neglect and lack of care by other family members or friends, traumatic experiences of childhood, and similar others.
You can detect onset and continuing presence of teen depression in your teen. Regular absence from school, irregular eating, and sleeping habits, marked gain or loss of body weight, excessive intake of food or sleeping for long hours are the physical effects of depression. Others include refusing to meet friends or having difficulty in getting along with family members in a normal manner, marked changes in personality and becoming hyper with all emotions like anger, dissent are sure indicators of depression making home in your teen.
The effects of teen depression are often far-reaching and lasting. Your teen finds recluse in drugs and alcohol. This further deteriorates the physical condition of your teen. They could also try to inflict self-destruction through banging of head, burning, or cutting to cause more harm to self. Sometimes, these acts could have fatal endings. At times, depressed teens attempt suicides too.
The best way to combat teen depression is to take help of trained counselors and psychiatrists. You could also spend more time with your teen. Try to regulate the peer group and keep your teen engaged in active and physical work. This leaves little time and energy to think about other matters and helps your teen come out of depression easily. Very serious cases however, need medical supervision and care in the initial stages.
