Teenage Depression

Almost without exception teenagers go through periods of being moody and antisocial. It can be difficult to spot the difference between what is normal and what is teenage depression.

Look out for the signs of teenage depression - one or two signs could be a passing phase but three, four or more mean you should seek help:

• being much more moody and irritable than normal
  


• becoming withdrawn, giving up on friends and hobbies
  


• losing interest in or not doing well at school
  


• taking no interest in hair, clothes, music
  


• not eating enough, even anorexia, or eating too much, even bulimia
  


• having low self-esteem
  


• not being able to get out of bed until mid-day
  


• getting into bad habits and bad company
  


• taking drugs
  


• getting drunk
  


• becoming preoccupied with thoughts of death
  


• harming themselves by cutting their skin.

Test yourself our your child with our online adolescent depression test.

By themselves, teenagers simply can't make sense of feeling depressed; they feel helpless.

Depressed kids need a caring adult to take a loving interest in them and show understanding. Loving, caring attention is a very powerful medicine for every depressed teens. Good parents encourage their children to talk about their worries from a very early age. Always listen and offer help, kids quickly feel isolated, misunderstood and ignored if parents are preoccupied with their own problems.
 

Related Pages:

Adolescent Depression
About 2.1 million teens aged 12 to 17 experienced a major depressive episode in the past year.

Are you a parent of a teenager? Or a teenager itself?

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