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Teen Depression: The Most Common Mental Illness

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Teen Depression When it comes to depression, it is one of the most common mental illness among adolescents. Statistically, in a school of one thousand students, as many as one hundred students may be experiencing depression or mood swings severe enough to warrant a psychiatric diagnosis (Cash). Depression is a type of mental illness that can be hard to interpret and understand to a full level. A lot of people may see depression as a way to get out of doing work or something that does not seem to cause serious issues. Depression is not something to take lightly, searching for symptoms is not always easy for this illness but, there is some signs and warnings to thoroughly look for. Depression is also an illness that can have difficult impactions …show more content…

Constantly seeing what the unrealistic body image is supposed to be, puts a great amount of pressure on teenagers. Society shames down on people who are not perfectly skinny, or who does not have great looking abs. Teenagers will see themselves as not fitting in with society and start to obsess over how they look. Doctors say that girls have a greater risk of depression because they enter puberty sooner and tend to worry about their body image (Pinette). Obsessing over body image can take oneself into deep depression and lead to having eating disorders. They may feel pressure to fit a certain image for women in society and often do not have the life experience to cope well with these pressures (Pinette). Another major contribution to depression is school. Students may be overwhelmed and stressed at school for trying to maintain good grades, fitting in with the other students, maintaining a job, being involved with sports, and dealing with bullies. One out of every four students (22%) report being bullied during the school year (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2015). If a student is being bullied it can send them into depression and cause the one being bullied to …show more content…

Depression is something that can cause an individual’s life to change drastically. It is a mental illness that needs to be taken seriously and have active actions throughout the process of becoming better. People may see depression as an illness that does not need much attention, or is nothing to worry about, but that is when they are wrong. Depression has many warning signs that need to be looked for and noticed carefully since they can be very hard to determine. Teen depression changes the daily lives of individuals and the people around them who are suffering. Depression is also one of the major reasons why the suicide rate is high. Depression is the cause of over two-thirds of the 30,000 reported suicides in the U.S. each year. (White House Conference on Mental Health, 1999). Untreated depression is the number one risk for suicide among youth. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15 to 24 year olds and the fourth leading cause of death in 10 to 14 year olds. Young males age 15 to 24 are at highest risk for suicide, with a ratio of males to females at 7:1. (American Association of Suicidology, 1996). Depression is a very serious illness that needs to be brought to everyone’s

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