Teenage depression is a severe mental disorder is thrown between the ages of 11 and up to 16 years, characterized by a sharp decline in mood, emotional disorder, suicidal and negative statements or intentions.
Today, psychologists around the world are alarmed by the increase in the number of teenage suicides, crimes and addictions that occur amid mental disorders. According to some reports, every tenth teenager in developed countries is experiencing one or more episodes of depressive state during puberty, which can then go into a full-fledged mental depressive disorder.
Every year, because of teenage depression, thousands of teenagers end suicide, become addicted or gambling, leave home or commit illegal actions and most of them-children from prosperous families, whose parents believe that they Have done everything for their child. What to do if the child suddenly appeared signs of teenage depression and how to cope with this dangerous disease?
Content of the article:
- Causes of depression in teenagers
- Symptoms
- Treatment disorder
- Psychotherapeutic treatment
- Medicinal therapy
Causes of depression in teenagers
During puberty changes the behavior of all children without exception, someone carries hormonal "storms" calmer, and someone falls into a real depression, and, very often, parents and the surrounding teenager seems that the reasons for this There is no disorder and cannot be.
Depression, as well as other changes in the behavior of a teenager, arises because of and against the backdrop of a sharp hormonal imbalance caused by the onset of sexual organs.
During this period of acute emotional sensitivity, and the lability of the nervous system does not give the opportunity to calmly respond to all sorts of stimuli that "strike" on the psyche of a teenager. Lack of life experience, inferiority complexes, self-doubt, cruelty and aggressiveness in the adolescent environment cause neuroses, which can cause depression.
If an adult has a depression that develops for months or years, teenagers with depressive neurosis may experience a few weeks or even days. In turn, parents do not even know about the presence of some problems in the child.
Teenage depression occurs on the background of 2 main processes occurring in the body and the consciousness of the teenager:
- Hormonal adjustment – during puberty the nervous system of a teenager withstands huge loadings. Because of the instability of the hormonal background, children cannot cope with emotions, bouts of irritation, anguish or anxiety. At this time the teenager touches everything-not in time said word, irritated look, excessive guardianship, lack of attention and much, much more. Teenagers learn to cope with their emotional states for 2-4 years, and before that hormonal imbalance can cause the development of severe depression.
- The process of self-consciousness, rethinking and comprehension of the surrounding – the child seldom thinks about happening in the world around him, he accepts everything – both negative and positive. But entering the teenage period children begin to rethink everything that surrounds them. At this age they are distinguished by egocentrism and categoricity. The whole world is divided into black and white, good and bad and revolves exclusively around the teenager. It is because of this that there are constant quarrels with parents and teachers. Teenagers suddenly discover that the world is not as they used to seem, adults are also mistaken, cheat, and their own future is not necessarily fabulous. Sometimes the fragile psyche does not tolerate such dissonance, and the teenager leaves the unpleasant reality-in computer games, drug addiction or depression.
To provoke the onset of depression in teenagers can do anything, the exact causes of the disease can be clarified only after long conversations with the patient and monitoring his condition.
Most often teenagers suffer because of:
- Loneliness. For most teenagers, there is no worse punishment than to be accepted or rejected by the "community" of their peers. "Outcasts" in a teenage society can become any teenager-something different from the accepted "standards": too clever, stupid, obedient, handsome or having an external defect or someone who does not want to obey the established rules and informal Leaders. Lack of friends, ridicule and insults by peers must be wary of parents – these teenagers have a higher risk of depression than several times.
- Problems with appearance. It doesn't matter what a teenager looks like, it's only important how he perceives himself. If the appearance, physique or general image of a child during puberty is very different from the standards generally accepted in their environment, it can cause severe traumas and experiences. This is especially worrying for teenage girls who want to look attractive and compare themselves not with real women, but "glamorous" images from TV or the Internet. Especially hard to tolerate the period of adolescent maximalism children with noticeable external defects or differing by any external characteristics-with freckles, red hair, swarthe, with overweight, scars, and so on.
- Social status of a teenager. Unfortunately, social status and security are becoming increasingly important in the eyes of modern adolescents. Often the cause of depression is the desire and inability of the teenager to have some fancy gadgets, dress appropriately or rest abroad.
- Family atmosphere. During the rethinking of the surrounding world, teenagers are very difficult to perceive any problems in the family. Leaving one of the parents from home, divorce, constant quarrels, hypocrisy or coldness of parents-all this can provoke the onset of the disease.
- Personal relationships. The first love experiences, disappointments or parting can also become a cause of depression, but, according to psychologists, this reason occupies one of the last places "in the rating", as usually problems in the personal life of teenagers are experiencing a very turbulent, but Easily and quickly get rid of suffering if there are no other traumatic factors.
Symptoms
It is quite difficult to distinguish the manifestations of the next "Caprice" or ordinary pubertanate riot from the symptoms of teenage depression.
It is important to remember that if the behavior of a teenager abruptly changed or a bad mood does not leave a teenager for 1-2 weeks, it is necessary to apply for qualified help. In fact teenage depression develops rapidly, and its consequence may be attempts of suicide, drug addiction, vagrant or social behavior of teenagers.
Depression in a teenager can be suspected if:
- He has a constantly bad mood – sulkiness, silence, unwillingness to communicate or, on the contrary, constant statements about the imperfection of the world. The charges or complaints should be wary of parents, if this condition lasts more than 2 weeks and during this time the mood is not improving at all.
- He stopped communicating with his peers. The abrupt cessation of communication with friends, refusal to share time with them and the constant presence of the house are also dangerous symptoms.
- He's not coming out of the house. In the midst of depression, patients refuse to leave their room or home.
- The teenager responds inadequately to comments, requests to do something or just treatment – behavioural change is one of the most characteristic signs of depression. Patients cannot control their emotions, they are strongly irritated or cry in response to any attempts of communication, and sharpness of reaction can sharply not correspond to the irritant, so, at depression, hysterics can cause a request to remove the room or The question of school marks.
- Constantly provokes quarrels and defiantly ignores prohibitions and restrictions-the teenager can deliberately bring the others out of balance, behave demonstratively and commit prohibited earlier actions.
- I started to drink alcohol or smoke – trying to correct my mood with the help of alcohol or cigarettes is one of the most terrible consequences of teenage depressions, because getting addicted to a background of unstable mental state arises very Quickly.
- He has a sudden and fast changing mood. A frequent change of mood-from deep anguish to euphoria also signals about problems with the psyche.
- The academic performance has declined sharply. When depressed teenager is constantly busy with his own thoughts, which for him is much more important than what is happening around, he simply does not perceive the requirements of others, and as the disease progresses, it worsens memory, attention and reduced efficiency.
- Appetite deteriorated and problems with sleep-decreased appetite, bad sleep and nightmares occur in almost all kinds of depression, less often-the teenager starts a lot of eating and quickly gaining extra weight.
- He complains of constant fatigue, headaches, abdominal pain and other organs-such symptoms are typical of all kinds of depression, so you should not ignore them.
All these symptoms alone may not be the criteria for diagnosing teenage depression, but if your child has 3 or more symptoms at the same time-it is a reason to think, to pay more attention to the child and consult with a specialist.
Treatment disorders
Depression treatment begins with a visit to a therapist or psychiatrist. Only a qualified specialist will be able to assess the severity of the patient and prescribe appropriate therapy. It is important to follow the recommendations strictly.
Psychotherapeutic treatment
In mild form of disease and early treatment is enough psychotherapeutic and non-medical treatment. In such cases, appoint a family and individual psychotherapy,