Depression in Teens: Risk Factors and Warning Signs

Depression is a fairly common psychological disorder in adolescents, since 1 in 5 adolescents suffers from depression during the course of this vital stage.

Depression is not an exclusive psychological disorder of adulthood, children and adolescents also suffer from it and have different symptoms than adults. Depression is a mood disorder that carries many physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms.

This article will describe some of the most frequent symptoms that will allow us to detect depression in the adolescents and some of the risk factors that will influence the development of depressive disorders in adolescents teenagers.

• Recommended article: "10 Common Symptoms Depressed Teens Have"

Most Common Warning Signs in Teen Depression

Symptoms that are related to depression in teens are as follows.

It means that you no longer enjoy activities that you previously enjoyed. This symptom is very characteristic in adolescents, they lose all interest and motivation to carry out most activities, even to socialize with their friends. This symptom can also be accompanied by apathy and dissatisfaction with doing many of the activities that you used to do before.

2. Somatic complaints

These are all complaints about physical discomfort or pain that have their origin in a psychological problem. For example, headaches, increased neck or back tension, abdominal pain or discomfort are common in adolescents... Close people may believe that something always hurts or that they are "excuses" not to do some activities or obligations.

The child and adolescent psychologist of the Malaga Cabinet Psychologists Málaga PsicoAbreu, Florence Stolo, states that somatization in children and adolescents is very frequent, since they do not yet have good expression strategies emotional, and their negative emotions are expressed through physical or bodily symptoms, which translate into pain or complaints.

The psychologist maintains that it is not necessary to think that adolescents invent these symptoms, but that they really feel these aches or pains, but the cause of them is not a physical disease, but is born of the emotional discomfort that they feeling.

3. Irritability and frequent outbursts of anger

Florencia Stolo, the child-adolescent psychologist, affirms that It is believed that the "typical" depression is the one that you see the adolescent in bed crying all day, but that is not usually the case. The psychologist affirms that irritability and outbursts of anger are frequent in disorders related to depression in adolescents, since, unlike adolescents In adults, a system that is also altered in these disorders is the noradrenergic system (related to norepinephrine), apart from the serotonergic system (related with the serotonin).

4. Susceptibility

Susceptibility and greater sensitivity to criticism from others and their environment, not being able to face these situations.

5. Social isolation

Social isolation and withdrawal from close people around them (parents, siblings, friends ...). They tend to want to isolate themselves and want to be alone.

That is, a feeling of physical fatigue for much of the day.

7. Feeling sad or discouraged

This can lead to frequent crying during the day and at night.

8. Presence of sleep disorders or difficulties or sleeping more than you usually sleep

Difficulties sleeping or sleep disturbances include predormicional insomnia (trouble falling asleep), nocturnal awakenings (awakenings during the night, that makes the sleep not of quality and does not favor a correct rest), non-restorative sleep (feeling of not having rested correctly, or waking up tired), nightmares…

Another possibility is that the adolescent with depressive disorder may not have trouble sleeping, but sleeps more hours than she used to. Florencia maintains that it is a defense mechanism that they develop, since it is their way of “anesthetizing” their negative emotions And since they do not know how to manage them, they try to avoid them by sleeping all day, because it is the only way they can not think.

9. Changes in eating habits

How to eat more or less and have more or less appetite.

10. Difficulty concentrating and frequent forgetfulness

They can be observed in everyday things such as: forgetting important appointments or relevant dates, losing the thread of conversations, being absent when with other people, it is difficult to make decisions... At school this can lead to a worsening in academic performance, they get lost during classes and in the explanations of homework, they forget chores…

11. Starting or increasing alcohol or drug use

The child and adolescent psychologist of the Malaga cabinet affirms that this is a very frequent way of anesthetizing before their own problems, as they are experimenting with alcohol and other drugs (especially tobacco and marijuana), Y they find in them an "anesthesia" that makes them sleepy and allows them not to "feel" negative emotions that they experience in their day to day.

12. Passive ideas of death

Thoughts such as: “I wish it would disappear”, “I would like to stop living”, or self-destructive ideation (thoughts or wishes to hurt yourself physically).

13. High risk behaviors

Sometimes teens with mood disorders engage in high-risk behaviors such as having unsafe sex, shoplifting, or reckless driving.

Risk factors for depression in teens

The main risk factors that predispose to having a depressive disorder in adolescence are:

• History of mood disorders (depressive disorder, dysthymia and bipolar disorder) in the most direct family.

• Experience of stressful life events or factors (divorce from their parents, bullying, intimidation, sexual abuse, breakup with a partner, death of a relative, class change, poor school performance…). In adolescents, personal, family, social or economic stressful life events can have a great influence on the onset and development of depression. Various studies affirm that the presence of symptoms of depressive disorders in adolescents is related to the degree of stress experienced by stressful life events.

• Not having a stable emotional or social support network or conformed (problems with their parents, family problems, not having friends ...).

• Have a physical illness or chronic psychological.

• Have a learning disorder.

• Have difficulty socializing with their peers or with other people.

• To have low self-esteem Y low self-concept.

• Being female. Various studies show that there is a higher prevalence of depression in adolescent girls than adolescent boys.

Bibliographic references:

• Kramer, Peter D. (2006). Against depression. Barcelona: Seix Barral.
• Jackson, Stanley W. (1986). History of melancholy and depression. Madrid: Turner.
• Martell, C. et al. (2010). Behavioral activation for depression. The Guilford Press.
• Schmidt PJ (2005). "Mood, depression, and reproductive hormones in the menopausal transition". The American Journal of Medicine.
• Vieweg WV, Julius DA, Fernandez A, Beatty-Brooks M, Hettema JM, Pandurangi AK (2006). "Posttraumatic stress disorder: clinical features, pathophysiology, and treatment". The American Journal of Medicine.