Depression During Adolescence

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Depression during adolescence is not an uncommon thing at this time of development. Teenagers at this time are going through many changes; puberty. More than 25% of teenager have had a feeling of sadness, or feeling hopeless for 2 weeks or more that can cause them to stop them from their regular actives. (Feldman, p. 285) Only a small 3 percent have experienced major depression. (Feldman, 2015) Major depress is a psychological disorder that last for long periods of time. During this time of adolescences, females, African Americans and native Americans are more likely to experience depression than males or white adolescences. (Feldman, 2015) Depression is a serious psychological disorder that does not need to be took lightly. Signs of depression can include sadness, irritability, …show more content…
The first thing that you can do is not to ignore the problem. If you have any suspension of depression bring up your concerns to them. The best way to get through to a depressed teenager are to focus on listening, not lecturing. Be gentle and persistent. Acknowledge how they feel and trust your instincts. The next thing that you can do is to encourage your depressed teen to have social connections. To do this make face to face talking a priority, try to delete social isolation. You can get you teen involved into activities, and promote volunteerism. The third thing that you can to do is make physical health a priority. When your teen is depressed the best thing you can do is give them healthy meals, encourage plenty of sleep, and set a certain time limit on technological devices. Next you can at the point of major depression you can seek professional help. If depression reaches this point and medication is needed, like any other medication is comes with a rick. Some risk includes but are not limited to new depression, new thoughts of suicide, insomnia, angry outburst, or unusual changes in