Teen Depression : The Problem Of Teenage Depression, And Teen Suicide

In the article, Twenge talks about how spending the majority of you time on your phone, alone, rather than hanging out with people, you become more depressed. The amount of time teens have been doing screen activities like social media on your phone, vs non screen activities like hanging out with friends have gone up in recent years. Teens that participate in more non screen activities have shown to be generally more happy and less depressed than those who spend more time doing screen activities. Teens feeling lonely spiked in 2013 saying they feel they had been left out of things and wish they had better friends. I think that because of social media you often feel left out of activities that your friends are doing without you making you feel like they are bad friends and overall making you more depressed. “For all their power to link kids day and night, social media also exacerbate the age-old teen concern about being left out.”

Kutner, Max. "Teen Suicide Is Contagious, and the Problem May Be Worse Than We Thought;

Without the support of the National and Local media adolescent depression will never be heard of. Society may hear it and talk about it, but nobody truly knows what it is unless they experience it or has someone close to who has it. The media plays a huge role with teenage depression. The school shootings, can be shown that the mass killers who were apart of the shooting had a mental illness, but it was never a big topic that was

Push A fictional novel about the life of a 16 yr old teen mom struggling to endure through her wicked past of being assaulted by her male parent, and abusive mother. Push is a novel written by Sapphire and was published in 1996. Teen depression is however an on-going event that demands to be resolved as more teens are being affected and leading to negative activities. “Sometimes I wish I was dead” (Sapphire, 2222).

One of the most common mental illnesses that is found in teens and greatly impact their development and families is Major Depression.

Every year about 4,400 innocent people take their life for unnecessary reasons. (Elias 5,3) Whether it is due to personal problems, bullying or feeling not wanted. Although the teen suicide rates have not significantly increased or decreased within the last several decades (Elias 1,2)We want loved ones, class mates or friends still here with us to experience a life. But instead, there always has to be ruthless people in this world. Also some selfish people who just care about themselves and never see or ask how anyone else is. Someone whose life is already ruined tries to talk or plan about suicide to another person to try to get their life over with, so the messed up person who has a ruined life does not have to worry about anyone else who has such a good life ahead of them. (Alison 5,6)Teen suicide is an important issue because it threatens so many lives that have great potential.

Suicide has become one of the leading cause of death in adolescents. More youth die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined. I ask myself, what has changed in the past years that has caused these rates to continuously increase. When you do research on adolescent suicide you’ll find hundreds of studies based on background, race, poverty, bullying etc., but very few include analysis of trends among sexual minority youth from cohorts of the same geographic population (Peter et al., 2016)

“The analysis showed that people who reported using the most platforms (seven to 11) had more than three times the risk of depression and anxiety” (Zagorski web). The younger the person is when exposed to social media the more likely they are to suffer from depression and anxiety. With teen’s brains not fully developed and using multiple social media site this could lead to negative thought or feeling in a teen. This could lead to making a teen self-harm or committing suicide. With so many teens on social media and so many emotions on these sites they are contagious to read, however when a teen reads these statuses it also can make them feel the same way. So, when a teen reads a depressing status it can cause them to feel the exact same way.

Teen suicide is a growing issue in the United States. In order to prevent it, we need a better understanding on it. What is teen suicide? Teen suicide which is better known as youth suicide is when a young person, generally categorized as someone below age 24, deliberately end their own life. Rates of attempted suicide and completed youth suicide in western societies and other countries are extremely high. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, suicide is the third leading cause of death in teens and second leading cause of death in the world. In the year 2002 teen suicide rates increased dramatically. Youth suicides are mainly caused by loss of someone who is significant to them and also committed suicide. It is highly advised to keep children away from suicide contagion. Suicide contagion refers to the process where one suicide or suicidal act within school, community, or geographic area increase the likelihood that others will attempt suicide or complete suicide. Suicide contagion can also lead to what is called suicide cluster were a number of suicides can occur following an initial suicide. The national suicide prevention day is September 10.

Only in the past two decades, have depression and suicide been taken seriously. Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood and thoughts. Depression affects the way a person eats and sleeps, feels about themselves, and the way they think of the things around them. It comes as no surprise to discover that adolescent depression is strongly linked to teen suicide. Adolescent suicide is now responsible for more deaths

A new study suggested that extended use of electronic devices, such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets may cause symptoms of depression in teens. According to the researchers from the San Diego State University and Florida State University that people, particularly teens, who spend more time in social media are more vulnerable to develop depression.

Depression a word we’re familiar with especially when it comes to adults, we know adults get depress and we understand the reasons, with the high demands in life it’s not uncommon to get lost in the shuffle. Depression in adult is something we have known for many years, but what has surprised many of us is that adolescents also get depressed. I myself still don’t fully understand the reasons why or how this happens. I see it very often adolescent coming in to the ER because they are depressed and want to hurt themselves, and each and every single time I’m shock. What could be so bad in their lives that would make them think they have no way out? This is the reason why I choice this topic, I want to learn more of how this disease affects so many children and teens and what we can do to stop it.

Today’s teenagers are faced with the ever changing world around them and the biological changes of their bodies. Many teens are also faced with depression. Approximately half of teenagers with untreated depression may attempt suicide, which remains the third leading cause of death in this age group. (Bostic). This depression affects their school, family lives, and robs them of their self image. Depression affects many teens and often goes by unnoticed and untreated.

Teen suicide has become a problem that must be addressed. In today’s society it is not common for teens to discuss what is bothering them; instead they hold it inside as it gnaws at them, until they can take it no longer. Suicide has even become a sort of fad. Many celebrities, idols, and musicians have been in the news for talking about suicide, and some have even carried it out. Some of the most recents are Brad Bufanda of the ‘Veronica Mars’ show, and Chester Bennington of the rock band, ‘Linkin Park’. These people are who some teens look to for guidance, and if a musician has a song full of pro-suicide lyrics to resolve their problems; then it seems logical that an impressionable young mind would take that advice to resolve their own problems. It is prevalent in our society because we have shows such as ‘13 Reasons Why’, which is about a teenage girl who leads a troubled life. She has dealt with many problems emotionally and physically, at home and school; and eventually decides to commit suicide. She makes 13 tapes with one person each, giving a detailed description of why she's committed suicide and the 13 people that made her feel she had to do it. This show glorified suicide and almost made it seem as though if you can’t make a message while living, turn to suicide and everyone will be forced to listen. These aren’t the types of messages we need imprinted upon teens, especially those who have or will contemplate suicide.

Since the development of the Internet, technology has vastly changed the way we live and communicate. This technological revolution we have gone through has brought about many new things into our daily lives. The birth of social media has completely changed technology, and they way we use it. We can now communicate with each other from anywhere around the world. We can update people on our current location. We can have a conversation over text. We can inform people exactly what we are doing at any given time. Social media has boomed in our society, and is only getting more and more popular. With sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google +, people can communicate and update the world with whatever they see fit. Millions of people use social media every single say, with many of them using it multiple times a day. Teens in today’s world have been attracted the most towards social media, and use it more often than any other age group. The temptation to always be on social media is very prevalent in many teens’ lives. It distracts teens from the more important things life has to offer like a good education, or a job. This technological epidemic may seem like a fantastic thing to some people, but I view it differently. Kids today are heavily abusing social media, and using it to harm or hurt people. I personally believe that social media is an increasing negative effect on teens in our world today because of the depression