Teenage Depression: Signs and Symptoms
Depression is experienced by people in different ways, and it cannot be put into words exactly. However, there are common symptoms that are experienced by depressed teens.
Signs of Depression in Teens
Irritability, anger and hostility may be manifested by depressed teens. Little things that you never noticed before irritate you. You may become cranky, ill-tempered, and you are prone to anger flare-ups. Simple things such as a spill on the table annoy you, even if you were not like that before. You have developed loss of interest in activities.
You find every activity boring, and you don’t see the reason as to why these things should be done. The things that you previously enjoyed don’t matter anymore. School activities became dull to you, and people cannot find out why you suddenly lost any interest in these things. You experience tearfulness or frequent crying. Depressed teens are oftentimes emotional, especially for girls. Watching a movie makes you cry a lot, even if the scene is not that emotional. Jokes that are said to you, which, previously you thought were hurt you now.
Withdrawal from the family and friends is also one of the symptoms of teenage depression. Other signs are changes in sleeping and eating habits. You may sleep all the time, as if you have grown very tired though you haven’t done any tiring activities. You may also overeat or under eat. You can either lose weight or gain some, though you have no intentions of doing such. Feeling bad about yourself, like you’re worthless or always wrong is also one of the signs of teenage depression. When you’re in school, concentrating on your lessons is just plain hard. Oftentimes, you stare blankly ahead, and what you were previously doing would just slip your mind. Other signs of teenage depression are restlessness and agitation, lack of enthusiasm and motivation, feeling of helplessness and hopelessness.
Adult and Teenage Depression: Symptom Differences
There is a difference on the signs and symptoms of adult and teenage depression. For teens, they experience irritable or angry mood, unexplained aches and pains, extreme sensitivity to criticism, and withdrawal from some people. For adults, they will constantly feel sad and gloomy, and would tend to isolate themselves. The symptoms adults experience are more of the apathy ones, wherein they experience slowing down of all their activities, the way they do a job, even with the basic activities done daily such as eating.
On the other hand, teens may experience rage, anger and hostility. Though teens withdraw from other people, they still tend to open up to their peers. If they start to pull away from their friends, they still look for other people where they can hang out with.
Because of the differences in the signs and symptoms of depression in teens and adults, it is quite hard to diagnose teenage depression. An expert’s eye is needed, coupled with comprehensive assessment. Family members are also a big help in the diagnosis of teenage depression. They will be the ones who will give the primary data on what had transpired during the past few weeks in the activities of the teenager.
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