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According to the American Psychological Association, depression is the most common mental disorder, and teens are not excluded. They too have their own depression which is known as teen depression; approximately 20% go through at least one episode of teen depression, and one out of five teens is clinically depressed also known as major depression.

So what really is teen depression? It is a disorder that occurs during teenage years marked by discouragement, loss of self-worth, persistent sadness, and loss of interest in usual activities. There are many factors that may cause depression to teens, such as abuse or conflict at home, being bullied at school, family history of depression, chronic illness, hormonal changes, low self-esteem, and other issues such as anxiety disorder, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems. It’s also a fact that females are more likely to be depressed compared to males. This just proves that teenage years are a crucial era in one’s life.

There are many symptoms to indentify if an adolescent in depressed, such as sadness, suicidal thoughts, change in personality, lack of energy and constant fatigue, changes in appetite accompanied with weight loss, agitation, irritability, and difficulty in concentration. But despite these many signs, depression is still not easy to detect. Several symptoms should first appear and lots of tests should be done before one will be diagnosed with this kind of mental disorder.

Early detection is a great help for a faster treatment and recovery, and when left untreated a teen may end up in the suicidal stage wherein he will have a strong will of killing himself. There are several kinds of treatment offered for these troubled teens such as antidepressant medication which adjusts the levels of dopamine, noradrenalin, and serotonin in the brain, electroconvulsive therapy which is usually used in severe teen depression cases wherein the patient is given a mild anesthetic before the therapy begins and then electrical currents are passed through the brain to excite neurotransmitters in order to stimulate brain activity and correct neurochemical shortages, psychotherapy on the other hand involves talking to a professional counselor to uncover some causes of the teen’s depression and to learn how to deal with them effectively. Other common treatments are transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and inpatient depression treatment.

However, teen depression is preventable. A number of actions can be done to prevent it, and parents play a vital role in teen depression prevention. Parents should encourage healthy eating habits, they should let their child participate in sports, clubs and other extracurricular activities in order to build a strong support group of friends, make sure their children know they are loved, praise their strengths and be sensitive when addressing weaknesses, and try to enforce an early bedtime. A study published in the Sleep journal in January 2010 found that adolescents with earlier bedtimes set by their parents were significantly less likely to experience teen depression.

The bottom line is no matter what level a teenager is in this kind of mental disorder, he/she needs help, not discouragement. And should still be loved no matter how worse he/she is.