What does depression mean to the teenage generation?
March 15th, 2018
By Lydia, Eniola, Maya and Liam
Depression is a word commonly used in conversation now. You may hear a friend saying “I’ve got maths next. It’s so depressing!” or “I’m so depressed. My Mum took away my phone!” But depression is something quite different than the maths class you’re dreading. The definition from the Mental Health Foundation is a common mental disorder that causes people to experience a depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration.
How many people have depression?
You may think of depression as a rare mental disease that will never affect you or the ones you love, but an estimated 1 out of 10 teenagers suffer depression or anxiety at some point. So think of your friendship group. At least one of your friends has, are, or will suffer depression and you may suffer depression too. Even your most cheerful friends may suffer depression, because quite a few people hide their depression, thinking no one will understand, care, or they feel like their emotions don’t matter.
How do teens experience depression?
Now we’ve told you the facts about depression, but what do we, the teens, think it is? For this one we asked a depressed teen and they said “It’s hard to explain. It’s like you’re alone, but there’s people there for you, like you're drowning, but no one is there to save you.” Doesn’t sound like the first definition. That’s because depression isn’t defined by a definition, it’s defined by a feeling. And you can call depression whatever you want to, but it’s a feeling and is only defined by the emotions you feel.
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How many people do we know who have depression?
For this question we all had different answers: “three people”, “I think I know four-ish people”, “none”, “I know two, wait……four”, “Ummmm, none”, and “I think 4, but I’m not sure about one.” So, most of us have depressed friends and people we know, but let’s ask a different question...
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