Mental Health Illness: Depression

Depression is a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness,

inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in
appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes
suicidal tendencies. Depression is an illness involving the body, mood and thoughts that
affect the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one
thinks about things. Depression is a serious mental illness and thousands of people suffer
from it daily, especially teenagers. It is a serious problem that impacts every aspect of
teens life. Only 20% of teenagers ever receive help for teen depression. Teen depression
can lead to problems at home and school, drug abuse, self- loathing and can sometimes
lead to thoughts of suicide.
A dysfunctional home and being stressed from school can lead to teenage
depression. Stress from school can be one of the major causes of teen depression. A teen
receiving a bad grade in a certain subject may put a lot of pressure on a child. Parents often
expect their child to do well in school and put a lot of pressure on their child about grades
because they want them to excel in school. Having high expectations for their child is fine
however, a child may be doing their best in school and still finds school to be difficult. Peer
pressure in school along with dealing with difficulties at home might bring on cases of
unwarranted sadness or lack of contact with the world.
Teenagers can also become depressed due to a dysfunctional home. Teenagers are
sometimes forced to be in an uncomfortable place that they have to call home and
sometimes that can hurt someone. If a teenager is being verbally abused at home by their
siblings then they could become depressed by that. Further, being sick or the death or lost
of an important person can also cause depression. A death in the family may also bring
about symptoms of teenage stress and uncontrollable sadness. Missing the deceased so
much can sometimes cause thoughts of anger, being irrationally upset and extremely lonely.
This may cause the student to get traumatized. When teenagers are traumatized, it makes
them feel insecure, unsafe, and helpless (Lubow, 2010).
All of these may lead to a serious negative effect on the student's life. These causes
of depression on students can lead to frequent crying, loss of interest in activities at school,
restlessness, agitation, lack of enthusiasm, difficulty concentrating in studies, thoughts of
death or suicide. The negative effects of teenage depression go far beyond a sad mood.
Untreated depression can lead to problems at school, running way, the use of drugs, low
self-esteem, eating disorder, internet addiction, self-injury, reckless behavior, violence, and
suicide.
Depression is a serious mental illness and thousands of people suffer from it daily,
especially teenagers. It is a serious problem that impacts every aspect of teens life. The
causes of a dysfunctional home, being stressed from school, peer pressure, extreme trauma
may lead to a negative effect on the life of the students, especially in their studies. All of
these may lead to frequent crying, loss of interest in activities at school, restlessness,
agitation, lack of enthusiasm, difficulty concentrating in studies, the use of drugs, and
worst, thoughts of death or suicide.