Getting better
Teenage depression: What can you do about it?
Getting better
Teenage depression: What can you do about it?
Approved by doctor Frédéric Benoit, psychiatrist
Is depression really a mental illness? How does it work? What treatments are available? How do antidepressants help? If you’ve been asking yourself these kinds of questions, we’re here to help.
We’ve gathered some of the most frequently asked questions—along with their answers—to help you gain a better understanding of depression in teens and what you can do about it.
Why is depression considered a mental illness 🧠 ?
To give you a better idea, let’s take a quick peek inside your brain, which contains a vast network of nerve cells called neurons. The brain uses chemicals called neurotransmitters to relay information from one neuron to another. Think of a neuron as a cell phone, with the neurotransmitter being the network that lets you send texts from one phone to another.
Although you aren’t aware of it, every time you move, feel an emotion, make a decision, or pass judgment on something, your neurotransmitters are sending that information to your brain.
Scientists believe that when you suffer from depression, certain neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine) are poorly received—or not received at all—by the neurons. This lack of communication between neurons affects your mood, thoughts, and behaviour, and prevents you from functioning normally in your daily life. That’s why depression is considered an illness.
Can depression be cured 🏥 ?
These days, 80% to 90% of people diagnosed with clinical depression can be effectively treated through medication in combination with psychotherapy. This is an incredibly high success rate for any mental health disorder.
Did you know?
According to the World Health Organization, depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among teenagers worldwide.
What’s more, 50% of mental illnesses start by age 14, and 75% begin by age 24.
In Quebec, it’s estimated that 5% to 10% of young people will suffer from depression during adolescence. (Portrait of adolescent well-being, see references on our website)
What happens if depression goes untreated🛑 ?
Ask yourself what happens if you don’t treat a physical illness—it gets worse.
The same goes for depression. It’s a curable illness. But if left untreated, it can have long-term consequences. Depression can affect your relationships, your education, your drug or alcohol use . . . it can even lead to suicidal thoughts.
To make sure this doesn’t happen, you must act early. Depression can be cured faster when it’s diagnosed at the first sign of symptoms, which often occur in adolescence.
5 more questions about depression
Depending on your condition, a healthcare professional may suggest various ways to cope with teenage depression:
- Lifestyle changes
- Therapies, such as psychotherapy
- Medication (in some cases)
Psychotherapy is a talk therapy that takes place over several weeks. The goal is to relieve or treat suffering. It can also help you find answers, solve problems, and make choices that will help you feel better.
Sometimes, a doctor may also prescribe antidepressants to help restore the balance between neurotransmitters, and, in turn, reduce the intensity of the symptoms. Antidepressants can take three to four weeks to take full effect. That’s why it’s so important to stick with your course of treatment for its full duration. Because medication won’t turn things around right away, it’s highly recommended that you combine drug therapy and psychotherapy when taking antidepressants for teenage depression. If you have any questions or concerns about your therapy, be sure to talk to your doctor or pharmacist.
They ask questions that help them identify any signs and symptoms of depression. They may ask: Are you sleeping okay? Are you eating well? Are you using drugs or alcohol? Or Are you having any thoughts of death or suicide? They’ll also ask questions about your family history. Your answers will help them make the right diagnosis, so it’s important to be honest.
Medication is prescribed when depression interferes to the point where you can no longer function, especially if you’re having suicidal thoughts. In these cases, medication is needed to reduce the intensity of your symptoms.
It can take teens between six months and a year to feel like they’re back on track with their mental health. But remember that every case is different. The duration of therapy can depend on several factors: how long you wait before seeing a doctor, how much effort you put into therapy, how effective the antidepressants are, whether or not you get the right one the first time, etc. Generally speaking, when depression is diagnosed and treated during adolescence, the recovery time is shorter than if you wait until later in life.
Antidepressants have changed dramatically over the years. Nowadays, they ease your symptoms and stabilize your mood without “turning you into a zombie.” If your antidepressants make you feel zoned out, it probably means that the medication or dosage is not adapting to your body the way it should, so you should talk to your doctor or pharmacist right away.
In certain cases, yes. But in young people, it’s quite rare, especially if you stick to your treatment plan. It’s important to understand that the longer you wait to get help, the longer the treatment will take. Often, when you’re diagnosed as an adult, you realize that the illness actually started a long time ago, often in adolescence. And that’s a lot of suffering that could have been avoided if you’d asked for help sooner.
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Reference
1. Ronald Kessler et al., “Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication,” Archives of General Psychiatry 62, no. 6 ( 2005): 593–602.