Causes of depression in teenagers

Depression As a Side-effect of Adolescence

Teen depression is more than a common thing. In fact, rarely there are cases of teenagers without some sort of stress and depressive behavior. All the hormonal activity in their bodies, important personality developments and discoveries as well as the process of getting more mature itself, all influence and cause teenagers to be silent and locked within themselves. Numerous family issues and the beginning of the child's struggle for independence, or, perhaps, a traumatic experience like death in the family only add on to the list of possible reasons for a teenager's depressed state of mind. It is important to know that the very depression varies from one young individual to another, and that except in most radical cases, it can be easily treatable.

Characteristics of Teen Depression

If we start talking about causes, it is important to bear in mind that children at this age are highly sensitive about their looks, their character and the overall attitudes of others towards him or herself. Therefore, it is a common case that a teenager gets depressed after breaking up with a boy or a girl. Also, teens being teased by their peers on a daily basis, because of being obese, having acne and similar, also tend to develop this condition and eventually seclude themselves from whatever the group they are supposed to be in.

A peculiar thing about this common type of teen depression is its instability. Namely, depressed teens tend to be ambivalent and change between being happy and satisfied and being sad and depressed. For this, and many other reasons, parents may not even realize what their child is going through. Subsequently, this state of mind may lead to a teenager's decline in studying habits, resulting in lower marks and activity, refusal of talking things over, as well as proneness to alcohol and drug abuse.

However, the above mentioned extremes serve as a worst case scenario. Average teenager will most commonly express his or her depression through sleeping too much and being sleepy most of the time, abrupt changes in his or her diet or a peculiar, either phobic or positive, view towards death and disappearance. Teenage girls are more likely to develop depression than boys are, and their conditions are usually much more complicated. Finally, criminal strivings like stealing, fighting and similar aggressive and unnatural behaviors may also be clear indicators of depression.

Additional Symptoms

Along with all of those mentioned above there is the inability of a teenager to accept constructive criticism and authority in general, low self-esteem, constant fatigue followed by a lack of concentration and memory problems, as well as the overall feeling of hopelessness and being powerless to change anything. All these act as clear signs of this common condition and parents or people close to depressed teenagers should give their best to recognize and act in order to remedy this condition since, when in its peak, it may even lead to suicide.