Depression in Youth

In this generation, depression is very common especially on adolescents. Despite the

depression being a common mental illness, people still find it difficult to know what depression
actually is, such as the meaning, symptoms, how it plays a big role on a person’s life and how it
can be treated. People often confuse sadness as depression. They usually say that they are
“depressed” when they are sad. Does sadness differ from depression? Sadness and depression
share some traits but are not the same. Now, how do we differentiate sadness and
depression? “Sadness is a normal human emotion that everyone feels from time to time,” says
Johnny Williamson, MD, medical director at Timberline Knolls. “It is often associated with a
difficult life event such as a loss of a loved one, a breakup or other hurtful event that results in
an untoward outcome. Sadness can also sometimes be relieved by venting, crying, exercising or
other methods of releasing emotion. Eventually, it fades and ultimately resolves. If sadness
does not eventually fade or lasts for a prolonged period, you should seek support from a mental
health professional because depression is a possibility.”
As stated by the American Psychiatric Association, depression is a common and serious medical
illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Depression
causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a
variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at
work and at home. Thankfully, it is also treatable.
Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe. The most common symptoms are: feeling
sad or having a depressed mood, trouble sleeping or sleeping too much and thoughts of killing
themselves or suicide. Study shows that depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults in any
given year. And one in six people will experience depression at some time in their life.
Depression can strike at any time, but mostly, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s.
Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies also show that one-
third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. Although women
are three times more likely to become depressed than men, men are five times more likely to
commit suicide when depressed than women. Most people think that the reason is women
have a less pleasing social role and their hormones make them more susceptible to depression,
while men are more likely to keep their emotions bottled up inside of them because of their
role in society and that they do not have the society’s permission to express their feelings
openly.
Every human being is prone to having a depression. All age groups are open to depression but
teenagers are the most common to be heard of being affected by the disease. The reason is
probably because of peer pressure and the changes in their life such as hitting puberty. When
we are becoming older as years go by, we change physically, emotionally, mentally and
spiritually. There are visible changes especially on the physical appearance of a person when
they are in the stage of adolescence or puberty. Some adolescents are totally not happy with
their appearance. This can highly cause lack of confidence at things they do and low self-
esteem. Eventually, this can also be a possible cause of having depression in teenagers.
Depression complications affect many facet of our lives. The range of effect of depression is
very wide. Starting on the person who is diagnosed with this mental illness which is depression
to people around him, they are also affected. People with depression have trouble in many
things. This is because of the effects of depression not just mentally and emotionally, but also
physically. Being diagnosed with depression, they have trouble maintaining a normal work
schedule. This could be due to symptoms such as an inability to concentrate, memory
problems, and difficulty making decisions. Most of them also has low self-esteem, feeling of
excessive guilt at almost everything, thoughts of harming themselves and such. As for physical
effects or changes, people with depression may also experience appetite changes, which can
cause unintended weight loss or gain. Unexplained aches or pains, including joint or muscle
pain, breast tenderness, and headaches are also experienced.

The world right now is in the middle of a mental health crisis. As a matter of fact, a big rate of
people died because of this mental illness. Now, for sure many of you are curious and worried
on how to avoid depression. Treatments can help the condition. Then what about ways to prevent
having depression in the first place though? There is no clear answer. Most experts think it can’t be
prevented. Others aren’t sure. In my opinion, we would never know when will depression strike.
There are certain things that are not under our controls and depression is one of that. You may not
be able to totally protect yourself from depression but there are ways to change the way we handle
the stress it causes to us.

If you are having a hard time coping with depression, then listen carefully on what I am about
to say. You are not alone and your depression is not a sign of weakness or a character flaw.
Even though it can feel like the black cloud of depression will never lift, there are plenty of
things you can do to help yourself deal with symptoms, regain your confidence and self-esteem
and feel more positive, energetic, hopeful and happy again. As what I have said there is no sure
way on how to prevent depression but you can:

• Try to make new friends. Venting out your feelings on your friends, family or any person you can
talk to is a big help. As much as possible, do not bottle up your emotions because this will lead to
having bad thoughts like suicide and parasuicide.

• Psychotherapy. Also known as talk therapy or counseling, this treatment has been shown to help
some patients with depression.

• Build strong relationships. Try to reunite with your old friends and family if you have not been
seeing each other lately and also share your experiences and feelings.

• Healthy lifestyle. It always starts on taking care of yourself, not just your body but also your mind.
Exercising regularly and having a balanced diet will make you more happy and positive.

These are just a few keys on reducing depression, but I just stated four.
Always remember: It will take some time but it will be all worth it. Time will heal the wounds. We
will all be better. Let us make this life happier than ever!