Dealing with Teen Depression

No matter how despondent life seems right now, there are many things you can do to start
feeling better today. Use these tools to help yourself or a friend.

What is teen depression?

The teenage years can be really tough and it’s perfectly normal to feel sad or irritable
every now and then. But if these feelings don’t go away or become so intense that you feel
overwhelmingly hopeless and helpless, you may be suffering from depression. Teen depression
is much more than feeling temporarily sad or down in the dumps. It’s a serious and debilitating
mood disorder that can change the way you think, feel, and function in your daily life, causing
problems at home, school, and in your social life. When you’re depressed, you may feel hopeless
and isolated and it can seem like no one understands. But depression is far more common in
teens than you may think. The increased academic pressures, social challenges, and hormonal
changes of the teenage years mean that about one in five of us suffer with depression in our
teens. You’re 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 balance and feel more
positive, energetic, and hopeful again.
Smoking

What are the health effects of smoking?

There's no way around it; smoking is bad for your health. It harms nearly every organ of the
body, some that you would not expect. Cigarette smoking causes nearly one in five deaths in the
United States. It can also cause many other cancers and health problems.

What are the health risks of secondhand smoke?

Your smoke is also bad for other people - they breathe in your smoke secondhand and can get
many of the same problems as smokers do. This includes heart disease and lung cancer.
Children exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher risk of ear infections, colds, pneumonia,
bronchitis, and more severe asthma. Mothers who breathe secondhand smoke while pregnant
are more likely to have preterm labor and babies with low birth weight.

Are other forms of tobacco also dangerous?

Besides cigarettes, there are several other forms of tobacco. Some people smoke tobacco in
cigars and water pipes (hookahs). These forms of tobacco also contain harmful chemicals and
nicotine. Some cigars contain as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes.

E-cigarettes often look like cigarettes, but they work differently. They are battery-operated
smoking devices. Using an e-cigarette is called vaping. Not much is known about the health
risks of using them. We do know they contain nicotine, the same addictive substance in tobacco
cigarettes. E-cigarettes also expose non-smokers to secondhand aerosols (rather than
secondhand smoke), which contain harmful chemicals.
Parenting

Parenting, the process of raising children and providing them with protection and care
in order to ensure their healthy development into adulthood.

Significance

The long-standing assumption that parents assert a direct and powerful influence on
their children through the process of socialization has permeated research and theory on human
development as well as most cultural belief systems. If children turn out well, it is to the parents’
credit; if they turn out badly, it is the parents’ fault.

This assumption has been challenged by researchers who highlight the role of biological
influences on children’s development. Behavioral genetic studies, for example, show that
adopted children are more like their biological parents than their adoptive parents in basic
characteristics such as personality, intelligence, and mental health. Additionally, some scholars
have criticized the emphasis on parenting by asserting that other factors, such as peer
relationships, exert a strong influence on development.

Researchers who study the significance of parenting emphasize several issues. First, in
biologically related families, genetic and socialization influences are difficult to separate. For
example, a child who is musically talented may have inherited that tendency from parents who
are also musically gifted. Those same parents would be likely to emphasize music at home,
which makes it difficult to determine whether the musical child is a product of genetics, the
environment, or (most likely) both working together. If instead that child was adopted and is
being raised by parents who are not musically inclined, the expression of that talent might take
a different form or might be actively suppressed. Thus, genetic predispositions (strengths and
vulnerabilities) are often modified through experiences created by parents.
Poverty

Economic growth has gone through boom and bust cycles, and recent episodes of
moderate economic expansion have had limited impact on the poor. Great inequality across
income brackets, regions, and sectors, as well as unmanaged population growth, are considered
some of the key factors constraining poverty reduction efforts.

Causes of Poverty

The main causes of poverty in the country include the following:

 low to moderate economic growth for the past 40 years;

 low growth elasticity of poverty reduction;
 weakness in employment generation and the quality of jobs generated;
 failure to fully develop the agriculture sector;
 high inflation during crisis periods;
 high levels of population growth;
 high and persistent levels of inequality (incomes and assets), which dampen the
positive impacts of economic expansion; and
 recurrent shocks and exposure to risks such as economic crisis, conflicts, natural
disasters, and "environmental poverty."