Normal Adolescent Behavior or Teen Depression?

Adolescence is by nature a time of moodiness and up and down mood swings as young people begin to mature physically as well as emotionally. But in some cases these emotional extremes may indicate a serious health condition. How can you tell if your child is exhibiting normal behavior or is, instead, suffering from teen depression? And if it’s depression, what can you do about it?

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health estimates that approximately five percent of all adolescents are affected by serious depression. As in adults, teen depression is a serious condition that can require treatment to resolve. Left untreated depression can often worsen.

The signs of teen depression will vary from one child to the next and are very similar to normal adolescent behavior, but there are signs you can watch for. Many depressed teens will begin to withdraw from their previous relationships with friends and family and spend unusually long periods of time alone and may spend more time sleeping.

Depressed adolescents may refuse to go to school, complaining of a nonspecific illness or fatigue, and their appetites may change, either eating too much or not eating. They may also exhibit irritability, express negative thoughts and obsess with death and dying. Many young people may suddenly exhibit behavioral problems at school and at home, and can begin to experience a decline in their academic performance.

Some teens may display other serious kinds of behavior, such as cutting themselves or, of course, attempting suicide. Certain eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, which are different from changes in appetite, can be a sign of depression.

Because it is often difficult to distinguish teen depression from normal adolescent behavior, the only way to get an accurate diagnosis is to have your child examined by a medical professional with experience in the field of mental health. It is particularly important to seek medical advice when someone else in the family, a parent, grandparent or even and uncle, has experienced depression because depression has been found to run in families. A traumatic event, such as a death in the family, as well as other stressful events, such as a close friend moving away, can often trigger serious depression.

While no parent wants to see their child suffer, the good news is that teen depression can be treated. If your child is found to be suffering from depression, several therapies are available. Psychotherapy or “talk” therapy is usually the first course of treatment. If this is not effective, there are medications available to treat depression. A significant research investigation, the Adolescents with Depression Study, suggests that psychotherapy combined with medication is the most effective course of treatment for teen depression.

Special caution must be taken when treating adolescents with antidepressants, as serious side effects may occur. Most of the drugs tested for treating depression were tested on adults, and the effects on adolescents were not well known before the medications were prescribed for adolescents. For example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, called SSRIs, have increasingly been used to also treat teen depression and mental health experts are now concerned that the use of antidepressant medications may induce suicidal behavior among adolescents.

As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently took action to require that the manufacturers of antidepressants place warning labels on their drugs indicating the possible risk. Medical professionals also recommend that young people taking these medications be monitored carefully for any kind of unusual behavior that could indicate that their depression is increasing or that they are exhibiting suicidal behavior.

While every young person will react or often overreact to life’s ups and downs, more extreme reactions to stressors could be a sign of teen depression. If you suspect your child may be affected you should seek professional help immediately.