Youth Depression

Hello Reader,

Welcome once again to my blog, i hope you are staying safe and adhering to safety measures and protocols put in place to combat the novel corona virus. Remember, safety above all else.

Image by Jayne - Pexels

Today i want us to take a look depression in the young adult or youth or adolescent. Close to 800,000 people die in a year as a result of suicide (WHO) and many of these is attributed to depression. Knowing about it may help you help someone and you may just end up saving a life.

Depression

Depression may simply be looked at as a disorder of mood, one may even consider it as extreme mood swings whereas the neurologist may look at it in terms of chemical imbalances at any particular time in the brain.

Depression may come about in a mild form or a severe form and the general symptoms include feeling of hopelessness, extreme sadness, anxiousness, restlessness, loss of interest in things that already interests you, inability to focus or get things done, reduced sexual urge etc.

The symptoms are many however it is important that we understand that whiles all of these symptoms happen to us every now and then, it does not automatically mean we are depressed. It may just be transient feeling for many of us however if you notice consistency in any of these happenings then something could be wrong.

Image by Rebcenter - Pexels

Causes/Risk factors

The things we are exposed to in life tend to have lots of effects on us, especially on our mental health and development, for young adults who are just finding their foot in the world it is easy to slip into bad company or get overwhelmed by the world such that one could easily fall into depression.

It is known that individuals with substance abuse problems including alcohol and other hard drugs most often than not end up with depression. Also, having a low self esteem may be an important risk factor for developing depression. Low self esteem mostly stems from the house when parents are not supportive and encouraging and tends to look down on their children. Your school or academic life may also be a proponent to this occurrence.

Again young adults have their hormones running haywire all over the place, not taking good care of once health could also be a causative factor. Depression may also be considered hereditary considering the fact that it may run in a particular family. Then there are also some medications which causes brain activities to slow down and may become a risk factor in that sense.

Stressful scenarios such as witnessing your parents go through a divorce, examinations setbacks or failures, financial constraints at home, losing a loved one etc could also act as a causative factor to developing depression.

Image by RF studio - Pexel

What Do I Do If I Am Depressed

There is common that goes like understanding the question is part of the answer, in this case there is nothing better than been able to tell something is wrong with you since depression diagnosis does not follow a particular routine and one can only be helped if they are willing to help themselves in the first place.

First and foremost it is advisable to see your primary care practitioner about what you may be experience for health evaluation since lots of factors could be causing that, eat healthy and avoid situations that may triggered this kind of feeling or sensation. For instance, if been alone makes you feel too lonely and down, try to be amidst friends most times.

Your primary care giver may refer you to a specialist or psychologist should they have reason to believe that you may be suffering from clinical depression and that you are not sad because you lost a dollar the previous day. It is also very important that you report back to your caregiver if you notice treatment not working, however let me hasten to add that most drugs used for depression treatments starts functioning about 2 weeks or 3 weeks into the therapy thus do exercise a bit of patience.

Image by Podrez - Pixabay

Conclusion

This post certainly do not cover every single aspect of depression that could be looked at however the idea is to let readers understand depression and the need to get help when the case arise. I hope you at least got something from this.

Thanks for reading, stay safe and have a great week, Special thanks to my mentors and supporters @mcsamm, @tj4real, @armandosodano, @delilhavores, @gentleshaid, @agmoore. For further reading;

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression

https://www.healthline.com/health/depression#test

https://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/teen-depression#1