Symptoms and Signs of teenage depression can be:
A downward trend in performance at school or college
Change in personal hygiene and appearance
Destructive and/or defiant behavior
Hallucinations or unusual beliefs
Appetite or weight has changed considerably (has lost or gained a substantial
amount of weight)
May appear restless, agitated (pacing, wringing hands) or has slowed down (e.g., spends hours staring in front, finds it hard to move)
Has lost a lot of energy, complains of feeling tired all the time
Complaints of feeling guilty or worthless ('everything is my fault', 'I am bad')
Belief that life is not worth living
Snapping at people for no apparent reason - irritable
Physically or verbally aggressive
Abandoning favourite hobbies or sports
Increased passive TV watching
Increased risk-taking; e.g., dangerous driving
Misuse of drugs and alcohol
Changes in school behaviors (including training courses and work settings)
Frequent absences from school poorer grades than formerly
Complains of being bored
Changes in eating and sleeping habits
Expresses inappropriate guilt, feelings of not being good enough, worthlessness, failure
Expresses hopelessness and having nothing to look forward to
Incidents of self-injury. Ideas of killing self!
There are different reasons for different people why they become depressed! Some triggerers for teenagers are:
Social rejection
Family turmoil
Failing exams
Statistics
Suicide amongst teenagers & young adults has increase 3 fold since 1970
90% of suicide amongst teenagers had a diagnosable mental illness, depression being the most common.
In 1996 suicide was the 4th biggest killer of 10 to 14 year olds, and the 3rd biggest killer of 15 to 24 year olds.
It is clear that not only are young people becoming more depressed, they are responding to this depression by killing themselves. The high rate of suicide may be due to the intense pressures felt by teenagers, coupled with a lack of life experiences that tell them that situations, however bad, tend to get better with time.
People usually kill themselves to escape what they see to be an intolerable and otherwise inescapable situation, not necessarily because they want to die.
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