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Effects Of Depression On Children And Adolescents

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Introduction Depression is a significant problem for adolescents and one of the most common reasons that they seek mental health treatment. Depression is often brought on or worsened by experiencing negative life events such as bullying, abuse or neglect, parental divorce, and countless others. There are numerous treatment options for depression, but cognitive behavior therapy is one of the most widely used and heavily researched treatments for depression in children and adolescents. Adolescents who are depressed often interpret life’s events in distorted and negative ways which can lead to engaging in maladaptive behaviors as a way of coping with life’s stressors. CBT aims to bring awareness to clients about their irrational ways of …show more content…

Many adolescents go undiagnosed or do not receive treatment for their depression for several reasons. Some are fearful of the stigma that comes along with the diagnosis and some do not have access to treatment. “Common structural obstacles to mental health services include inconvenient appointment times, transportation difficulties, long waiting lists and prioritization of crisis work in secondary care settings” (Sclare et al., 2015). Those who do receive treatment often do so in school-based setting instead of in a clinical environment (Ruffolo and Fischer, 2009). Key Concepts of CBT Cognitive behavior therapy was developed as a treatment for depression by bringing awareness to and changing cognitive distortions in depressed clients. Albert Ellis believes that people contribute to their own psychological problems by the way they interpret life’s events and situations. Often depressed people have negative views about themselves, the world and the future. These negative views are called the cognitive triad (Corey, 2013), which refers to clients seeing the worst in themselves by thinking that they are bad, the worst in the world by thinking the world is all bad, and the worst about the future by thinking that their future is doomed and hopeless so nothing but bad things will happen to them. Faulty thinking leads to maladaptive emotions and behaviors. Therapists who practice CBT help their client’s change their maladaptive, negative and irrational

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