Adolescents who have been affected by teen depression may not know how to cope up with their problem. If you are a teen suffering from this affliction, you must not hesitate to seek help. Especially, your parents and other family members will be of great help if you share with them the symptoms and the other details of your problem.
Some parents may not even know that their teens have this problem and so, if you really want to come out of your problem and lead a normal life, you must not hesitate to tell them. Especially, teens both the parents of whom are working may not get the attention they should receive and hence, their problem may worsen.
Effects of Teen Depression
Teen depression may induce these young people to take to many bad habits. Some of them may take to drinking and a few of them become drug addicts. Since they may not like their studies, they may refuse to go to school. Some of these young people may refuse to get out of their bed and may always be sleeping. A few others may never wish to go out of their homes.
The Value of Guidance and Support
These teens need support, guidance and advice for fighting their problem. They need encouragement so that they can learn the right coping techniques.
Writing Therapy
A few experts suggest writing therapy for teen depression. According to them, if teens put their feelings or thoughts in writing, they can get relief from their problem. But, this may not be suitable for all the teens. Parents should devote more time towards these teens so that they do not feel that they are being neglected.
Teen Depression, Moral Support And Studies
But, these teens should learn to shoulder their responsibilities also. This means that they should realize that they have the moral support of their parents and their family members. Only if they get such confidence, they will be able to get their focus back towards their studies. Teen depression should not be allowed to take their minds off their studies. If they take to other unwanted habits, that may take a toll on their studies and their future.
Moral support alone will help them come out of their problems slowly. They may start involving themselves in other healthy activities also but, parents should set only achievable targets for them. These teens should not be given very big targets that cannot be achieved. Failures may worsen their depression.
Parents’ Role
Parents should also learn a lot for helping their children fight teen depression. If they are not able to see any concrete results, they should take their teens to doctors. There are different types of treatments. But, most of the doctors avoid giving drugs because there may be side-effects for these drugs. They may prescribe mild anti-depressants.
Various Types Of Treatments
Nowadays, most of the doctors recommend what is called psychotherapy for treating teen depression. This includes behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral-therapy, etc. This includes interpersonal therapy and brief-psychodynamic-therapy also.
The main focus in behavioral therapy as well as in cognitive therapy is on changing the actions that may lead to the problem. In cognitive-behavioral-therapy, the focus is on changing the thought pattern so that negativity is completely removed from the minds of the affected teens.
In the case of interpersonal therapy, the aim is to enhance the capabilities of the teens in developing good relationships. Brief-psychodynamic-therapy is to find out the conflicts in the depths of their minds and take steps to free them of such ‘mental cobwebs’ like teen depression.