Clinical depression, also referred to as major depression, is more than sadness that lasts a day or two until you feel better. In true depressive disorders, signs last weeks, months , or even years if no medication is provided.
Depression also results in the patient being unable to conduct day-to-day tasks, such as getting out of bed or getting ready, much less working, making errands, or socializing.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Psychiatric Disorders (DSM-5), an approved resource for the diagnosis of mental disorders, the general manifestations of major depressive episodes, regardless of age, include a stressed or irritable disposition for at least two weeks and at least five of the following clinical signs and symptoms:
*Feeling sad like a bit grey
*Crying also
*Loss of motivation or enjoyment in daily activities
*Important rise or reduction in appetite
*Important weight loss, insufficient weight gain, or unnecessary weight gain
*Sleep rhythm change: failure to sleep or prolonged sleep
*Agitation, annoyance, or frustration
*Fatigue or lack of resources
*A propensity to be separated from friends and family
*Concentrating Difficulty
*Feelings of worthlessness or of undue shame
*Thoughts of death or thoughts, plans, or efforts to commit suicide
Depressed teens may also have classical symptoms, but may also have other symptoms, including
*bad performance at training,
*Persevering boredom,
*Frequent medical symptoms, such as headaches and stomach aches,
*Involvement of self-harm that is not meant to cause death (e.g. slashing or burning)
*More risk-taking activity and/or less regard about their own safety.
Examples of risk-taking habits involve driving imprudently or at an unreasonable distance, socializing with strangers or otherwise without reasonable concern for their own wellbeing, engaging in promiscuous or unsafe sex, or being intoxicated with alcohol or other drugs, especially in circumstances when they are driving or in the company of others who engage in dangerous behaviors.
The use of alcohol or other medications that exist in troubled youth and other age groups is frequently assumed to be an individual's effort (risky and potentially unsuccessful as it may be) to make themselves feel better (self-medication).
Teen parents with depression also report the following behavioral changes in adolescents:
*Crying more or more quickly
*More irritable or offensive than normal
*Eating shifts, shifts in sleep habits, or weight changes dramatically or the teen does not gain weight as necessary for their age.
*Unexplained medical symptoms (e.g. headache or stomach pain)
*Spending more time apart, separating from friends and family
*Becoming more "clingy" and more reliant on those relationships (which is less normal than social withdrawal).
*Overly pessimistic or overly guilty, or feeling useless.
*Expresses feelings of hurting him or herself, or shows imprudent or other negative actions.
About 3,000 young people die of suicide every year in the United States , making it the third leading cause of death in young people aged 10-24. Latino and African-American teenage girls are believed to commit suicide more frequently than their age counterparts who are male or of other ethnic backgrounds. Native-American teenagers appear to commit suicide about twice as much than the national average, and homosexual, lesbian, bisexual , and transgender teenagers commit suicide four times more than their straight peers.
The warning signs for teen suicide may include the following:
*Sudden behavioral shift
*Absence of inspiration
*Social withdrawal / isolation of
*Changes in eating habits
*Concern over death or dying
*To give away valuable personal belongings
*Symptoms or symptoms of depression
*Improved moodiness
*Unhappiness
*What seems to be a dramatic change in attitude (due to a suicidal solution.)
