A serious issue that is not addressed nearly enough.
When a
teenager acts sad or irritable, it's usually attributed to "hormones" or "Attention-seeking." What
people don't realize is that teenagers can and do get
depressed. In fact, depression in teenagers has been rising alarmingly fast since 2015.
Why should a teen be depressed? Well...there's many reasons.
The teen years are where life starts hitting you like a truck full of bricks; you're in High School now, and it's time to think about what you're going to do with your life. Your
parents and teachers
may pressure you to do well, and your teachers
may not necessarily be that great. It's basically your free trial of working 9 to 5; only it's 8 to 3 (or 4) and you have several "bosses" whom you have to please. And let's not get started on puberty...
With all this going on at once, teenagers
will often be stressed and confused, and a snowball effect ensues:
Stress leads to depression, and depression is often misunderstood.
Misunderstandings leads to ignorant, unhelpful adults.
Ignorant, unhelpful adults leads to deeper depression.
Deeper depression leads to self-harm.
And finally, self-harm leads to suicide.
Teenage Depression is real. If your teen seems to be a
bit irritable and down, don't dismiss it as a phase.
Because if you don't, you probably won't be having any grandchildren; however, you
WILL have the crippling pain of outliving your
child due to something that YOU as a parent could have prevented if you simply tried to understand what your teen is going through.
