Teen Depression

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Recommended: Depression and its effects on teenagers

Did you know that depression has become the most common mental illness found among teens today? More Americans suffer from depression, than AIDS, cancer, and heart failure combined. Teen depression can come in many different ways and forms, and can have different symptoms/side effects for different people. The overall definition of teen depression, is a serious medical problem found in many teens, which can result in a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest in everyday activities. Depression can be developed from a numerous amount of reasons. Some reasons include having the overwhelming feeling of getting older, rejection from society, abuse, having an illness, and even incidents that happen at home. Teen depression is no laughing matter. In fact, according to the US Surgeon General’s report, 3.5 million teens suffer from it, today. 2.5 million of them, are under the age of 18. The worst part is, only 1/5 of depressed teens go for professional help. Did you also know that this extreme illness is also severely under diagnosed by parents and doctors? Thousands of parents have overlooked the possible symptoms of their teen having depression, and have never gotten help for them. This small mistake has resulted in a staggering 15% of depressed teens who have not received professional help, to commit suicide. Parents of many depressed teens, including the parents of a teen named Joey Ortiz, wish they had thought sooner about seeking professional help for their child.
In 1996, fifteen-year-old Joey Ortiz had commit suicide. He had performed the act of hanging himself. Joey was a severely depressed teen, and was victimized to a variety of pressures. As a child, Joey Ortiz began his downward spiral when his parents had separa...

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... However, if one swerves (turns to avoid the other car) they'll be considered the "chicken." A game like this can promote a depressed teen to transact to being suicidal. The Choking game is when a person cuts off the oxygen to their brain to experience hallucinations (feel "high") A popular way of doing this is by using a belt/scarf, and tying it to a bed post. Depressed teens may turn to this, and end up killing themselves on purpose. The Knife game is when a person uses a knife, spreads their fingers on a flat surface, and stabs between the spaces, usually along with the associated, "Knife Song" in increasing speed, to impress people. A depressed teen can easily take advantage of this game, and purposefully self-harm. Typically, horrible games such as these are purely used for entertainment. However, games like these can be extremely triggering for depressed teens.

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