Depression in Young Adults In todays society, many young people are faced with tough decisions and adult situations. With so much stress on our shoulders, young people may easily become depressed. Adolescent depression is a greatly under diagnosed disease that leads to serious difficulty in school and personal life. Depression is usually under-diagnosed because many children and young adults are not always able to express how they feel. During adolescence, many teens and children are very unsure of what is going on in their lives. Because of puberty and changes in hormones, teens may feel depressed over a typical teenage situation (ex. breaking up with ones boyfriend or girlfriend) and may not realize that what they are feeling is normal for someone of their age. A person needs to be mentally healthy in order to learn and function properly with their family and society in general. Achieving good mental health may sometimes be difficult depending upon the severity of the state of depression. Many times medication is prescribed to help with the depression, but medication isnt always the only answer. Along with the proper prescribed medication, a person suffering from depression should seek professional counseling and have their family be aware of the normal symptoms of depression. It takes more than just the diagnosed to help cure the problem. Depression has a wide range of symptoms, from being sad or mad to withdrawn, or lashing out at others. Symptoms of youth depression are often masked. Instead of expressing sadness, teenagers may express boredom and irritability, or may choose to engage in risky behaviors. Other emotional problems make it hard to recognize depression in a child, but usually overlap with depression. A depressed child may also have a conduct disorder, in which the child consistently violates rules that may be inappropriate for his or her age. Symptoms for this include bullying, stealing, lying, and being...
