Alcohol Abuse Advice

Depression In Teens: What Are The Signs?

Depression is a very serious illness that not only affects adults, but just as easily can affect adolescents and teenagers. Depression has an impact on how we think, feel, behave, and our health in general. Depression in teens is becoming more common in our high stress society as about 5% of the teen population suffers from some form of depression.

The two kinds of depression are major depression and manic depression also called bipolar disorder. Major depression is when you feel down or sad most of the time. With bipolar disorder, you feel sad and down sometimes but at other times you will feel agitated and reckless. When someone begins to have these symptoms regularly, help must be sought immediately from a counselor, psychologist, or even a family member.

Unfortunately, most teens do not get the help they need and when untreated, depression can get worse. The good news is that most people can be helped if they get the proper treatment. So, how do you know if you or a loved one is suffering from clinical depression?

Some Signs Of Clinical Depression

The individual feels sad, guilty for no good reason, cries more than normal, and feels tired and restless the majority of the time. Also, the person may start sleeping for long hours or have trouble falling asleep at night. Eating habits can also change as either the individual will eat more or begin losing their appetite.

Life in general appears meaningless and the individual can feel like nothing good ever happens and will never happen again. This leads to feeling negative about everything or a loss of feelings.

The things that you liked to do or brought you joy do not do so anymore. These could be things like sports, music, and hanging out with your friends. Instead of doing these things, you now feel like being alone and not being bothered. You also may feel irritated at very minor things and lose your temper and overreact.

These are only a few of the signs of depression and as mentioned earlier, if you or someone you know has these feelings regularly, please seek help. There are many options available such as counseling but at the very least just talk to someone and let them know you may have a problem.