Teens Meet Outreach

When the word depression is mentioned, our minds picture a sad demeanor with frequent mood swings and sluggish act. Some people believe that depression is mere sadness, therefore when you are sad, it means you are depressed.

Depression is totally different from being sad, unfulfilled, and grief. Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel. 

Sadness can be a state or emotion of being sad. It can be as a result of a sad event or happening. 

Grief can be as a result of losing someone, a job or something amazing. 

Symptoms of Depression

•  Feeling worthless
• Changes in appetite
• Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
• Decreased energy level
• Thoughts of death or suicide.

Risk Factors of Depression

1. Environmental factor

As individuals, we grow from different backgrounds and meet different people on daily basis.

I published a book on mental health recently and I got interviewed on one of my Facebook groups. A young lady asked me why a 13year old girl who was brought from the UK started acting weird and restless, and the lady who asked the question thinks she is suffering from a mental illness. 

I replied the lady by telling her that it isn’t true, you can’t compare a child has spent the first 13years of her life in the UK, and expect her to cope with Nigeria’s ways of disciplining a child. 

Environmental factor contributes to increasing your chances of depression. Teenagers who come from broken homes are also likely to be affected and also in a case where the mother insults the father and bully him because she is the breadwinner of the family. 

Children may find it difficult to distinguish between a positive and negative attitude, even when it affects their mindset.

2. Cyberbullying

Several teenagers suffer the effects of cyberbullying, and this put them at the risk of depression.

3. Personality 

Individuals who tend to be perfectionists will always want to have everything good and beautiful, even if it will cost them their peace of mind. 

I hate procrastinating, and to avoid procrastination I give myself multiple tasks under a few days or hours, and when I put myself under pressure to meet up to deadlines, I end up being tired, depressed because of no results. 

I ended my night shift at work yesterday morning, went to church, left church very late, ended up chatting, replying comments on Facebook. I slept very late and woke up feeling very tired this morning, if this cycle continues for days, I may end up feeling depressed overwriting. This is an example of how personality can lead to depression.

4. Abuse of recreational drugs, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse

5. Childhood trauma

 Some teenagers have been sexually abused or suffer domestic violence. 

To understand depression properly, you need to understand how to cope with social stress and social media anxiety. 

In my next post, I hope to discuss understanding the relationship between social media and depression

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I hope you learnt something about depression? What else do you think contributes to the cause of depression?

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To buy my book on Mental Health, send a mail to adeolalm@gmail.com.