Depression among teenage girls is very common nowadays. Symptoms are not always the same and they can change, which is why it can be very difficult for a parent to distinguish depressed behavior from the usual one in a teenage girl. If not treated immediately, depression can lead to very severe consequences, even suicidal attempts. Depression can be diagnosed if five out of ten symptoms appear during a period of two weeks. If parents can’t tell for sure that their teenage girl has these symptoms, it would be wise to visit a professional in order to determine the depression occurrence.
Causes of depression
Two major factors that have big influence on a teenage girl's emotional life are her surrounding and family. Just as in the vast majority of mental disorders, genetics also has an important role in the depression appearance. There are also some disorders that a teenage girl may have, and which can lead to depression. She may have disorders in learning, behavior or attention that can cause clinical depression.
As we have mentioned above, the young girl may be depressed if she has some kind of social awkwardness. She may find it difficult to fit into the society if she has a fear of rejection by someone she cares for, or a fear from intimacy. That can happen if she had some unpleasant experience with someone whose opinion she admires, and if she got disappointed after the rejection, deciding not to repeat the same mistake again. Some traumatic event which is usually unsolved can lead to clinical depression in teenage girls, because they can’t deal with that problem alone. Drug use can also lead to depression, resulting in problems in school and family.
How to recognize and treat depression?
Some girls can cope with these problems, but in the most cases, a clinical depression arises. There are some signals that can indicate depression in young teenage girls and they include insomnia, loss of any interest, despair, sadness, lack of energy, hostility, poor results in school, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, and many other that result in the appearance of clinical depression.
A treatment that gives the best results is psychotherapy. Talking and discussing about event that caused depression, if lead by a professional can do wonders in depression treatment. Therapists also teach teenage girls how to deal with problems and events that cause depression. Antidepressants are not recommended at this age, because they may lead to suicidal thoughts and are used only if nothing else can help.
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