How Teenage Depression Affects Teenage Self-Esteem
Teenage depression is a common problem faced by many teenagers. Even if they come from the healthiest environment, due to various hormonal changes in their body result in them feeling extremely low and depressed. If parents do not take it seriously it can result in loss of teenage self-esteem and ultimately teenagers can take extreme steps like committing suicide. It is therefore important to give teenagers lots of love and unquestioned support to help them navigate through this difficult phase of their life. Below are some of the symptoms that can help you recognise if your teenager is suffering teenage depression.
Behavioural Traits: Low teenage self-esteem and teenage depression can manifest themselves in the form of extreme behavioural traits like withdrawal or irritable behaviour and increased violence. They might get upset about the smallest of things and start shouting. Often they might throw things in the house or cause destruction in other ways. In some other cases they might withdraw completely and stop communicating with family members.
Suicidal Tendencies and Self-Harm: Suicidal tendencies and self-harm are both extreme symptoms of teenage depression and low teenage self-esteem. Following are some of the key symptoms of suicidal tendencies or self-harm:· Your teenager starts talking about committing suicide · They start associating with death in a positive manner · Some teenagers also go further by fantasising about death through personal diaries or poems and making comments on social networking sites indicating their thoughts· Others show reckless behaviour like driving too fast, hurting themselves and having lot of accidents· Your teenager might also start withdrawing from best friends and family · They can seek weapons and materials to commit suicide· Self harm can be noticed by cuts or scarring, a tendency to wear a different style of clothing to cover up the marks, or finding sharp objects or plasters in your teen’s room.
These behaviours are very serious and as parents you need to take your child to a doctor or psychiatrist immediately.
Eating Disorders: Another major symptom of teenage depression is eating disorders leading to excessive weight gain or loss. Low teenage self-esteem resulting from appearance, obesity or poor performance at school could lead many teenagers to go to the extreme of either eating too much or too little. If you start noticing these signals, it is worth probing to see if your teenager is suffering from depression.
Teenage depression is one of the major reasons for teenage suicides in recent times. Parents need to be extremely careful and should provide maximum support to their teenagers so that they can navigate through this difficult phase of their life with confidence. In the book “Solving Teenage Problems” over 100 tips are provided to help parents support their teenagers who are suffering from depression or any other teenage problem leading to depression. It is important for parents to use every tool within their means to keep their teenagers happy.
