Nowadays, teenagers are prone to depression because of many reasons and factors. They become more vulnerable to emotional problems like depression and pain. As parents, you should understand the feelings and emotions of your children, especially if you recognize some symptoms or signs of depression them.
Depression is a type of common state of mind and a serious mood problem. It may cause severe symptoms which affect the feelings, thinking, and handling daily activities like sleeping, working, or eating.
If you think that your children have symptoms or signs of depression, then you need to provide focus and attention to them and give guidance & counseling as well. Counselling for teens would somehow help them to overcome this kind of mood disorder. As parents, you can extend your moral support to them and provide extra compassion and understanding, especially if you notice that they are in the middle of confusion and problems.
So, you need to learn more about teen depression for you to know how to address this concern to your teen kids. Keep in touch on the succeeding discussions, and you will learn everything about depression in teenagers.
Teen Depression – Understanding Its True Nature
It’s hard to believe that depression is already prominent this time in the lives of teenagers. According to the research studies, 1 out of adolescents suffers from this emotional condition during their teenage years. Although depression can be normally treated with some effective approaches, there are still some depressed teenagers who weren’t able to receive assistance.
That’s why it is a better move for every parent to personally monitor their children, especially those teens, so that everyone will be guided and counselled accordingly.
Being depressed has some negative impact to the teen’s daily activities. Although there are some instances that teenagers this time have various negative forms of feelings and emotions, depression may still be different. The effects of depression to teenagers may be severe and chronic, especially if not properly given attention. The personality of the teens may be negatively affected, resulting to great sadness, anger, despair, or anxiety. In fact, one of the indications of this mood condition to teens is unhealthy and rebellious behavior towards something or someone.
Teenagers have various forms on how they can express themselves just to cope up or overcome their emotional problems or pains. Depression could result to some serious problems and situations such as:
- Violence – Some teenagers who are depressed may become violent and aggressive. They tend to express their emotions in a negative way.
- Problems inside the school – This emotional condition may provide difficulties in concentrating the teens’ studies. As a result, it may result to tardiness or poor attendance, frustrations on the schoolwork, and having failing grades in some subject areas.
- Reckless behavior – Some depressed teens may be involved in some serious or high-risk situations like reckless driving, unsafe sex, and binge drinking.
- Running away – In some instances, depressed teens may think that running away from home is a remedy to their emotional problems. That’s why they tend to go to their friends or acquaintances, seeking help.
- Addition to smartphones – Teens who are depressed may tend to use their smartphones or some gadgets while isolating themselves in one corner or insider their room. For them, the use of the internet is a remedy to escape their problems in life shortly.
- Alcohol and drug abuse – Some of the teenagers may also think to drink some alcohol or get involved in drugs without clearly thinking that this will just worsen their problems in the future.
- Low level of self-confidence – Depression may also trigger the line of thinking of the teenagers. This may somehow provide them negative thinking as to how they failed in some specific situations or anything.
Depression in teens is also linked to the various forms of mental health disorders, which include self-injury and eating problems. If you think and merely observe that your kids are suffering from depression, it’s high time to provide them the attention they need. You may also offer some sorts of teen counseling for them to realize how you truly care for them. In this way, they can feel involved in the family, and they will also think that they are loved by their friends and family members. Through giving proper guidance and counseling, depressed teens can gradually recover from their emotional pains and would somehow forget the reasons why they are depressed.
Helping a Depressed Teen
You can do several ways on how to help teenagers overcome their emotional pains and depressions. Some of the things that you can do to help them recover from this condition are the following:
- Communicate properly with the depressed teen – As much as possible, try to listen to their sentiments and opinions. Don’t lecture them or criticize their actuations because these may worsen the situation. Just be gentle in communicating with them while you’re acknowledging their emotions and feelings. Let them feel that you understand them in their situation. Once you’re already with their feelings and you feel that they are already calm, provide them gentle advice which is pleasant to their ears.
- Encourage them with social connection – Give them several options on how to get involved with other people. You may suggest they become volunteers in their community program so that they will not feel isolated. Encourage them to learn how to appreciate social connections for the betterment of their lives.
- Prioritize physical health – You may provide them the best nutritious and balanced meals which can enhance their brain health status and can support their moods. Let them perform daily exercises and encourage them to have plenty of rest and sleep. In this way, they can be comfortable every day, resulting in having a good mood each time that they wake up from their sleep.
- Learn the best time to seek professional assistance – If things get worse, it would be better to ask for help from mental health professionals so that they will be given proper guidance and treatment if necessary.
These things are essential to provide help to those depressed teens in your family and to maintain a good relationship with them. You may also explore some other options like giving them appropriate counselling for teens so that they can cope with their emotional or mental problems in the future.