adolescent depression

Depression is a disease that afflicts the human psyche in such a way that the afflicted tend to act and react abnormally toward others and themselves. Adolescent depression is greatly under diagnosed, and leads to serious difficulties in school, and personal adjustment. The reason why depression is often overlooked in children is because children are not always able to express how they feel. Therefore, teachers should be trained in dealing with depressed youths, and to advise the parents of the child to seek professional treatment. School is the place where children spend most of their waking hours learning, socializing, and growing.

A child needs to be mentally healthy in order to learn properly, and sometimes problems arise at home, with friends, or with themselves. These problems need to be noticed, and talked about. Teachers have to pay attention to adolescents’ behavioral patterns, and work with the child on a one to one basis. The child can then open up and talk freely with the teacher about anything that is on their mind.

Learning disabilities or conduct disorder can put a child in greater risk of depression. Therefore, treating one problem and ignoring the other will not help the child overcome their difficulties (Fassler 63). Family must also play a major role in helping their depressed adolescent. Until the last decade, the commonly held view has been that depression affected persons in their middle years, and did not occur in childhood or adolescence.

A lot has changed in the past decade. Due to systematic followup studies of children under treatment, and depressed parents, the onset of depression occurs during adolescence, and must be treated during adolescence (Weissman 210). Depression has a wide range of symptoms, from being sad or mad to withdrawal from others, or lashing out at others. Symptoms of youth depression are often masked. Instead of expressing sadness, teenagers may express boredom and irritability, or may choose to engage in risky behaviors. Other emotional problems make it hard to recognize depression in a child, but usually overlap with depression.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD), is a neurochemical problem which makes it difficult for a child to pay attention or focus. These children are very fidgety, have trouble sitting still, and may interrupt others. New research suggests that out of 1,700 adolescents with this d...

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...ants work by allowing certain neurotransmitters to accumulate in the central nervous system. They are given to elevate mood, counter suicidal thoughts, and increase the effectiveness of psychotherapy (Weissman 195).

Prescribing antidepressants to the young raises thorny issues. There is not an objective test for depression, forcing parents and physicians to decide whether a child is clinically depressed or simply riding the roller coaster emotions of growing up. Critics worry about aggressive marketing tactics and consequent overuse. Antidepressants often are used daily for many years, yet researchers haven’t conducted long term studies to see how the chemicals affect still growing bodies. Within ten years, doctors are reaching for the ability to pinpoint the causes of distress, make treatments more specific, hopefully to the point of where the first episode of depression in kids can be pointed out and treated (Koch 608). Until we have more research to prove the safeness of antidepressants among growing children, and more ideas of htow our brain actually works, the best we as a society can do is educate our children through resilliance to help depressed kids the best way we can.