Mom, I'm not being hypocritical, I'm just sick...

How much do you know about teenage depression?

"Depression is just sadness. Children are more prone to emotionality. This is not considered a disease, right?"

"Parents help their children build strong willpower so that they won't suffer from depression."

"Our children are bright and healthy and won't get depressed."

…

The real situation may be far beyond your imagination.

The "Epidemiological Survey on Mental Disorders among Children and Adolescents in China" released on this year's World Mental Health Day showed that the national prevalence of mental disorders among children and adolescents was 17.5%, of which major depressive disorder accounted for 2.0%.

The "China National Mental Health Development Report (2019-2020)" released in March this year showed that in 2020, the detection rate of depression among Chinese teenagers reached 24.6%.

This means that almost 1 in 4 teenagers experience symptoms of depression.

Teenagers have been included in the key group for depression prevention. Depression has become a common disease and is no longer a "niche" disease, but it is not easy for us to detect.

Due to the particularity of the adolescent group, children are often misjudged by adults as "young and ignorant", "spoiled and pretentious", and they think that everything will be fine after this period of time.

Many times, we don’t realize how close depression is to our children until it actually happens.

01

A short film about teenage depression, "Under the Lights", has attracted much attention.

The short film interviews a high school girl named Junko who is suffering from depression. She tells the story of her illness and her feelings in front of the camera.

When the interviewer asked: How did you develop depression?

Junko's expression was a little confused. She couldn't tell the specific moment. She just remembered that at the beginning, the pressure from study and interpersonal relationships was quite high. The atmosphere in the family was not very good. She encountered many problems, so she was in a bad mood.

But later, her bad mood lasted longer and longer, and it became increasingly difficult to relieve her depression. Sometimes she would be depressed for a week or two because of a trivial matter, and she would lose her temper because of losing a pen.

Then she developed physical symptoms such as indigestion and dizziness.

"It's no longer a matter of whether you are in a good mood or not in life, but a bad mood is your whole life."

As her condition became more serious, Junko developed severe insomnia. She would fall into a drowsy sleep at 4:30 a.m. every day and had to get up at 6 a.m. to go to school. She was in very bad spirits at school and would lie on the table in a daze in class.

Due to long-term lack of sleep and emotional depression, Junko showed symptoms of mental distraction and severe loss of concentration. She was prone to falling and spraining her ankle when walking on the road, and she didn't have time to dodge cars when crossing the road. She didn't want to do anything.

"At that time, some strange thoughts would come into my mind, and later I would think about these thoughts carefully, such as death."

Junko finally started seeking help from the outside world and was diagnosed with depression. At the doctor's advice, she decided to drop out of school and recuperate at home for a while.

Junko said that as a depression patient, she deeply discovered that people's understanding and scientific knowledge of this disease are still insufficient.

"Mental illness is more of an invisible battle. In this difficult process, patients, doctors, relatives, colleagues, and friends may all have a significant impact. I hope everyone can pay more attention to this group, question it less, and accompany it more..."

02

Adults can often quickly detect physical illnesses in children and take them to the hospital for treatment, but psychological problems are difficult to detect.

Even if they discover the problem, many parents procrastinate due to lack of time, lack of understanding, etc. They initially think that time will smooth out everything, but the problem becomes more and more serious until it develops into a pathology.

Adolescent depression is not a simple psychological problem that can be cured by psychological counseling without going to the hospital. In fact, depression is a disease that requires comprehensive treatment with medication, physical therapy, psychotherapy, or a combination of the three. It can be regarded as a mental "cold" that can be cured. Through reasonable treatment and intervention, most patients can achieve satisfactory results.

How to determine whether a child suffers from depression?

There is no so-called "look" for depression. Many cheerful and smiling children may be experiencing great pain and suffering in their hearts. This requires parents to pay more careful attention to their children in life.

When the following conditions occur and the symptoms persist for more than two weeks, and normal life, study, and social interaction are significantly affected, it is recommended to go to a psychiatric hospital or a general hospital's psychiatric department for treatment in a timely manner▼

1. You just can’t be happy for a while. This kind of sadness is not only reflected in your expression, but also in your actions and posture.

2. They may show boredom and indifference towards social interactions and begin to lose interest in things around them.

3. Cognitive functions are impaired, resulting in memory loss, inattention, slow reaction, decreased creativity, etc.

4. Accompanied by long-term insomnia, loss of appetite, weight loss, and constant feeling of fatigue without clear reasons.

It needs to be distinguished that depression is not simply a "bad mood". It has strict diagnostic criteria, and it cannot be considered as depression based on simple individual symptoms or simple screening scales.

Therefore, when children encounter unhappy things, they may also feel depressed or stressed, and it cannot be simply judged as depression. The criterion of "related symptoms lasting for more than two weeks" is very important.

03

At present, the pathogenesis of depression is still unclear, but it is generally believed that depression is the result of multiple factors such as biological, psychological and social environment.

Adolescent depression often comes from the real difficulties they face.

Many children are only children, and they have been carrying high expectations from their parents since childhood. In school, they face intense pressure to study and go to higher education. In life, they are very likely to fall into the quagmire of Internet addiction. In addition, the unique curiosity and thirst for knowledge of teenagers conflict with their immature minds, which can easily cause them to have psychological problems or even mental disorders.

It is worth mentioning that people's understanding of depression is constantly improving. Many people have realized that depression is not about being squeamish or pretentious, and it is not something that can be "endured" or "passed if you think more positively." Going deeper, some people also know that depression is not just a psychological problem, it also includes physiological changes caused by psychology.

Last September, the National Health Commission issued the "Work Plan for Exploring Characteristic Services for Depression Prevention and Treatment", proposing that high schools and colleges include depression screening in student health checkups, establish archives to assess students' mental health, and pay special attention to those with abnormalities. In daily life, mental health education is made a compulsory course, and psychological counseling (consultation) rooms are set up with professional teachers to teach and provide guidance and help to students.

The Beijing Municipal Education Commission also recently issued a "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Mental Health for Primary and Secondary School Students", proposing to establish and improve a graded warning and intervention mechanism for students' psychological crises, and that each primary and secondary school be equipped with at least one full-time mental health education teacher. A mental health assessment will be conducted annually for senior primary school students, junior high school students, and high school students, and home visits will be conducted at least once a semester for students who have difficulties in life, learning, or mental health issues and need special attention.

These measures will provide early warning and intervention for children's psychological problems, provide practical help for students suffering from depression, and allow adolescent depression patients to get the best time for treatment, thereby helping them recover as soon as possible and return to normal campus life.

I hope we can be less suspicious of our children, more supportive and companion, and not vent negative emotions on them. We should not only pay attention to their academic performance, but also let them participate in more group activities, make more friends, and reduce their loneliness. Families, schools, and society should work together to keep all children away from depression!

Source: Capital Education. Some of the materials in this article are compiled from People's Daily, Guangming Daily, Parents Must Read, Sunny Day Psychology, etc.