Recognizing Your Teen’s Depression
As a parent, recognizing your teen’s depression is one of the hardest things you may have to do. Many teens hide their depression, and often parents choose to ignore the warning signs. But you have the ability to help teach your child how to overcome depression and get the help they need by knowing what to look for.
No matter which type of depression your teen may have, you can help them by recognizing the problem. Take it seriously, because teen depression can have serious consequences.
Pulling away from the things that they used to love to do.
Distancing themselves from friends, social situations and activities they enjoy. Teens who are happy and healthy enjoy having fun with friends. If that changes, something may be wrong.
Eating too much, too little, or nothing at all. Everyone has a different way of reacting to sad or tragic news. Eating is one way that a person expresses their feelings. If your teen normally has a healthy appetite but now eats little at each meal, or overeats, or eats nothing at all, this can be a classic sign of depression.
Inability to sleep, staying up too late without going to bed. Without sleep, the body and mind become more and more fatigued, struggling to function properly. Your teen’s depression will worsen as they can’t or won’t sleep.
The blues that last. While everyone feels bad sometimes, teens with depression feel bad most of the time. You need to get them some help in these cases.
Teen depression can be scary. Many teens have suffered with it, and their parents have watched as the depression hurt their teen’s performance in school, friendships, and physical healthy. An even greater concern is the temptation of drugs and alcohol to depressed teens.
One of the scariest things about teen depression is how well they can hide it. Teens can give off a lot of indirect clues, such as an increase in depression sayings or an increase in negative banter. Many teens will face bouts of depression, but those that have too many will hide it well from you. If this is the case, you may never realize how much trouble they are in until it is too later. Parenting a teen means; making it your business to know.