Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being. . Often most teens who are going through depression have some problems at home with family, school, and peer pressure or et. At home, teens may have experienced a death or a divorce that could lead to feeling down, sad and lonely. Even at school, bullying is one of the most common things that leads to depression. Some of the effects of depression is excessive weight loss, insomnia, or they may even gain a lot of weight by overeating due to stress. Teens may feel as if they couldn't handle the situation which leads to suicide, and other negative behaviors. Researchers says, “that sometimes it's hard for parents to even notice when their children or teens are going through during this period of life. This is a stage when families suffer from poor communication: teenagers often tend to keep their feelings and concerns to themselves and away from their parents and other authority figures”. (Therefore it’s very important that parents would talk to their kids at least twice a week so they could maybe see or get a clue on what's going on so that the teen could open up more.
Many teens as of today in this society commit suicide due to the cause of depression. They either have a medical condition wrong with them or they are in a really deep dark time in their life that may be very hard for them to handle. They will grieve, hold everything inside so when they can’t take enough of it that’s when suicide comes to a solution. (Richard A. Friedman wrote an article in the New York Times ” Teenagers, Medication, and Suicide” ) “in which he gave the history of teen suicides, their causes, and treatments. He concluded that stress from the drive to succeed and social pressures are partly to blame, but the adolescent mental illness (depression or alcohol or drug uses) is also an important factor. In fact, at least 90 percent of people who commit suicide have a mental illness”. (Friedman,Richardson september 15, 2015)
Another challenge that teens face that leads to depression is Bullying. When someone is exposed to bullying the stress, anxiety and depression can take their toll and severely impact a person's quality of life. Bullying could lower your self esteem and hurt your sense of well being or question his or her life on earth. In a Swedish study Prof. Leymann estimated that” about twelve percent of people who had committed suicide had recently been mobbed at work. The effects of stress, anxiety and depression caused by bullying should not be taken lightly”.(prof. Leyman march 12, 2013). When being depressed by bullying this could have a long lasting effect on teens as they grow into adults. This develops mental issues on teens as growing into young adults.
When stressing and being depressed teens start eating a lot. They tend to stress eat and/or start overeating which leads to obesity . They will start eating a lot of food to forget things they go through or is going through. Some teens will also not eat they have an loss of appetite. Too much stress and things to handle, food isn't always an option or an answer to handle the problem for teens. Researchers say “Loss of appetite can be an early sign of depression or a warning of a depression relapse. On the other hand, some people can't stop eating when they are depressed," says Gary Kennedy, MD, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York. )sudden change in weight, either gaining or losing, can be a warning of depression, especially in someone who has other symptoms of depression or a history of depression."
Depression could affect the way that teens rest and their resting habits. Depressed individuals might suffer from a range of insomnia symptoms, including difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep unrefreshing sleep, and daytime sleepiness. Sleep may not sound like it has a lot dealing with depression but it do because sleep is very important. Sleep could trigger off your mood on how your day may start and if sleep is not apart of teens daily schedule it triggers depression even more. Teens not also will be sad they will be angry and upset also. Researchers says “Depressed individuals may suffer from a range of insomnia symptoms, including difficulty falling asleep (sleep onset insomnia), difficulty staying asleep (sleep maintenance insomnia), unrefreshing sleep, and daytime sleepiness” Dreams and Dreaming, Volume 92 (International Review of Neurobiology) (McNamara,Patrick)
Teens often go through peer pressure which leads to depression. When going to new schools and or becoming a high school student, teens don't know who they really are so they change to fit in. In schools their are popular kids, the nerds, and other different types of groups in high schools. Peer pressure comes in because they are pressured into being someone or something they are not. Which leads to stress because it's a choice that teens are not sure about. Researchers say “this could lower the teenagers self-esteem quite a lot. This type of peer pressure often claims many teens mental state which causes depression”. (“peer pressure”, may 8 2014).
Having low self-esteem is something that teens suffer from that is a sign of depression. To have low self-esteem is something that a person with low self-esteem feels unworthy, incapable, and incompetent. In fact, because the person with low self-esteem feels so poorly about him or herself, these feelings may actually cause the person's continued low self-esteem. When teens is going through acne, puberty, or hearing someone's negative opinion could come from teens having low self-esteem because they feel ugly, and that they lack the support of friends and family to comfort them. Researchers says “ In the short term, Rules for Living help you to get by and keep low self-esteem at bay. However, in the long term they actually keep low self-esteem going because they make demands that are impossible to meet – for example, perfection, complete self-control, or never going into any situation where you might fail. This means your well-being is inevitably fragile. If you find yourself in a situation where the rules are broken, or are in danger of being broken, then the Bottom Line that they've protected you against rears its ugly head. Many of these situations might be very minor, day-to-day events. If your Bottom Line is 'I am not good enough', and your Rule for Living is 'If someone criticizes me it means I have failed', then any situation where you encounter criticism, however minor, will activate your Bottom Line. And when the Bottom Line is activated, it triggers a vicious cycle that maintains your low self-esteem”. (“understanding low self-esteem”,)
In conclusion depression affects teens by having low self-esteem, be bullied, overeating, losing weight, and suicide. Depression is something that teens needs to take in consideration of not having because this could affect their lives now even as growing into young adults. Most people who are depressed has a background of mental illness and issues. The negative effects of teenage depression can go far beyond a melancholy mood (a feeling of pensive sadness). Many rebellious and unhealthy behaviors or attitudes in teenagers are actually indications of depression.