10 Effects of Teenage Depression

It is crucial that teenage depression is treated in order to prevent more serious problems and effects. When teenage depression is left untreated, it may lead to these ten effects.

1. Low Self Esteem. Teens who are depressed show signs of having low self-esteem even before they got depressed. However, with depression, this is worsened. This will likely result to increased feelings of worthlessness, failure, insecurity, shame, and ugliness.
2. Eating Disorders. When depressed, a teen may either overeat or under eat. There are certain types of depression wherein you will be gaining your appetite, which is not the usual you. You seek comfort in foods and over time, you will develop eating disorders. Meanwhile, there are also types of depression that will result to a decrease in appetite. Sometimes, it would not just be a decrease but a loss of appetite. These things lead to eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, binge eating and yo-yo diet.
   
3. School Problems. Because of lack of energy and motivation, teens often encounter problems with their school performance. Depressed teens often experience difficulty in concentrating. This makes these teens hard up with coping with their lessons. End results would be flunking some subjects, low grades, poor attendance and lack of patience in completing school works.
4. Running away. Most depressed teens run away from home or talk about running away. This is usually a cry of help for these individuals. It signifies that they need their parent’s attention, and that they have a problem.
5. Substance abuse. Substance abuse is a way of increasing a depressed individual’s self-esteem. This happens because these substances interact with the neurotransmitters in the brain. However, this is just a temporary result and it would often lead to bigger and worse problems.
6. Self-injury. This would include different kinds of self-inflicted injuries such as cutting, burning, hair pulling and other acts of harming one’s self. This is a serious sign of depression so once noticed, it should be reported as soon as possible to a physician or to the teen’s parents.
7. Other addictions. These can include addiction to computer games and internet surfing. This is a temporary escape from the real world, but it would make one more depressed. Feelings of isolation can be experienced therefore worsening the other symptoms.
8. Violence. This is often one way of letting out of the feelings that a depressed teen is keeping inside. This usually happens to boys especially those who were once bullied.
9. High-risk behaviors. These often include reckless driving, binge drinking, unprotected sex, and other sloppy behaviors.
10. Suicidal thoughts and attempts. These behaviors happen to teens who are seriously depressed, and this is an exceptional cry for help. Signs of suicidal attempts should never be ignored and should be taken seriously by people concerned.
    

These are but ten of the effects of untreated teenage depression. There are others such as teenage pregnancy, recurrence of depression during adulthood and eventually, suicide. These are things to be watched out for since these are cries of help from a teenager who is depressed.

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