Rampant of Depressed Teenagers and the Reasons Behind it

Today, it is not uncommon to see news about teenager who committed suicide. In
fact, an article by Philstar new, based by the report of the International Association for
Suicide Prevention (IASP), stated there’s an estimate of one million per year. It
furthermore stated that the Philippines has the highest number of depressed people in
Southeast Asia which is approximately estimated as 3.3 million Filipino, with a suicide
rate of 2.4 in males and 1.7 in females per 100, 000. And that out of 3.3 million Filipinos
suffering from depression, a huge portion of it is composed by Filipino youths, But what
are really the reason behind these statistics/. What is really causing the people especially
the youth, not just in the Philippines but in the whole world to suddenly end their lives?
Why do teens nowadays are depressed?
First and foremost cause of depression that is faced by today’s youth is the
technology, specifically social media. It has been known and lots of research has been
made that shows the bad effects of social media despite of the conveniency it brings to
people. Social media is toxic. It creates standards in which are previously not there but
because of people using social media and as time passes by, it was created. Example of
this is that you are not famous or good looking enough if you don’t have much likes and
other reactions such as “heart” and “wow” in your profile picture or Facebook posts.
Another one is goals posted on it such as #relationship goals, #body goals or
#makeupgoals. These standards made by social media are now something that the
youths follow and compare their lives to. They think that if they don’t achieve the goals
presented in social is that they are not good enough and that they will not be happy.
These standards affect how they think of themselves and the more they far away from
these standards, the more worthless they feel. The less likes they have, the uglier they
are.
The next reason for depression is the academic pressure imposed by the parents
and the people around them. It is already in the Filipino bad practices that parents
expected so much from their children not even knowing and assessing the capacity of
their own children. Yes, it is okay to believe that your child can do it but believing and
expecting are different from each other. This academic pressure hindrance the learning
of the student itself. Because of instead of learning they focus on getting high grades.
Learning is fun but because of the pressure students feel, they don’t find it fun. That’s
why when they fail a test, instead of getting motivated and doing better next time, they
are sad and afraid for they disappoint their parents. Recurring situation of failing like this
will likely make the parents angry with their children. . In situation like this, parents tend
to scold more instead of telling that they can do it. With an angry parents and other things
you may hear from the environment will make the child/children hear bad things about
him/her. A simple “walang kwenta/useless” line for not having good grades greatly affects
how the teenagers feel. . Thus, this leads to the students feeling worthless for they haven’t
reach or able to do what their parents wanted. And feeling worthless time to time is a big
opening from depression.
The last reason, though not limited to it, for depression is the hormonal imbalance
of the teenager. Hormonal imbalance happens when your hormonal secretions are
disrupted. Having too much hormones or little of it affects how a person thinks. Hormonal
imbalances has a lot of effects and one of it is depression. According to an article by
Martin Green, teenagers have hormonal imbalances because of stress that the person
been feeling lately. Teenagers mostly get stressed because of not having enough good
grades or not being so popular. It doesn’t really matter which is the main reason between
the two for both of them only shows that the reasons for being depressed are
interconnected with each other. Hormonal imbalances happens when you are stress and
you get stress when you are pressured in doing something that you don’t like. Aside from
stress, eating a lot because of the chemical on the food is the reason for hormonal
imbalances but then mostly people get a lot of eating when they are stress eating. As
mentioned earlier, hormonal imbalances affects how the person thinks which one of the
effects of this is that it lead to depression. Medical websites suggests always that if a
person has hormonal imbalances, he should consult a doctor. Teenagers are more prone
to hormonal imbalances because they are the one who get stress with no idea on how to
cope up with it. For that reason too is why they are more prone to depression.
Depression is a mental illness rampant in the teenager not only in the Philippines
but in the whole world. People should be aware of it and help to lessen the suicides every
day. Doctors said that you can’t fix someone else depression. It is true but you can help
them feel better and prevent them for thinking that they are worthless. Be more
understanding to them. Getting angry so easily with will make the situation worsts. Always
be careful with your words not only to depressed people but to everyone. Always be kind
to everybody. My philosophy teacher back in grade 12 once said to always smile to
everybody you meet or just someone you passed by in the hallway. For she said that
you’ll never know that maybe your smile is the reason they decided to live. Maybe that
smile is the sign they are looking and waiting for whether to continue this life or not. Such
small action but such big effect. Can you see it? A way to lessen depressed people and
to lower suicide rates is by doing small acts such us being kind and encouraging someone
that they can do something that they think they can’t. People nowadays don’t care about
others but themselves only. People say what they want to say not even caring of what
others feel. What makes depressed people push them over the line is when someone
said that they should get over being sad for it is all in their head only. What depressed
people need is support from others. Thus, people should be nicer to one another. And
instead of letting someone else down, people should help each other to become better
individuals. Uplifting each other is the way to lessen the increasing rates of depressed
people and lowering the suicide rate. And this uplifting one another all starts with simple
and small actions.