Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Most Teens Suffer Depression Alone

Boys under report their depression and often don't get help. Unfortunately this pattern continues into adulthood. Eight percent of all teenagers ages 12-17 report  feeling depressed two or more weeks in the last year and this number breaks down very differently for girls than boys.  
In older teens, 15-17, 15% of girls and 6.4% of boys say they had a major depressive period in the preceding year.
Early intervention is key because depressed teenagers abuse drugs and/or alcohol to self medicate. Author Melissa Healy discusses Teen Screen a standardized mental health screening test for adolescents in The Los Angeles Times.

1 comment:

  1. A lot of these people aren't being serious, like how you showed in the example. However, for every person like that, there's another person who actually is depressed and suicidal. Usually they don't fling around the words 'kill myself' that much, but I'm guessing that there are people like that who do.
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