What is depression? Who are affected? Why is it important? And how do you know if you have it and what are the ways to overcome it?
Surprisingly one of the most affected groups of age which are suffering from depression is adolescences. You may ask why this is important but depression is also one of the driving factors that make who you are today. So as a teenager who is committed to growing up to adulthood, we have to consider the following factors within ourselves so we can be more productive.
DO ASK YOURSELF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
1. Do you feel sad and uneasy most of the time?
2. Do you frequently feel restless and having trouble of falling asleep?
3. Do you always like to be alone and do not mix around with other friends?
4. Have you lost your appetite lately?
5. Do you constantly feel like you want to cry without any reasons?
6. Are you easily affected by other people’s words?
7. Do you feel like you just want to disappear or die?
8. Do you have any difficulty concentrating in class?
9. Have you lost interest in doing your hobby or favourite activities?
If one or all of these are true, it means that you have depression. It’s just we need to find out whether you are in the critical stage or are you still capable to cope (Smith, 2011).
FACTORS & CAUSES?
Depression is caused by many factors. Maybe it is affected by your surrounding or those around you, your social life, or even personal or work life and many more, and it’s how we deal with it that’s important. Teenagers are most prone to not knowing what to do, and most of the times they don’t even know they are facing depression. This situation we cannot be taken lightly (National Institutes of Health, 2011).
MAIN FOCUS
This blog is mainly to let all of you, especially teens know how these symptoms should be treated and how parents should react to their children as the children progress in their lives. There are several examples of signs when a person is having a depression:
- Constantly thinking of dying or suicide.
- Felt neglected by families & friends.
- Having trouble in doing school assessments.
- Lost concentration during class lecture.
- Easily break into tears without any reasons.
These are already at a very late stage of depression already. We could prevent them from going into this stage. Usually as teens we will start rebelling against our parents, going against their will and breaking the rules. These behaviours are just how we take our minds off the things we want to get away from. For example, our parents may be getting a divorce, or having financial problems or dealing with death in the family. If these behaviours are ignored it will lead to much larger problems such as fighting back but once that does not work, teens might go into drugs and eventually die of drug abuse (Price-Evans, 2001)
I’m sure all of you want to know the ways to overcome depression. Actually, there are many ways to cure or to cope with depression. For me, never be alone. Try to make friends and socialise with the people around you. Otherwise, you will feel that apart from the living world and your depressed mind would say that you are not important to others and thus, makes your depression worst (Shalman, 2009).
When facing a problem, do talk to people you feel most comfortable with, he or she may be someone you can trust or a friend who understands you and talk it out. Never let problems bottle up in you as it may lead to other mental illnesses or make your depression worse (R. Insel, 2011).
Be more active in your life, interact with everything you have and try to look at things positively, lead a healthy lifestyle and get out more into the world and start participating (Ross, 2009).
When all hopes seem lost it is the night time for you to find a psychiatrist. You can tell every bit of your problem with no shame and in confidentiality to the psychiatric. Do this for the sake of getting your life back in order as we need to be reminded that we are all human beings who have a purpose in this world (Malaysian Psychiatric Association, 2006).
BE POSITIVE IN LIFE!!
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What if you don’t follow the steps above? What if you ignore them, well, there are a lot of possible outcomes, my friends and most of them is not pretty.
I conducted an interview with, Dr. Fairuz Nazri, who is a psychiatrist in the Hospital of National University of Malaysia (HUKM) on the 1st August 2011. One of her patients with depression lost his memory after the age of 15 and has been reliving that age ever since as he was traumatized in a serious manner. This brain refused to compute the memories in his life. This is one of the cases. Other patients were suicide cases but they unsuccessful in killing and thus are replaced in Dr. Fairuz care. These are cases where they think there is no other way out except death itself but as you read this don’t be surprised that maybe someone you know has already thought of committing suicide it is our duty as the future generation of our country to keep a healthy state of mind and be prepared as our world gets tougher in life.
This blog is not to show only how we see depression but how we face them, knowing that help is available to us and we are not alone as teenagers. 1 out of 5 teens suffer from depression (Price-Evans, 2001), are you one of them? If yes, don’t worry, you can follow the steps given and always be positive.
Remember!!!
1. Never be alone.
2. Always participate with your surroundings.
3. Open up to friends and family and let them know what you are currently facing.
4. Socialise more and lead a healthy lifestyle.
5. In time of needs know when you need serious help especially from a psychiatrist.
6. Be positive, be motivated, and be somebody who is far alive in your heart. Youth power.
A piece of clip from me as a support for all teenagers who is having depression out there.
Enjoy!
References:
All About Depression.com, Price-Evans, P 2000, What Is Depression?; How Depression Affects a Person’s Life?, viewed 15 August 2011, http://www.allaboutdepression.com/gen_01.html
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, National Centre for Health Statistic 2008, Facts and Figure: National Statistic, viewed 30 July 2011, http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id=050fea9f-b064-4092-b1135c3a70de1fda
Depression-helper.com, Ross, S 2009, Depression in Teens: How to Prevent Depression in Teens, viewed 27 July 2011, http://www.depression-helper.com/teens_symptoms_article.htm
Dumb Little Man: Tips for Life, Shalman, A 2009, 10 Simple Ways to Overcome Depression and Sadness, viewed 30 July 2011, http://www.dumblittleman.com/2009/03/10-simple-ways-to-overcome-depression.html
Helpguide.org, Smith, M 2011, Teen Depression: A Guide for Parents and Teachers, viewed 27 July 2011, http://helpguide.org/mental/depression_teen.htm
Malaysian Psychiatric Association, MPA Members 2006, Treatment of Depression, viewed 15 May 2011, http://www.psychiatry-malaysia.org/article.php?aid=57
www.nimh.com, Insel, R Thomas 2011, No Health without Mental Health, viewed 28 July 2011, http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/index.shtml
From your concerned friend,
Puteri Nur Suraya.