Weekend Post 2/12 - 2/13 (Teen Issue- Depression)

One of the teen issues is Depression.Depression is the most common mental health disorder in the United States among teens and adults.

• About 20 percent of teens will experience teen depression before they reach adulthood.
• Between 10 to 15 percent of teenagers have some symptoms of teen depression at any one time.
• About 5 percent of teens are suffering from major depression at any one time
• As many as 8.3 percent of teens suffer depression for at least a year at a time, compared to about 5.3 percent of the general population.
• Most teens with depression will suffer from more than one episode. 20 to 40 percent will have more than one episode within two years, and 70 percent will have more than one episode before adulthood. Episodes of teen depression generally last about 8 months.
• Dysthymia, a type of mild, long-lasting depression, affects about 2 percent of teens, and about the same percentage of teens develop bipolar disorder in their late teenage years. 15 percent of teens with depression eventually develop bipolar disorder.
• A small percent of teens also suffer from seasonal depression, usually during the winter months in higher latitudes.

Teen depression can affect a teen regardless of gender, social background, income level, race, or school or other achievements, though teenage girls report suffering from depression more often than teenage boys. Teenage boys are also less likely to seek help or recognize that they suffer from depression, probably due to different social expectations for boys and girls�girls are encouraged to express their feelings while boys are not. Teenage girls' somewhat stronger dependence on social ties, however, can increase the chances of teen depression being triggered by social factors, such as loss of friends.

Visit teenhelp for more info.