About Teen Depression

It is unusual for teenagers and other young people to feel "down in the dumps," according to Mental Health America (2016). Adolescence, on the other hand, can be disconcerting for most people, as it involves a substantial number of physical, psychological, emotional, and even social changes (Mental Health America, 2016). Furthermore, teenagers must contend with social, academic, and even family expectations that appear unattainable to them. To make matters worse, most kids and adolescents in today's world are compelled to deal with tough realities. For example, youngsters, particularly girls, are compelled to maintain the illusory reality established by superstars.  As a result, most teenagers and adolescents feel stressed and confused. Their mood start to deteriorate slowly and their ability to partake in their daily tasks are seriously affected. This is a clear indication of teenage or adolescents depression. According to research, there has been a significant climb in depression among adolescents (Howard, 2016). Teenage girls, however, are more affected compared to teenage boys. To make matters worse, those suffering from depression are likely to ensure both mental and physical torture. The video “Teen Depression” by Second Opinion, highlights some of the issues that are associated with teen depression and how they can be tackled.

Summary of the Video Presentation

Teen Depression provides a vivid discussion on how depression can affect teenage girls. Olivia Reardon, the teenage victim of depression provides highlights on how depression started manifesting in her life. At 15 years, Olivia noticed that her mood started changing. She started feeling down, and her grades started to drop. As a teenager, all Olivia knew was her grades, sports and the teen life in general. Ellen, Olivia’s mother, started noticing changes in Olivia’s mood slowly, but she did not notice depression since she was looking at something else. She did not notice depression in Olivia’s life due to lack of withdrawal symptoms. To make matters worse, Olivia Kept her suffering for herself and thought it was her responsibility to improve her own mood. According to Louis J. Papa, MD URMC, Olivia’s condition is common. Papa argues that depression in teens is similar to depression in adults. In most cases, it is normal for people to develop negative attitude towards those things they enjoyed in life. In addition to, people feel that it is their responsibility to change their behavior, therefore, does not see the need to bother others with their problems.

The second issue identified in the video of the intensification of negative feelings. According to Olivia, everything bad that happened to her affected at this stage affected her significantly compared to normal circumstances. This according to Jefferson Prince, MD Harvard Medical School, is caused by her being a teenager and at the same time by depression. Olivia seemed to suffer from adolescent depression, which involves mood reactivity. Negative mood mostly come out more often than sadness. Things such as anger, violence and rage are common with adolescent depression. The video also highlight that, even though, Olivia was suffering significantly, taking medication did not help her. This raises the third issue, which suggests that while depression is considered to be an illness, seeing a doctor and getting medication is not the end of the problem. Drugs made Olivia hyperactive. Olivia’s mother supported this issue by providing that, even under medication, Olivia’s behavior did not change for the best. In fact, her behavior seemed to worsen. Her speech was amplified and she could not hold her thoughts for more than a few minutes. She thought that Olivia was under the influence of illegal drugs.

This is because; medication is mostly used as a depressant. Prince clearly suggests that, medicine may diminish or lessen depression symptoms, but they do not teach a person how to deal with his/her thoughts and emotions. The question of whether depression is a mental or physical illness is addressed in this video. However, Papa chooses to generalize depression as an illness, failing to categorize it as mental or physical. According to Papa, depression is an illness, only that it is wrapped in a person’s personality, thus it can be categorized as an illness that affects the brain. According to Olivia, however, it does not matter if depression is physical or mental. Olivia provides that even though she suffered mentally, depression affected a physical status too. Olivia suffering seemed to affect her mother significantly. According to Olivia’s mother, Ellen, she was worried that Olivia’s behavior would lead to suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescents, especially when teenagers are suffering from depression.

