Teen Depression Help

Being a young person in today's world is no easy task.

Young people, as well as adults, have to deal with increasingly complex decisions and pressures every day. Tragically, many young people feel they are not able to cope, that there is no one who either cares enough or is able to help them cope. And they become desparate enough to take their own lives.

Suicide is not something that happens to other people. It can be a reality in any family.

Suicide is a tragedy under any circumstances, but especially devastating for families and friends of young people. Fear and ignorance keep us from understanding the scope and problem of young people's depression and suicide, and hinder our ability to help.

Suicide doesn't have to happen. It can be prevented, and you can help. We offer the information so that you can become more aware of the signs of depression and suicide risk. Please take the time to read this and contact Befrienders if you have any questions.

The Befrienders are here to help you. We are a volunteer organization dedicated to befriending those who are suicidal, despairing and lonely. Thousands of people contact us yearly either by phone or visit our Centre. We are talking with more young people who are seriously depressed or suicidal.

Suicide doesn't have to happen. It can be prevented.

Depression in Teen

As young people grow into adults it is a time of extraordinary change and stress for them and their families.

They look for and find a loosening of childhood ties to their parents, and a new sense of independence and individuality.

They begin to discover their sexuality and identity.

New experiences lead them from the security and habit of old ones. Pulls from both, often simultaneous, cause an emotional changeability frustrating for both them and those around them. Impulsive behaviour may arise as the young person seeks to resolve conflicting demands.

Loss of past securities and uncertainty of the future bring periods of self-doubt and feelings of inferiority, isolation, and expendability.

Temporary depression is normal to them as it is to people of all ages. But young people have less experience with suffering than older people. New overwhelming feelings may be threatening enough to require dramatic ways of asserting control.

Many suicidal youths experience family troubles which lead them to doubt their self-worth and make them unwanted, superfluos, misunderstood, and unloved. Many come from families who use guilt as a means of controlling behaviour. Too often parents and other adults criticize the child rather than the behaviour. Loss of love contributes to the risk of suicide.

The loss may be from death or divorce, or the emotional withdrawal of a parent or loved one. One study of the families of suicidal young people indicates that half of their relatives, back to grandparents, were themselves either alcoholics or depressives.

They like adults, have learned to medicate their pain. For young people in pain, drugs and alcohol may be a way to numb feelings of rejection and despair. An illusory way. The pain doesn't really go away, and it may get worse, since alcohol is depressant, and drugs can become an addiction.

Self-Destructive Behaviour

Suicidal behaviour in young people is similar to that in adults, but also different in important ways. Both adult and young women tend to take drugs or to cut their wrist. Men tend to choose the more physically expressive methods of jumping from buildings and hanging, which are more often fatal for youths than adults.

Signs of Depression and Suicide Risk

Young people who are depressed and suicidal often hide those feelings at home and at school, although they may confide in their friends, often binding them to secrecy. Some of them, especially younger teens, may not be aware what they are feeling is depression. Their behaviour may resemble that of adult depression (loss of appetite or sudden overeating, apathy, anxiety, despair, overwhelming guilt, loss of faith, helplessness, sleep disturbances), but their depression may show itself more indirectly.

Depressed teens may fall off dramatically in school performance and have difficulty in concentration. They may daydream or act as the class clowns. They may become extremely uncommunicative and bored, avoiding other people. Hyperactivity can frequently mask depression, as can extreme hostility, aggressiveness, serious risktaking, and promiscuos sexual behaviour.

Young people who are depressed make physical complaints more than those who are coping more successfully. They may be accident-prone, perhaps from an ill-defined wish to do themselves harm, and to gain attention. A critical sign may be sudden loss of interest in prized possessions; favourite records or a pet given away.

What Can Be Done?

Parents, teachers and friends of depressed or suicidal young people often ask the Befrienders what they can do to help. The important thing is to pay attention. Encourage them to talk. Listen. Be on their side. Reassure without dismissing.

Don't panic. Remember that no one is suicidal all the time. Thoughts of self-destruction arise at times of crisis, but lives can be saved by understanding and support.

Teen Depression Help

Some tips is here for helping Teen

Tip 1

Learn to recognise the signs of serious depressions and suicide risk. Eight out of ten suicides give definite warnings, verbal or behaviourial, of their intentions:

Suicide attempts

For every five who complete suicide, four have made one or more previous attempts. Often these attempts are desparate cries for help and attention by people who feel so isolated they can express their pain in no other way.

Suicide threats

It is not true that those who threaten suicide don't do it. Neither do they always leave a suicide note. Only 15% of suicides leave one.

Signs of Suicidal tendency:
Great change in eating or sleeping habits
Hyperactivity
Being accident-prone
Physical complaints
Aggressiveness
Withdrawal
Sudden loss of interest in prized possessions
Apathy, anxiety
Overwhelming guilt or self-hate
Alcohol or drug abuse
Deep or prolonged grief over any loss

Apparent improvement after a period of depression. The person is seriously vulnerable to reversal now, and has more energy to act on suicidal thoughts.

These signs of depression do not invariably mean that the young people are contemplating suicide, but they should alert you to need to explore more carefully their state of mind.

The epitaph of too many suicides has been, "We didn't know."

Tip 2

Don't be afraid to ask, "Don't you sometimes feel so bad you think of suicide?"

Raising the question neither plants the idea nor encourages it. You are allowing the young person the freedom to talk about it. Discussing suicide openly is one of the most helpful things you can do. It shows that you are taking the person seriously, and that you care.

Tip3

If the answer is "yes", follow through by asking, "Have you thought how you might do it?"

If the person has a definite plan, if the means are easily available; the method lethal, and if the time is set, the risk of suicide is very high. Your response will be geared to the urgency of the situation as you see it. It is vital not to underestimate the danger by NOT asking for details.

Tip 4

If you think there is immediate danger, DO NOT LEAVE THE PERSON ALONE. Stay with him/her until the crisis passes, or help arrives.

It is possible to talk a person down from crisis, or to help them to talk themselves out of it. There is almost always ambivalence - partly wanting to die, partly still wanting to live.

The Befrienders are always available to help, you or the person in danger. Encourage them to call in confidence, or to come into a Befriender center and please contact us yourself at any time for support in your helping efforts or to discuss a referral, if necessary.

Tip 5

If the person is hallucinating, affected by drugs or alcohol, if an attempt has begun or is imminent, do not try to go it alone. Stay with the person, and contact any of the following:

An ambulance service in your town
Your local police
Emergency room of a local hospital
A trusted adult
The Befrienders

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