Adolescence is a period of change and restructuring in which childish attitudes and behaviors are replaced by adult attitudes and behaviors, gender abilities are acquired, and the individual is physically and psychologically prepared for the adult role. Adolescents may experience some problems during this period, when a person discovers his or her own body due to physical changes and seeks answers to critical questions such as 'who am I?', 'what is the meaning and purpose of life?', where identity structuring is established. These changes seen in adolescents affect their social interactions and self-perception. Adolescence is also a struggle to strike the balance between establishing personal identity and clarifying one's role as a member of society.
Depression is a response to a wide variety of situations and stressful factors. Depressive mood may be common in adolescents because it may be part of the normal maturation/growth process, accompanying stressors, sex hormones, and conflict with parents to achieve independence. Depressed mood may also be a reaction to distressing events and situations, such as the death of a friend or relative, breaking up with a lover, or failing in school. Encountering stressful events and situations may increase the risk of depression in adolescents who have low self-confidence, criticize themselves harshly, and tend to think that they have no control over negative events and situations. It is difficult to diagnose depression in adolescents because emotional ups and downs can be a normal process during adolescence. Sometimes a teenager feels good thinking that the world is a wonderful place, and sometimes he may think that life is a terrible thing. These thoughts can change within a few hours or even last for a few days.
Depressive disorders
Adolescents may use drugs or alcohol or engage in promiscuous sexual relationships to avoid depressive moods. They may also reveal their depression through hostile, aggressive and risky behavior. However, these behaviors only cause them to experience new problems, their depressive moods deepen, and their relationships with their friends, family, and school administration are damaged. r. Depressive disorders are common in adolescents. Studies have found that it is seen in adolescents at rates ranging from 21-56%.
The rates of depressive symptoms and disorders, which are seen equally before adolescence, increase in favor of female adolescents from the beginning of adolescence. In adolescent depression; Boredom, restlessness, loss of interest, introversion, low school success, difficulty in paying attention, psychomotor slowdown, excessive sleeping and eating, loneliness, feeling unloved, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and attempts, and delusions may be observed. Behavioral problems such as truancy, substance use, and theft may mask depression during this period.
Recent studies support the usefulness of early intervention methods in adolescent depression. It has been shown that depression in adolescents treated at earlier ages becomes chronic less frequently, their functionality is better, hopelessness and suicidal thoughts are less, and they are accompanied by lower rates of comorbid diseases and melancholic features.
The ideal treatment for adolescent depression is a combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. After the child and adolescent are evaluated by a psychiatrist, appropriate medications should be started and used in sufficient duration and dosage. Appropriate psychotherapies are continued for the young person during the treatment process. Necessary arrangements are made for the young person's social, home and school environments.
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