Teenage Depression By Herma Silverstein Essay Research — страница 2

minded kid gained over fifteen pounds while ever finishing ameal with the family anymore. Robert couldn t understand why he was always so sad. Hewas always totally bummed out. He recalled his friends being this way but they alwayssnapped out of it. He felt doomed. He usually cut school and lied in bed listening to sadmusic. He talked about life not being worth living and ending it all . Robert s parentspersuaded him to see their family doctor and when the doctor found no physical problemshe was directed to go to the psychiatrist. This man was the one who found Robert sproblem. He was suffering from a depressive illness which was treatable by counseling and medication. A few months later, after following doctors orders, Robert returned the sonhis parents once knew. His life began

to shape up. He occasionally fell into a down mood but it would last no more than a few weeksrather than go on for months like it once did. Within six months he totally returned tonormal. Within a year there was no trace of ever being depressed and he begin finishingthose college plans. Today Robert can t believe he actually wanted to kill himself. Vivienne and Robert are just two of the many stories in the book which started thesame and had two different outcomes. Depressive illness is a severe and sometimes adebilitating illness, it is unpredictable as to when or if at all the illness will return or evenwho it will strike. Although depression is a leading cause to suicide the recurrence is lessharsh and ends sooner. If the signs of depression are detected, someone s life can be

savedby lending a hand and leading them in the right direction. In our text along with TeenageDepression you can learn the warning signs of this illness. The number one warning sign is a feeling of sadness and hopelessness. Depressedteens feel as though there s no end to the stress and sadness they always feel. The secondmost common symptom is moodiness. Depressed teenagers express alternate feelings ofangered sadness for weeks at a time. The third most common symptoms are eatingdisturbances. Depressed teenagers either eat to much or to little. They change from theircommon eating habits. The fourth major symptom is sleep disturbances. Nightmares arecommon along with difficulty falling asleep, or awakening early, due to stress andanxieties. The fifth major symptom is changes in

social life. Depressed teenagers stopspending time with friends, they often even refuse phone calls. The sixth major symptom ischemical abuse. Depressed teens use drugs and alcohol to relieve depression. Those teensoften get hooked on drugs and alcohol. Instead of getting a relief from the pressure theteens feels worse. Alcohol and drugs are depressants and not mood elevators. The seventhmajor sign is the loss of interest in pleasurable activities. These teens find no pleasure inactivities they once enjoyed such as going movies or concerts, watching TV, participatingin sports and even sex. The eighth major symptom is suicidal thoughts. These teens maybecome what we refer to as morbid or become obsessed with death and some actuallykill them selves.V EVALUATION By reading Teenage

Depression the average person will be able to understand insimple terms the symptom of depression , and how to distinguish between the blues. A common teenage experience that can seem to be depression or more serious long termdepression. I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed tothe whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth . . . – Abraham Lincoln Melancholy is the curse of frenzy -William Shakespeare From Abraham Lincoln to William Shakespeare depression has plagued the earthsince the beginning of time. Depression is never prejudice to whom it strikes young, old,famous, unknown, rich middle-class or, homeless. Some other well known people whohave suffered with depression are the Bible s King Saul, Queen

Elizabeth I, EarnestHemingway, Betty Ford, and the Late prime minister Winston Churchill. He calleddepression the black dog that shadowed my life. Now it is time for us as a society to become educated and active in the war againstdepression. If untreated the sadness of depressive illness grows so strong that people feelhelpless and hopeless, as if their world has caved in on them, and there is nothing they oranyone else can do to get them out of the rut, and be able to feel happy again. The trulydepressed feel as things only get worse and never better. This is where suicide comes in.They feels as though they should end it all. Whether in a child, a teenager, a adult, or a senior citizen, true depressive illness isdifferent than feeling sadness or loneliness after a traumatic