Xuzhou Mental Health Service Station: Depression is a common chronic mental illness with high disability rate, high recurrence rate and high risk of suicide. The overall prevalence rate in the population is 2.2%-10.4%, and it has shown a trend of getting younger in recent years. The incidence increases to 6% to 9% during adolescence.
1. Dangers
Depression seriously harms the physical and mental health of young people, and some may even commit suicide. In addition to mood symptoms, adolescent depression patients may be accompanied by poor health and impaired cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and information processing speed. Depression in adolescence can also induce and aggravate depression in adulthood, affecting an individual's life. Without late identification and intervention, the prognosis of adolescent depression is very poor, and a considerable number of symptoms will persist into adulthood, seriously affecting academic, interpersonal and social functions.
2. Manifestations
The manifestations of adolescent depression usually include the following aspects:
First, patients may be depressed, lack a sense of well-being, have low self-evaluation, and have a serious decrease in interest. Severe cases may have thoughts and behaviors of suicide and self-injury. Some patients may experience emotional symptoms such as emotional instability, irritability, bad temper, and irritability.
Second, patients may experience cognitive symptoms, such as chatting, slow speech, slow thinking, difficulty concentrating, and memory loss.
Third, patients may experience physical symptoms, such as sleep disorders, loss or increase of appetite, significant changes in weight, headache, dizziness, chest tightness, palpitations , suffocation , etc.
Fourth, patients may show mental retardation, that is, significant reduction in activity, slow movement, or psychomotor agitation , that is, irritability, nervousness, and impulsive behavior.
Fifth, some adolescent patients with depression may also experience symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. Once the above situation is discovered, parents should take their children to the hospital as soon as possible.
3. Family Support
Depression in adolescents often starts slowly and is hidden. The late symptoms are atypical and mainly include depression, procrastination, irritability, loss of interest in learning, and loss of appetite.
Parents should be keenly aware of these changes in their children, rather than simply treating them as "adolescent reactions." During the actual consultation process, parents were reluctant to admit that their children had depression, thinking it was a shame. In these family relationships, parents view their children's mental state and excellence as an extension of their own abilities, and we can see that they are unwilling to face their vulnerable selves.
Therefore, parents should understand and encourage their children to express their current emotions. Parents should be loving, patient and caring towards their children. At the same time, parents should actively take their children to seek support and help from professional doctors.
Many parents will say to doctors: "Doctor, you don't care about my emotions. If you cure your child, I will be fine." In fact, this sentence should be said the other way around. Only by overcoming the anxiety and resentment caused by their child's illness can parents empower their children and help them gradually recover.
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