Teen depression is defined as an illness when the feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and despair persist and obstruct a teen’s ability to function.

Teenagers are naturally flooded with stressful situations as social status is the cornerstone of many teen’s thoughts and actions. Since social status is such a fragile thing and has no concrete measurement, a teenager is left to wonder whether or not he or she is accepted. With all of this social battling going on it is easy to imagine how a teenager is slammed with stress that can affect that individual’s self-esteem to the point of depression. For this reason, teen depression is every bit as serious as adult depression, regardless of the substance of it’s foundation.

Many times a person’s permanent self-esteem, which lasts through adulthood, is formed in the teenage years. This is why teenage depression can actually lead to permanent social and self-esteem problems. This doesn’t mean that all teenagers are on the verge of total mental collapse but it does mean that a teenager is in a very critical environment and can be emotionally affected in a major way. The pre-mentioned topic of social status is just one of the many things that bombard a teenager during the teen years. Peer pressure, parental pressure, pressure from teacher’s, pressure from coaches, pressure from boyfriends or girlfriends can all contribute to a whirlwind of stress that can create clinical teen depression.

Teen depression can be the result of bad grades, failure to be accepted into a University, being broken up with, being ostracized by peers, or something as simple as having a bad hair day. While some of these examples may seem trivial to more mature individuals they can add up to a real case of clinical depression. Feelings of depression can be serious no matter how silly the origin may seem.

While the causes of teen depression can be different than that of an adult or small child, the symptoms can be exactly the same. Any of the symptoms of depression can affect any person at any age. The classification of depression as teen depression is more relevant to the origination of the depression. Teen depression is no less treatable than any other type of depression.

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