Teen Depression Resulting in Alcoholism

Teen Depression Resulting in Alcoholism

When teens become depressed they often use alcohol as an escape route. Studies have shown that teen depression can be directly related to problems at home, school, or social lives. Depression can be both severe and longer lasting. Depression is characterized by feelings of hopelessness, sadness, isolation, worry, withdrawal and worthlessness that can last for two weeks or more. It is shown that 9 percent of high school students are severely depressed. This is important since depression is the most important risk factor for suicide. Most young people become depressed from the stress of events that have negatively affected their lives although, some people may become depressed from having too much work to deal with. In a Minnesota study it showed that teens who reported that they had made a suicide attempt had five additional bad events on their list. This consisted of their parents getting divorced, loss of a close friend, changing to a new school, failing grades and personal illness or injury. It is very important that the young people who showed high degrees of depression and who had made suicide attempts reported over five of these events in the past six months, more than twice as many as the rest of the group. If your teen is depressed, he or she will probably display two or more of the following symptoms for two consecutive weeks. These should be behaviors that are not normally displayed, like a change in their behavior. Some behaviors to look for are A change in their grades at school, trouble concentrating, angered very easily, begins to become unhappy or sad most of the time, change in eating and sleeping habits, avoiding people and activities that were usually enjoyed, an excessive display of guilt or anxiety, complaints of physical aches and pains, aggressive or risky behaviors, or any talk of death or suicide. If your child displays the symptoms of depression for longer than two weeks, you most likely should seek medical help. Your pediatrician is a good person to start with. Also try guidance counselors or a family psychiatrist. Your child will probably have to have some tests ran on them to confirm that the symptoms are not caused by an illness or an infection. If your pediatrician feels that the symptoms are serious enough, he may refer your teen for mental health counseling. If you have never been to a mental health counselor or a psychiatrist, you may be hesitant about going. According to many myths, seeking the help of a counselor