“Teenage” – it is that golden period of one’s life, in which an individual is most vulnerable both emotionally and psychologically. Preadolescence and adolescence are such important phases of life, where a slight disturbance in someone’s activity or expectation may lead to serious psychological disorders. Among the various psychological issues seen in teenage people, depression is most prevalent. There are many types of depression named Unipolar Depression, Dysthymia, Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Depression, Cyclothymia, etc. Although depression can be observed in other age groups, teenagers are most prone to depression. This article will mainly focus on depression among teenage girls.
Symptoms of Teenage Depression:
The main symptoms include the followings-
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Sadness: A teenage girl who is depressed shows the symptom of consistent sadness. She gets agitated even in response to a small provocation.
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Persistent low mood and tiredness: A depressed girl is always low in terms of her mood. She is utterly disturbed and often experiences continuous crying spells. She appears tired, which is a reason for her less energy due to excessive crying.
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Sleeplessness: This symptom is manifested either by loss of sleep (Insomnia), sleeping more than usual (Hypersomnia), or poor quality of sleep, which again complements her low mood.
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Irritability: She throws unnecessary tantrums in almost every situation that feeds her depression. She gets irritated when she perceives a discrepancy between her expectation out of a situation and the original situation.
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Loss of interest: A teenage depressed girl loses all her interest in all the things previously enjoyed. Those happenings that caused her to be happy earlier, now she can’t find them interesting and thus gets bored easily.
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Poor appetite: A remarkable loss of appetite is observed. Often she refuses to eat, and even when she eats, she leaves the food plate unfinished.
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Exceptionally weight gain or weight loss: When depression occurs, a teenage girl can experience either gain or lose her body weight. She may start eating a lot of junk foods, which is unhealthy and causes her weight to go out of control. Also, she may stop intaking regular healthy meals, which leads to her weight loss.
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Difficulty in concentrating: A depressed girl is unable to put her attention to her studies. She also lacks concentration in doing everyday activities.
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Feeling of hopelessness: A hopeless feeling about the present, past, and future may strike her. She may find it extremely difficult to see her life positively. She feels helpless in her academics, social life, and personal life.
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Guilt feeling: She is mostly at risk to feel guilty and often places herself on the edge of self-blame.
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An outburst of frustration: She unduly expresses angry outbursts toward herself as well as toward others. She remains overly frustrated which sometimes results in self-harm. She may appear harmful to others too.
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Reduced quality of relationship: A depressed teenage girl’s relationship with her family members, friends, and other significant people in her life gets complicated. An unexpected fight or argument over a silly matter is magnified by her, and this may even end certain relationships forever.
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Constant suicidal thought: A teenager who is severely depressed is at risk of committing suicide. When in trouble, this kind of thought of ending her life occupies her entire thinking system.
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Self-doubt and loss of self-confidence: A depressed teenage girl suffers from self-doubt and low self-confidence. She is not well self-assured about whatever job she takes.
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Poor decision-making ability: She perceives it difficult to make authentic decisions for herself.
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Substance abuse: A depressed teenage girl is more susceptible to substance abuse in the form of too much alcohol or drug consumption.
Causes of Teenage Depression:
Teenage depression in girls can be caused by various reasons –
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Biological and biochemical causes: Specifically most teenage emotions are regulated by changing hormones in the body. As it is the time when puberty hits a girl, she is inclined to experience a quick mood swing.
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Brain chemistry: Change in neurotransmitters and abnormal functioning of neural connectivity may cause depression.
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Genetics: Sometimes there is a genetic tendency towards depression. Those teenagers, whose parents have ever experienced depression in their lives, are more prone to be depressed during their adolescence.
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Social Issues: Social isolation in terms of rejection and ignorance especially by peers is a cause of teen depression. A social role that is ascribed to a teen leads her to feel trapped.
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Psychological causes: Some teenage girls possess a depressed personality trait, which automatically makes them predisposed to be depressed in a variety of situations.
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Learned helplessness: A teen who stays under continuous stress and depression, eventually learns to react with depression in almost every situation. Escapable situations also seem to be out of control for her.
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Childhood abuse and related trauma: Some teenage girls become depressed because they have been victims of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and physical punishment during their childhood. They carry the emotional pain to their adolescence, and this trauma manifests as depression symptoms.
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Death or loss of someone close: A notable cause of depression in teens is the death of a close family member or a parent or grandparent, parental separation or divorce, loss of a friend. The death of a pet is also an important reason.
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Sudden change in life situations: A teenage girl experiences extreme imbalance in the mood while trying to manage the changing life situations. She is unable to address some of her mixed feelings and thus shows depressive symptoms. For example, moving from school life to college life can be regarded in this instance.
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Stressful and conflicting relationships with others: Teens are caught up in conflicting relationships with their parents, friends, and others. This produces depression in them.
