Generalized Anxiety In Adolescents

Words: 1986
Pages: 8

There are many different people that exhibit some sort of psychopathology. Either in books, movies, or even in real life, there is always something with a disorder than impairs their everyday life. Everyone experiences some kind of anxiety or depression in his or her lives. It could be from studying for finals or a loved one passing away. But not everyone exhibits these feeling almost all day, everyday. This adolescent I chose to exhibit is someone I know very well. Though in some cases this could make writing a paper a bit easier, it is much more difficult, since the adolescent is myself. At around 12 or 13 years old, I exhibited many symptoms of both depression and anxiety. Though I did not feel well most days, nearly every day, I thought …show more content…
All I knew was that I was sad, I couldn’t think straight, and I wanted to hurt myself. I never knew what I had until I turned 18 and was signing my own treatment plan. I have both major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. In the United States, about 7% of people between the ages of 18-29 have major depressive disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Females, like me, experience this disorder 1.5 to 3 fold high rates than males begging in early adolescence (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), which was the case for me. As for generalized anxiety disorder, 0.9% of adolescents and 2.9% of adults in the United States experience this disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Females are also twice as likely as males to experience this disorder as well (American Psychiatric Association, …show more content…
If I was feeling only depressed during certain times a year, such as the winter, it could have been seasonal affective disorder. Major depressive disorders with irritable could be resulted from manic episodes as well, but I have never had a manic episode. ADHD was a possibility as well, but instead of just irritability it was rather sadness. There was a possibility of persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia) as well. Though this could be described as a chronic major depressive disorder, at the age of 13, I did not have this. But as years have passed, about six to be exact, the thought of dysthymia might be possible. But it couldn’t be. Major depressive disorder has episodes of depression, while dysthymia is described as a constant depressed mood instead of episodes. Or, I could just not have a disorder at all. I could have just had a general sadness, but my symptoms have exceeded way beyond 2