»Depression - You are not alone!

Everyone can experience sadness occasionally, but it can't be considered depression. Depression is a mental disorder which completely disables a person's normal activities.

So what factors are responsible that cultivate depression in a person? Is depression only of one type? How one can identify if he is actually suffering from depression? Which age group is more likely to get depressed?

If you are boggling such types of questions in your mind, just go through this page. This page will help you understand its basics. 

A single factor is not responsible for all the types of depression. There are several factors which add up to the causes of depression. However, these factors come up in the form of body's imbalance as neurochemical or hormonal changes or in the external factors which include emotional and physical strain.

Stress, environment, multiple illness, genetic or hormonal changes during teenage are few common factors that are most likely to cause depression. One suffers from depression usually when he has undergone through many stressful events. That is why it is said that, stress leads to depression. 

Depression due to Stress

We have discussed in the beginning of the project that prevalent stress is the most common and effective cause of depression. We have also discussed the causes of stress earlier and few of them are loss of closed ones, frequent illness etc. When a person suffers these frequent stressful events, depression can eventually develop in him. Stress comes up in the list of environmental factors as stress is caused due to change in environmental factors.

Depression due to Genetics

Scientists believe that depression can run through family to family and the risk of depression increases in that person if once close relative also got affected by depression in past. However, this does not mean that the person will automatically develop depression. But there are lots of other environmental factors that create depression.

Stanford School of Medicine says that a parent with depression increases the child's risk of developing depression in his teenage from 10% to 30%.

You can see a best example on the page 'Depression Stories', A story of a girl who suffered depression which ran to her through his father genetically.

Depression due to illness

Frequent and serious illness often leads to depression. Diseases like, cancer, physical disability and even obesity often develops depression in teens.

Depression due to neurochemical or hormonal changes

In a depressed person, the brain functions differently than a normal person. His brain develops a change in mood, thoughts and memory. These changes are called neurochemical changes. Hormonal changes during teenage also bring the risk of depression and that is why teenage is at highest risk group factor of depression.

Depression due to medication side effects or drug interactions

There are number of medications that may lead to depression. But remember, a doctor's advice is always necessary before one starts or stops taking medication course. Few specific medications may cause side effects varying from person to person. So the symptoms should be noted down before and after taking the medication. If something looks to be troubling then doctor's advice is must.

A big misunderstanding which is commonly seen everywhere around us. People, specially teens, are unable to distinguish among stress, prevalent stress, depression and routine emotional sadness. Teenage brings many changes that affect mood and behavior and it becomes difficult to identify it whether it is depression or mood swing. We hope after viewing the 1st page you would be able to distinguish between both these terms but still it becomes difficult to observe that from which, actually, one is suffering from, depression or prevalent stress. So let's once again discuss it and clear this confusion properly.

During our survey, we asked teens this question,

Have you ever faced Heavy Depression?

Due to less awareness regarding the topic, most of them expressed stressful events as depression and the result was:

27% Yes and 73% No

However few of them would have chosen rightly.

So below, in this page you can see the right symptoms of depression and consider exactly what stress is.

Additionally you can try "Stress-O-Meter" below to have a short idea of level of stress or depression you are with. But remember please do not alter on the result. It is just for an idea. Don't forget to follow the instructions. 

People suffering from depression do not experience similar symptoms as of stress. Below we have stated some most common and general symptoms of Teens depression.    

• Problem having sound sleep (insomnia) or oversleeping

As we all know, sleep is very important for healthy life. It is because during sleep a person recovers from the stress of the whole day. Scientifically the body also repairs the dead cells, regulate cholesterol level and improve heartbeat rate. Person suffering from depression is often seen suffering from sleep disorders. It is one of the most common among all the symptoms. Unfortunately less sleeping later leads to double trouble depression because when the person is unable to sleep, defiantly tend to ruminate on their problems. It is just not the case that the he will find difficulty in having sound sleep but waking up early morning or frequently during night and even oversleep are also symptoms of depression. 

• Thoughts of suicide or suicide attempts

Suicide thoughts in mind is another most critical symptom of depression. Teens usually feel uncomfortable to talk about their suicidal thoughts and try to kill themselves without even a single warn. They try to kill themselves in order to get rid of the painful symptoms and situations, but it actually does not help. It is natural that they grow suicidal feeling when suffering from depression. Doesn't matter they are older, adult, teenager or even child. Unfortunately very few people perceives these symptoms which increases the number of suicide and suicide attempts. People are not yet totally aware towards such suicidal signs and increasing myths that make the conditions even more deadly and hazardous.       

• Some Health Problems Like muscle aches, stomach aces, headaches or digestive problems without any medical cause

Such health problems become frequent in depressed teens. They may likely to suffer such physical problems that result in formation of a number of other symptoms too. For instance, If a teen is frequently suffering from digestive problem then consequently he may suffer from tiredness, loss of appetite, muscle aches and even insomnia. People facing depression, suffer one more thing in common i.e. headache. And those persons, who endure migraine headaches already, can go through severe problems after being attacked by depression.   

• Avoiding Family Members and Friends

Teens suffering from depression automatically become emotionally detached. There social communications devours and they found social isolation, gathering and events as restless. And thus teen is likely feel alone.     

• Loss of appetite

Loss of appetite is seen most commonly in depressed teenagers. They often escape from their meals and unwillingly consume food which ultimately affects the weight. Reasons behind loss of appetite always points towards digestive problems and unpleasant mood.  

• Neglect Of appearance 

Teenage is an age when one starts becoming conscious about his appearance. But during depression, teen who used to be personality conscious, now finds no more craze towards his personality, hygiene and look.    

• Alcohols & Drugs Abuse 

In order to feel better, teens start consuming drugs and alcohols. It gives a small pleasure but brings addiction in them. Not all cases of such addictions are symptoms of depression, but plenty of cases found to be symptoms of depression. This is because most common reason for drug and alcohols addiction is to get shorter relieved from constant despicable mood. And it is well know now that such mood swings are signs of depression.  

• Feeling of Guilt, Hopelessness, Worthlessness or Helplessness

In depression, teen starts blaming himself for every wrong situation or unfavorable condition. He starts considering himself as 'loser' and thus raise hands before any competition or place where they have to show their skills. Also some teens may feel that now their life is not worth living. And thus they lose interest in maintaining their life and hygiene. They feel that this bad phase of their life will not change and thus they become hopeless. In this situation they don't like to talk with anyone and thus people start getting away from those teens. And thus, consequently the teen is left alone. This sometime brings a feeling of running away from home in them.

• Feeling irritated or angered

Depressed teens generally become aggressive and irritated in nature. When this overloads in them they burst out most of their anger on family and friends. They even start shouting unnecessarily on family members. This anger often becomes uncontrollable for others. It's clinically proven that depression and anger run hand in hand. 

Few More Common Symptoms

• Bad performance in school or college
• Feeling tired and unenergetic
• Change in speed of speech & common movements
• Frequent Crying spells
• Change in behavior and risky attitude
• Memory Problem

If you are encountering a number of the above symptoms  frequently, then this might be possible that you are currently depressed. You should surely meet an expert doctor for diagnosis. It is a real illness and there is nothing wrong to visit doctor for depression diagnosis. One should always keep in mind that a single cause can never be pinpointed as depression. Depression brings many signs and symptoms with it and eventually causes interference in normal life leading to disturbed mind.