Depression In Young People

In a rather recent incident in Australia, a young man, just in his early twenties, stabbed his ex-girlfriend before ending his own life. To his friends and family, he was a loud, attention-seeking joker of the group, the one who was always trying to make others laugh. He was the last person in the world that his family and friends would have thought of taking another person’s life let alone his own life.

The sense of increased uncertainty for the future, especially in the last few months has affected everyone especially our younger generation. And more than ever there is an increased need to intentionally tap into what our young people are feeling and hear them out.

Sadness Is Easily Mixed Up With Depression

According to the Collins Dictionary, if you are sad, you feel unhappy, usually because something has happened that you do not like. Whereas, depression is a mental state in which you are sad and feel that you cannot enjoy anything, because your situation is so difficult and unpleasant.

It is like sadness but on steroids

Sadness is when you feel unhappy when something happened that you particularly did not like or did not want to happen. Depression, on the other hand, is an overwhelming feeling of misery and sorrow.

Half of all mental health conditions in adulthood emerge by age 14, and three quarters by 24

People struggling with anxiety and depression can seem to be doing alright in studies and sports and other extracurricular activities but there might be spiralling downwards on the inside. The feeling of emptiness, not knowing the meaning of life is just a couple of thoughts overtaking their young brains. Below are just a few of the factors that lead to stress. These factors and a combination of many more can lead to chronic depression among our young people.

High expectations from family

Every parent wants their children to be successful in life. They want their children to grow up healthy and be financially free. And the straight forward way seems to get a good education, get good grades, get into a professional like a doctor or a lawyer. But these expectations can play havoc on a young brain. They end up feeling sad for not pursuing their own dreams. They start feeling guilty to feel that they want something other than what their parents want of them.

Challenging education system and peer pressure

We can’t forget here that stress triggers depression and unfortunately, our education system acts as fuel to fire to young minds. Students are stressed more than ever to achieve a high level of academic success. Everyone is in competition to be on the top. In the race of life to be the best, our young people lose the very essence of education, they lose the sight of fun in the learning.

Not having buddies to share recess time with or being by themselves for six and more hours would no doubt turn into loneliness in the long run.

Instability in the household

Young people are no less than sponges. They absorb all sorts of feelings floating in the house, among and within relations. All of us can remember at least a couple of moments where we felt happy when our parents were cheerful about something. Likewise feeling down or angry when they were going through difficulty. Divorce, death, abuse are different examples of some of the things that can throw a normal household off its rails and adversely affecting the younger people in the household.

There were 3,046 registered deaths of people who died due to intentional self-harm (suicide) in Australia in 2018. Suicide is the leading cause of death among children aged 15–17 in Australia

Put a finger on any signs of change

Irritability

Young people always don’t have many words to express their feelings. If they are depressed they might be showing signs of irritability.

Behaviour

Look out for any sudden changes in behaviour. A person who loved arts and craft suddenly don’t want to do anything with colours and paints. Or a person who is normally very curious, don’t want to leave his or her room.

Sleep

Changes in sleep patterns. A rather normal person might suddenly start complaining about being tired all the time and finding difficult to fall asleep at night.

Procrastinating

Keep an eye on procrastinating and forgetfulness. For a person who normally would fulfil all his school and home obligations without a fuss suddenly drags what he typically would do without being asked twice.

Eating

Changes in eating habits. A person struggling might just lose appetite or might start overeating. There are also cases where they suddenly start disliking what they normally enjoyed having.

Sickness

A rather physically healthy child might start to complain about headaches more often and other illnesses. These might be signs of avoiding the company of friends and family and hence pointing towards depression.

How can we help?

There are plenty of treatments available out there. But this should not stop us from early intervention in the lives of the young people around us. We can nip in the bud and prevent anxiety from turning into depression.

1) Routine:

Adequate sleep, exercise and encouraging to do outdoor activities are some of the basic things parents or guardians could do. Having a basic daily routine can help avert some of the stress that every day brings.

2) Journaling:

Apart from this, encouraging them to write about their feelings can also help them to reduce stress significantly. Putting feelings in writing help develop better resilience against stress.

3) Mindfulness:

Mindfulness is something that is much popular in adults but introducing this practice earlier on will help children to develop a habit and avoid stress as they grow older.

4) Reading:

Encouraging them to read science fiction genre can also help them deal with anxiety and stress that life throws at them. It helps them to distant or disengage themselves from cognitive abilities to function optimally later.

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5) Yoga:

Evidence is piling up for the benefits of yoga to more than just physical. Breathing with a combination of other exercises is proven to have almost 50% better results on a depression-screening questionnaire for people struggling with anxiety and depression.

Sure antidepressants can be the primary treatment but putting some or all of the above practices in place can help us save our young people from falling into the depression trap that can have ugly outcomes. We need that early interference before it becomes too late.