Young and Depressed

[...]  This is a huge change from a decade ago, when many doctors considered depression strictly an adult disease. Teenage irritability and rebelliousness was “just a phase” kids would outgrow. But scientists now believe that if this behavior is chronic, it may signal serious problems   [...]

[Newsweek]

When I was a teen, I knew there was something wrong with me.  I was teased mercilessly by the students around me - there wasn't a time from kindergarten though my senior year in high school when I didn't have at least one, if not more, derogatory nicknames, and in general the nicknames were far more well-known than my "real" name.  But it went beyond just being the blues over being picked on.  I would get A's and B's on every report card, but still felt like a failure.  Evenings and weekends were usually spent home alone.  From time to time, I might have a close friend - invariably someone I met away from school - that I could spend some time with, but during all my years of junior high and high school, I never once was invited to a party or asked to go out with "the girls".  Yet my sadness went even beyond what you might expect for that.  I always felt empty, cried a lot, slept a lot and found that I had very few interests beyond reading, listening to music and learning to play the guitar.

When I was 15, I remember one night sitting on the stairs in my home, crying and having yet another argument with my mother. Mom and I have always had a difficult time getting along.  We're both have a lot of control issues, and we both want to be the one controlling my life.  So there I was, angry, frustrated, hurting and crying and I told Mom that I really felt like maybe I needed to see someone about why I was so sad all the time.  Mom would have none of it though -- her attitude was very much the kind of 'no one in MY family is going to be mentally ill'.  I ended up not being able to get any help for it until I was in my 20's - and suffering from major clinical depression.  Even now, it still plagues me.  I'm on Paxil, which helps some, but in the back of my mind, I've never stopped wondering if maybe some of the damage I've acquired might not have been avoided if I'd been able to get help so many years earlier.

With that in mind, this article was bound to catch my attention.  Its sad to hear that, for so many teens, the idea that they might be depressed is still dismissed out of hand by many parents and doctors.  I'm also surprised.  Many teens themselves have known for years that "something" is wrong.  In some ways, it's hard not to, when you find yourself never feeling the way you see others feeling.  Many teens adopt an air of depression - one with many people find easy to dismiss since outward shows of angst are somewhat trendy now.  And while I have no doubt that there are more than a few kids who are more or less just trying to "fit in", it's important that parents and teachers not ignore the fact that there may really be something serious going on, and that there is help available.

Depression can be a serious problem.  It takes many forms - from mild blues brought and sadness brought on by life events, to persistant feeling of darkness that never seems to let up, and all places in between. It's good to read that it's starting to come "out of the closet" a bit more, especially for teens, but hopefully some day people with depression and other mental illnesses will be viewed more along the lines of people who need to wear glasses - they have a condition that gives them a bit of difficulty, but usually doesn't get them subjected to discrimination or or other negative judgements from the people around them.