Modern society with all of its hustle and bustle has become a very fertile ground for mental disorders. Everyone is living a fast-paced life. And we do not have enough time to build strong relationships; therefore, we end up spending much of our time in isolation. Added by the stress that develops from this type of lifestyle, it’s easy to fall into depression; one common misconception is that depression is experienced only by adults. Nowadays, we have such a thing called teenage depression.

Studies have shown that there are about equal amount of adults and teenagers that are depressed. However, depressed teenagers are often undetected because the criteria for depressed adults are used to evaluate them.

There are several factors which are contributors and causes of teen depression.

For teens, a depressed mood is common because it coincides with the crucial growing up stages- including the normal body maturation process, raging hormones and other stress related factors.

The media today dictates what a perfect figure should look like, what the style quotient should be, etc, and teens are highly influenced by the influence of the media, with all this information being taken very seriously. Being dissatisfied with themselves is one of the major causes of , teen depression.

Students who do not fare well in their academic work and feel that they are not able to meet the standards they have set for themselves find it hard to handle failure or falling short.

Constant feelings of not being good enough start circulating in their minds and this, ultimately, is another of the causes of teen depression

Loss is another of the major causes of teen depression. Teenagers, who have gone through stressful events in life such as the loss of a parent, friend, sibling or break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, etc, generally find it difficult to cope with the situation

Little children or teens that have been abused physically grow up with feelings of guilt, shame, and self hatred. They also do not know how to deal with the situation. More often than not, people who are known to the parents, siblings, or family are responsible for such heinous acts.

This is probably one of the more unfortunate causes of teen depression.

Then we have the natural human body causes .The human body, with its enormous network of neurotransmitters, introduces a lot of anatomical, physiological and psychological changes during adolescence. Sometimes, teenagers are not able to understand these changes well, and this becomes another of the causes of teen depression.

Signs of teenage depression

• Sudden disregard for appearance or personal hygiene.
• Sudden drop in grades
• Change in appetite.
• Deviant or destructive behavior.
• Restless or agitated or sluggish.

It is often a little difficult to identify these symptoms or signs because the teens are characterized by weird behavior in general. However, with a little perseverance and careful observation you could be successful in identifying the signs of teen depression, if present.

Teens tend to resort to hurting themselves, being alcoholics, drug addicts and committing suicides because they think through these they could escape the undesirable world that they are facing at the moment. Every parent should know what is teen depression in order relate to their children and know their actual conditional and feelings to avoid the beginning of depression.

Teenage depression would be something to be worried about if you are the parent because it can result to a graver problem once your teenage son or daughter continually becomes depressed. There are times when your son or daughter might feel depressed due to things that they were not able to attain or perhaps due to some failed teenage romance or some other things.

With a little support from parents, friends and family, teens will learn to cope with the stress of growing up in today’s extremely competitive world. Encouraging them to keep themselves occupied doing creative and constructive work will help them channelize their enormous amounts of energy in a positive way.

It is extremely important for parents or guardians to ensure that teens are always kept busy, especially by engaging them in equal amounts of physical and mental activity. Otherwise, these young and impressionable minds can get easily distracted and start a completely negative line of thought and activity which could be destructive.

However, even after all your parental guidance and counseling your son or daughter cannot get over his or her depression and would extend to an abnormal length of time then I would advise you to get professional help.