Teenage Depression: Causes, Signs, and How to Help

Teen depression is among the most common adolescent problems. Depression can dramatically affect a person's ability to perform in school and handle social situations and relationships. Depression is now considered to be the most common factor leading to adolescent suicide. This disorder occurring during the teenage years marked by feelings of sadness, hopelessness and discouragement. Teen depression should be taken seriously because it can damage your teen's life. With that in mind, it's important that we take some time to look at, define, and understand the problem of teenage depression.

Causes of Teen Depression
Different factors play roles in the causes of adolescent depression. Depression can be a transient response to many situations and stresses. In teenage, depression can be cause by stressful life event or accumulation of damaging experiences, such as a breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend, the death of a friend or relative, or failure to school. There are also several medical causes for depression in adolescents. These include problems with hormones, such as a low thyroid rate.

The warning Signs of Teen Depression
Signs of teenage depression are difficult to see because adolescence is stereotyped as a time of irritable moodiness, signs of teenage depression can be missed. Following is a list of many of the most common warning signs of depression.

• Depressed mood, exhibited by crying, social withdrawal, or irritability.
• Noticable changes in eating or sleeping habits, either eating or sleeping more or less than usual.
• Intense, persistent withdrawal from friends or family.
• Impulsive and aggressive behavior and frequent expressions of rage.
• Difficulty concentrating or making decisions.
• Drug or alcohol abuse.
• Expression of low self-esteem on a persistent and pervasive level.
• Loss of pleasure or interest in activities that were once enjoyable.
• Unexplained drop in the quality of schoolwork, grades dropping significantly.

How to Handle Teen Depression
It can be frustrating, dicouraging, and overwhelming for parents to figure out what sort of help to get for their depressed teenager. Finding the right treatment for your teen will depend on the severity of his symptoms, how long he has had symptoms of depression, the underlying causes, his current situation, and other such factors. Generally speaking, the most productive approach to a case of full-blown teenage depression is a combination of therapy and medication. If you have tried therapy and other options to help teenage depression, but not working, a therapeutic boarding school or residential treatment program may be the answer.