WOMEN’S BODIES: DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE IN PUBERTY
Depression
This is worryingly common in teenagers. It usually comes on so gradually that it takes a long time or a desperate act before anyone realizes there’s a problem. When you’re depressed you feel worthless and hopeless. You become more and more sad, tearful, irritable and withdrawn. You lose all interests and can’t concentrate your thoughts. Schoolwork suffers. Depression is a really vicious cycle: the deeper it gets, the worse your feelings of hopelessness become; your behaviour becomes more withdrawn and unlikeable so that people avoid you. This convinces you even more that you’re unlovable.
Depression can be a reaction to thinking that you have an insoluble problem and that this means there must be something wrong with you. Often when teenagers and their families have had an easy life, they’ve had no experience of thinking their way through difficult situations, bit, by bit, and together. You may be depressed because you have no practice in facing difficulties. Others have faced the same human dilemmas, and have found their own answers. These may not be the right answers for you, but talking to others and learning how they’ve tackled problems can be a great help.
Depression can make you physically ill too. Common symptoms are headaches, muscle aches and pains, appetite disturbances leading to excess weight loss or gain, and stomach pains. Sleep is often disturbed: you sleep too much or can’t sleep.
Depressed kids often get up to uncharacteristic (for them), antisocial behaviour. Girls may ‘act out’ their depression sexually, becoming promiscuous or deliberately getting pregnant. They may become rude, aggressive, ill-tempered, disruptive and may even get into trouble with the law by stealing or damaging property. This confirms their belief that they are ‘no good’.
We all get the odd fit of the blues. Most of us can bounce back after a couple of days. Depression that continues to deepen for weeks or months is a dangerous illness with a high risk of suicide. If you feel that you or any of your friends may be depressed, speak to an adult you trust. Help is urgently needed. Depression can be associated with a chemical disorder in the brain, and this can be helped by medication. Drug treatments should always go along with counselling (psychotherapy) to help sort out and do something about problems that might be contributing to the depression.
Suicide
Over the past 20 years everyone’s become alarmed at the increase in suicide and suicidal behaviour among young people. The rate has tripled for young men, in whom it’s second only to road accidents as a cause of death. The rate for girls has stayed more or less the same, though more girls man boys attempt to kill themselves. Boys are more likely to use a successful method such as shooting or hanging themselves. Many road and drug-overdose ‘accidents’ are really disguised suicides.
Can something be done to save these young lives? I think that many suicides could be prevented by recognizing and treating depression earlier. The trouble is that many people don’t want to think about suicide or mental illness as things that could happen to them or anyone in their family. It’s something that happens to other people: that is, until it touches close to home.
*68/31/5*
