Teenage Years Are Depressing Essay Research Paper — страница 2

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performance, very high or low energy level, sleeping too much or not enough, loss of appetite or overeating, and confusion. They do not need to be experiencing all of these symptoms to have a problem. Experiencing any four is enough to warrant concern (9-10). They should definitely get help if their problem persists over two weeks. Why are they having these problems? Is it their grades, their relationship with their friends and family, alcohol, drugs, sex, or is it something else? The causes for depression vary. Someone might get depressed because they spilt milk in front of everyone in the cafeteria and everyone turns and looks. If the same thing happened to someone else, it would not even bother him or her. Some people the weather effects them and they become depressed; on the

other hand, a person can become depressed when a good event in their life is about to occur. Clayton and Carter describe six stages of depression: change, pain, anger, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. The stages go in that order but they can stop at any stage or can regress. Change is described as being hard for teenagers because they have experienced time as slower then adults. Adults have been around longer so time passes quicker for adults. Change is hard for teenagers because most fear risks like asking a peer out on a date. The second stage is pain. Good and bad change occurs in ones life. With teenagers, good change can be a devastating as bad. Graduating from high school is painful, knowing they might not ever see their peers again. While bad change can hurt like

rejection, relationships ending, and a death of a loved one. Change can be very painful for teenagers because they have not had enough exposure to it. Teenagers do not always understand the pain will pass and will not hurt as much. Clayton and Carter go on to say that anger comes from pain. When the pain hurts, teenagers can become angry. How they deal with their anger depends on how depressed they will become. They can handle their pain in different ways: dissociation, projection, passive aggressiveness, displacement, minimization, denial, repression, somatization, diffusion, and expression. They should be aware of which way they express their anger. Guilt can cause one to blame themselves for a romantic rejection, failing to reach an important goal, receiving less than

acceptable grades, or failing to be admitted to a particular college. For example a teenager’s parents breaking up causes them to feel the blame for their parents being separated. This guilt obviously is inappropriate because they had no responsibility in their parents not getting along. The depression gets worse from the guilt. The teenager starts feeling hopeless. The hopelessness then takes over and they feel worthless. When the worthlessness sets in, they are showing signs of depression. Worthlessness then turns into thoughts about how everyone would be better off without them. The teen then feels they don’t want to deal with life anymore (Clayton and Carter 74-79). Here are a few quick fixes depressed teenagers can try: do some form of exercise, eat a banana, drink a

couple of glasses of water, keep a journal of everything they eat, laugh frequently, have a good cry, change the scene, do volunteer work, do something thoroughly selfish, start a fitness program, hang around happy people, plan an escape, talk to they school counselor, go to the library, change their sleeping patter, get some sun, start a project, cut caffeine from their diet, move away, go to college, live with a relative, get a job, or join the military. If none of these things work then the next step is therapy. Therapy will only work if they want it to work. When they start therapy most teenagers are scared to open up. The therapist takes an oath not to release any information unless they are self-harming. If they are trying and nothing is improving, it perhaps could be

because they have a chemical imbalance in their head. The therapist is the only one who can tell them whether or not they need to be put on medication or receive some other treatment. Oster and Montgomery list things to remember when teenagers go to counseling: Many adolescents believe that therapy is for "crazy" people. It is helpful to explain that therapy is for people who are feeling emotional hurts and pains and need an objective listener. There are many therapists willing to help; it is up to you to find a qualified and personable professional. Most teens feel a sense of relief after entering therapy and find it useful to be able to share personal feelings and secrets. Individual therapists come from a number of different theoretical perspectives, including