1 In 7 may not seem like a huge statistic to most of you. But, if we compare this figure to the people sitting in this room, that is four of us. It could be the girl sitting next to you, it could be your friend, it could be me, it could even be you. The sad reality of this statistic is that it is the number of teenagers that undergo a serious depression disorder before they hit the age of 20. When we were all younger, we couldn’t wait until we were teenagers. But as we grow into young men and young ladies, we realise that the teenage years aren’t always the haven it was advertised as.
Hello, my name is Katie Barrott, and I’m here to talk about this one word we fear: depression. I feel you should listen to me as I am not some old adult who has succeeded in life, but I am a teenager like you. I have gone through many personal experiences and seen depression take control of people’s lives, which is a scary thing I suppose. But I guess that is the reality of today’s youth.
One of the scariest things about teen depression is that it can come in the most simplest symptoms, leaving the disorder masked and hidden, Some of the low key symptoms include, headaches, lack of memory, behavioural issue, and use of drugs and alcohol
It is very easy to realize that the majority of young people nowadays are going through phases of being sad, and some even go to such lengths as to be depressed. I saw a young girl on Twitter post that she was depressed, and someone replied ‘you’re 13, what have you got to be depressed about? You don’t even know the meaning of the word’. I immediately thought this.
‘Depression does not come with a minimum age restriction; it isn’t a nightclub, or a gig, it is an emotion’.
This leads me on to my next point, ANYONE can be depressed, it doesn’t matter what age they are. In fact the younger the person is, the more worrying it is, because there are people out there with the attitude that depressed teenagers are just moody teenagers
People think the phrase ‘It gets better’ has been so overused now that the words themselves just look meaningless. I personally could not think of anything better to say, it doesn’t just get better. It gets so much better. Obviously life is very hard, especially when you are a teenager because everything just gets thrown at you. Self-esteem, schoolwork, bullying, jobs, parents, girlfriends, boyfriends, and sexuality. Things all just come flying at you at once.
When teenagers deal with depression first hand, they can often feel isolated. They feel that out of all the people in the world there is not one person they can relate to. Today I would like to share you a story of a celebrity Demi Lovato. All though some of you might not be her biggest fan, there is some admiring to be done
Demi was bullied at a