Personal Response

This video highlights important issues that need to be considered in regards to teen depression. One of the main issues addressed involves the danger signs that most parents need to consider. Papa highlights the importance of recognizing warning signs when a teenager is suffering from depression. Most of these signs have been highlighted by the CQ Researcher (2011). Making suicide threats and being obsessed with death is one of the signs that parents need to recognize. Olivia’s mother considers that, while she was able to recognize warning signs of depression, she could not decipher them. This issue is very common to many parents, according to Kids Heath (2016). This is because, most parents seems to consider anger or negative move in children and adolescent as a sign of being disrespectful or bad attitude. In addition to, parents may fail to notice signs such as lack of interest in activities and other signs, which are mostly associated with depression. Another reason why, parents find it difficult to recognize depression in children is because some of the signs are also part of the adolescent stage.

As provided by Carey (2012), depression can change the way teenagers see and perceive themselves. However, these are also changes that take place to teenagers at their adolescent stage. For instance, at their adolescent stage, many children stop doing things they used to like. As such, parents are likely to diagnose lack of interest and lose of energy as not trying. Research shows that more than 20% of teenagers are likely to suffer from psychiatric illness due to depression (The Daily Riff, 2010). However, some parents are likely to consider this as mental illness that has manifested in their children for the first time during their adolescent (The Daily Riff, 2010). Parents are also likely to confuse depression symptoms to those of normal teen moodiness and anxiety. Thus, unless a parent involves a doctor, it becomes difficult to diagnose whether the child is depressed or not. In fact, this issue led Olivia’s mother to consider herself a failure when it comes to detecting signs of depression in her daughter.

Nonetheless, while various forms of medications have in many circumstances prescribed as way to help teens suffering from depression, most of these medications have worsen the cases. The video clearly suggests that depression medicine can be energetic and can cause someone to be manic. Manic is one of the symptoms that is associated with bipolar disorder, and often manifests in people suffering from depression when some drugs are used. Kosciejew (2012) consider manic as a condition that can cause people to feel intensely elated, energetic, self important and irritable. As such, antidepressants need to be evaluated to understand their possible benefits and drawbacks, especially when given to teenagers. Medication is one of the possible treatments for treating depression in children and adolescents. O’Hanlon (2014) is clear about this issue. According to O’Hanlon (2014), medication does not work or is not always desired by most people suffering from depression. It is, therefore, important to understand the cases where medication should be used.

Lack of knowledge on how to address depression in teenagers is also a growing concern. Despite improvements in today’s medical practices, medical practitioners still do not have the required knowledge to indentify the right medicine to treat depression in teenagers or adults. According to Carey (2017), this issue is significantly affecting how depression in both teenagers and adults is addressed. Critically, while similar medications might be prescribed, teenagers may exhibit different behaviors compared to adults when suffering from depression. Holmes (2014) argues that this seems to be a problem considering that depression is different from other illnesses. Holmes (2014) argues that since each person experience depression differently, it becomes extremely difficult to identify the right medication. This issue has also been highlighted by Papa in the video. According to Papa, the fact that depression is not like other illnesses, for instance, high blood pressure and blood sugar, it becomes difficult to find the right medicine to treat different symptoms of depression.

Olivia’s mother identified yet another important issue. According to Olivia’s mother, despite the rise in teen depression, there is no adequate research to tackle this problem. This issue also emerged as an important subject in Al-Harbi (2012) research. According to Al-Harbi (2012) medical practitioners and researchers need to conduct extensive research in order to find better ways of addressing teen depression. However, Prince in the video argues that, the problem with depression is that, there is not quantifiable method to measure the effects of the medication. Holistic treatment will not provide patients suffering from depression with immediate treatment. Papa highlighted one of the reasons for scarcity in research on teen depression. Until recently, there were no medications for adolescents. Furthermore, studying depression in adolescents also causes a lot of ethical issues. Doctors need a significant amount of data regarding the safety of conducting research, which can be used to determine the right treatment for depression in adolescents.

Conclusion

The video “Teen Depression” highlights some of the difficulties that teenagers suffering from depression are forced to endure. Olivia, the teenager in the video that suffered from depression, considers both mental and physical challenges that she had to endure. Olivia’s mother was very concerned about her daughters case, however, could not provide her with the required help without doctors intervention. Both Papa and Prince, experts in teen depression provided clear insight on what to expect as well as the signs that parents should consider as danger signs of depression. The video also highlights the need for further research on teen depression, which is required to find better ways of addressing teen depression.

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