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Teen depression on the rise: Here's how to tackle the mental disorder

Experts talk about what leads to teenage depression and how to handle it

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A teenager suffering from depression. Image Credit: Pexel.com
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Teenagers nowadays are the real victims of mental health related issues. Every 1 in 8 teens suffers from teen depression.

Of all the teenagers struggling with emotional and behavioural problems, a mere 30% receive any sort of intervention or treatment. The other 70% simply struggle through the pain of mental illness or emotional turmoil.

Age 13 to 19 are the most awkward growth stages of anybody’s life as we have to deal with hormonal changes, puberty, social, parental pressures.These years can be tough, encountering these problems and not being able to tackle them is what leads to anxiety and depression. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) shows that 23% of adolescents had a major depressive episode, out of which 17.3% were girls.

Dr Goldbloom, senior medical advisor of the 'Centre for Addiction and Mental Health' said, "For diagnosis of the mental illness to be made symptoms of anxiety and depression must be accompanied by a range of characteristic changes in things like sleep, appetite, energy and thought patterns."

Behavioural affairs like the decrease in indulgence, frequent aggression, disagreement and disobedience are seen in a person suffering from depression. There is a significant decrease in performance as the person faces issues with memory and concentration. At times, there is a strong feeling of hopelessness, anxiety, and self-abuse due to which they build a resistance to social exposure which later makes the person take dangerous actions like committing suicide.

Problems that teenagers face are interlinked but multifarious. NIMH-supported researchers found that among adolescents who develop major depressive disorder, as many as 7% may commit suicide in the young adult years. 

Hunter Kent, a usual teenager, who battled depression shared her story of how she conquered depression at  TEDxYouth. She said that there are times we feel sad and lonely for a period. Even though it passes we still feel brief periods of unhappiness which should be taken seriously.

Here's how Kent dealt with her depression episodes.

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