By Aeriana Smith ’25
The majority of teens feel as if they are not being acknowledged when it comes to depression. This leads to depersonalization, isolation, horrible habits, and even suicide. If we fail to take more action to be aware whether or not the people next to us are okay, what does that tell us about the shallow-minded people we might be?
When feeling drained, you tend to have a distraught outlook on life. Possessing a negative outlook can cause you to not care about achieving your goals, short-term or long-term, and put less effort into them. Avoidance behavior can have a similar effect as it can make you not complete your daily tasks and make you very overwhelmed when everything piles up from a lack of motivation. For example, “Teenage Isolation and How Parents Can Help,” states, “Teen social withdrawal is a form of avoidant behavior. Teenage avoidance behaviors—also called avoidance coping—refer to ways of behaving, motivated by the desire to avoid certain thoughts or feelings. The proliferation of social media contributes to teenage withdrawal and isolation. That is because teens think that they can substitute real-life connections with virtual ones.”
Not only does avoidance behavior affect tasks, but your character as well. By wanting to avoid the world you put yourself in a figurative bubble where you feel that everyone is against you and the safest place is home, avoiding the world. This means you’ll never want to go out and experience life. Which also weighs down heavily on the creative, social, and expressive side of your personality. When scrolling through your feed and seeing sad videos that manipulate you into feeling neglectful about yourself, for example, only because at some point in life you may have related to feeling drained, your mind automatically signifies that and replaces any feelings you had before seeing the video. This can lead you into a deeper spiral of questioning yourself and your present emotions. While used as a means of self-esteem boosts, teens post on social media to feel confident about themselves, but the pressure to pick the perfect picture and an unrealistic self-image negates the ego boost and depletes confidence.
If we see someone we feel is more attractive than us, we question why we don’t meet that bar, despite understanding everyone nowadays changes how they look by editing. TikTok is one of the biggest ego deflaters that follows the subject because millions of people from all over the world have different shapes, sizes, ethnicities, races, and styles which many can’t and will never relate to. Influencers and businesses push advertisements that affect young viewers into thinking products or specific items will make us look better, which affects our perception of our natural self being enough. This can also trick us into a sense of urgency to be consumers, even if we can’t afford it(another impact on mental health). This all pushes heavy and unrealistic standards onto us. For example, skincare advertisements promise clear skin and removal of scars, shapewear promises the ideal figure, teeth whitening ads promise that stains will go away, and makeup promises ideal beauty.
“Why Does Self-Care Sometimes Feel So Hard?” states, “Self-care takes work—be it getting your day behind you to get to bed on time, planning, shopping for, and preparing healthy meals, or keeping up with an exercise routine. When you are tired, and perhaps most in need of self-care, is exactly when exerting effort for anything can feel like an especially tall order—even if you know it will help you feel better on the other side.” Therefore, when we are aware of all these things we need to do, we feel we have to reach all these expectations to make ourselves “better.” Realistically, that crashes down on us with the weight of a million crushing pounds. Along these lines, “The Relationship Between Anxiety and Depression,” states, “The chance of acquiring depression is much higher when an anxiety disorder already exists. Nearly half of those with major depression also suffer from severe and persistent anxiety.”
People who are depressed tend to feel anxious and overwhelmed frequently. Anxiety and depression trigger each other when feeling a discomforting emotion. It can be immensely difficult to struggle with these disorders because when both emotions intertwine, it can cause panic or anxiety attacks that make you feel like you cannot stay calm and/or sane. Any burdening emotion that emerges with worry, then makes us feel like the entire world is against us, and leads to depersonalization, which is associated with trauma. Trauma can include abuse that may have been physical, like domestic violence, or accidents/natural disasters, life-threatening dangers, death of a loved one, death of a pet, or even a parent with a severe mental illness.
“Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder” adds on by stating, “In depersonalization-derealization disorder, you feel detached from yourself and disconnected from your environment. It might feel like you are watching yourself play a role in a movie rather than living your life. For example, if you are grocery shopping, you might feel like you are watching someone else push your cart, select food from the shelves, and go through the check-out line. Or you might not recognize your reflection in the glass doors of the frozen section.” This process generally shuts you off like a power switch that disconnects you from reality mentally, physically, emotionally, and environmentally. It is almost as if you are a robot that is controlled by another and not yourself.
This sets a numb feeling, as if you are observing yourself and the world from outside your body, almost as if you are constantly living in a dream world. It is a constant chaotic and destructive warfare between you and reality.
When constantly struggling with self-identity and wanting to feel normal, many behaviors can occur in a harmful manner. “Depression in Teens: How Parents Can Help” states, “Depression can lead some teens to misbehave, get in trouble, or argue more. They may show risky behaviors. Some turn to alcohol, drugs, or self-harm…Some depressed teens have thoughts of suicide.” Similarly, “Most Reported Substance Use Among Adolescents Held Steady in 2022″ shares, “Though the data have indicated stable or declining use of illicit drugs among young people over many years, other research has reported a recent dramatic rise in overdose deaths among young people ages 14-18,” putting teens at an extremely damaging health risk.
“Everyday Health” similarly adds, “People with depression are also at higher risk of chronic inflammatory or autoimmune conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, or inflammatory bowel disease. It is unclear if depression causes inflammation or vice versa, according to a study published in July 2019 in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.” If we don’t help out struggling teens, the population of those using drugs and committing suicide will continue to rise higher. When feeling all these emotions at a very young age, it is draining to keep picking yourself back up.
“Teen Suicide Statistics” reports, “Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 24. Over half of all youth who suffer from depression will attempt suicide at least once, and more than seven percent of these will die as a result. Young women attempt suicide three times more frequently than young men. Depression increases the risk of a first suicide attempt by at least 14-fold. Young people who’ve attempted suicide in the past or who talk about suicide are at greater risk of future attempts.” Signs can be verbal, nonverbal, or written expressions. Some may feel comfortable speaking up with their issues, though others may show it by looking upset or angry 24/7. Verbal signs may include “I’d be better off dead,” or “I won’t have to deal with all this pain much longer.”
For those who think depression is a joke or choice, really do your research and realize how destructive the weight of the world can be on growing teens trying their best. Just because you see a smile on their face or they do not act negatively towards you does not mean they do not lie awake at night fantasizing about things getting better.
If you choose to ask what teen depression really is, it is an out-of-body experience of trying to re-attach your mind and body while at times feeling like your body physically keeps crashing down and your mind is drifting away. Attaching to your higher self will always be a struggle, so give yourself some credit when all possibilities of the world are sometimes seemingly just out of reach! We are human as well…just because we are younger and struggle does not mean we deserve less empathy and care.
The Raider Press 