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Personal causes: Every individual teen bounds to individual personal causes that make them sad. One occasion which is depressive to a teen, may not trigger the same response for another teen.
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The breakup of romantic relationships: It is a vital cause for teenage depression. Unfulfilled expectations from a partner, exchange of toxic words, not getting enough support from a partner, fear of rejection from parents, and break up of a romantic relation encourage depression in teens.
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Disagreement with parents: A lot of teenage girls complain that their mindset and viewpoint do not fit with those of their parents. Thus disagreement paves the path and depression prevails.
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Unhealthy comparison with peers: Teens are subjected to be depressed due to unnecessary competition with friends, their obtrusive attitude, and comparison with peers.
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Perceived failure: Adolescent girls perceive a small block to the way of their success as a failure. Be it in academics, friendship, or other areas of life. They tend to blame themselves. Self-doubt grabs them, and depression occurs.
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Substance abuse: Taking stimulating drugs, smoking, and alcohol consumption cause depression. Once a teen becomes dependent on substances, it is difficult for her to move out.
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Fear of abandonment: A teenage girl is afraid that any wrong deed for her side may cause her to be alone. She gets depressed by thinking about such abandonment.
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Bullying or name-calling: This is another important issue faced by a teen when her peers call her by odd names and tease her. Teenage bullies can leave a deep mark even in the latter days of adulthood.
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Physical appearance: During teenage, a girl’s looks and appearance play a major role in building positive self-esteem. Somehow if she is not satisfied with her body image, for example, she appears too thin or too fat, it may intensify depression.
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Changing responsibility: Adolescence is the prime time when many new responsibilities are imposed on a teenage girl. She has to take care of herself on her own. She has to care for her family. Moreover, a teen makes career choices and makes crucial decisions for herself. When she is forced to take up a career by her parents, she is extremely at risk of depression.
Treatments of Teenage Depression:
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Medications: There are some antidepressant medicines available in the market, which helps to cure depression. These should be used concerning a medical prescription.
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Psychotherapy: Cognitive Behavior Therapy and other forms of mental health counseling benefit the depressed teen to better adjust to everyday functioning.
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Exercise: Regular physical exercise, yoga, fitness movement, gym – these all have a positive effect in reducing depression.
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Meditation: Mindfulness meditation and meditation with progressive muscle relaxation are advantageous in fighting depression.
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Breathing exercises: Some breathing exercises paired with soothing music breaks through the dark cloud of depressing thoughts.
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Healthy diet: A teen must follow a healthy dietary practice to combat depression. Eating nutritious foods and nourishing fruits are good for her psychological well being. She should get into a schedule of regular meals.
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Stress management techniques: As depression can be increased by stress, a teen who is already enduring depression, should avoid any further stressful condition. For that, she should adopt different stress management techniques in her daily practice.
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Taking psychological support: When depression becomes so severe that it interferes with her normal functioning, she must seek professional assistance to cope with such a situation.
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Talking to parents and others about depression: The problem in today’s teens is that they don’t talk freely about their feelings with their parents. Even if one’s parents seem unsafe for expressing her feelings, she should talk to any other family member or a close friend regarding depressed emotions.
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Finding a new or alternative hobby: A new hobby or job often restores her lost interest and elevates her mood.
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Routine sleep: A teen must be extra careful in maintaining a scheduled sleep pattern. Her therapist would help her to make the routine.
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Avoidance of substance: Alcohol, drugs, and related substances must be kept away from a depressed teen.
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Gratitude journaling: She is advised to write a gratitude journal to cope with sadness. In this way, she learns to count her blessings instead of complaining about uncontrolled life situations.
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Investing in family time: Parents must invest more emotionally in their depressed teenage children. Getting extra family time and everyone’s support avail fighting depression.
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Vacation: Sometimes taking a long vacation acts as a refreshment for a teen who endures depression. This break is a necessary means for living a life away from depression.
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Music Therapy: Because teens relate more to music, some music therapy can be helpful as well.
The teenage population is our future. Their bright minds and cheerful attitudes are what is expected of them. Unfortunately, in this era, depression is taking the shape of a pandemic in teens. We should be more careful about teenage people around us and we should immediately take action for their better mental health. Because a teen’s healthy mind has many things to offer, it is unfair to mislay such bright vigor due to depression.
Importance of Professional Counseling: A friend or family member may listen to you, but they aren’t professionally, technically qualified or experienced to offer you professional advice. If you wish you can contact us at MindTribe to receive help from our team of expert psychologists.
About MindTribe.in.
MindTribe Founder Dr. Prerna Kohli, India’s eminent psychologist, established the company to leverage the strength of the online to make counseling affordable and accessible to everyone. MindTribe provides counseling, workshops, support groups, forums, and eLearning.
About the Author.
Sharmili Ghosh is a team member at MindTribe.in.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of MindTribe.in, the Founders, or management team.
Acknowledgement: All images used are open source and from Unsplash.