Depression
For teenagers
Depression makes us feel low, sad or sometimes, nothing at all – just heavy and tired.
We can all ‘feel depressed’ sometimes. This is, however, very different to ‘being clinically depressed’. Clinical Depression is a mental ill health condition that requires diagnosis by a mental health practitioner. It responds very well to a variety of psychological treatments such as Cognitive Behaviour Treatment (CBT) a treatment that works on changing thoughts and behaviours associated with depression, Behavioural Activation Therapy (BAT) which helps change the behaviour associated with low mood and depression breaking a vicious cycle, regular exercise and occasionally may need medication.
What causes teenage depression?
For some of us being a teenager is extra hard to cope with. Hormones, body changes, relationships, school work can all get on top of us. Sometimes chemical changes in the developing brain can trigger depression. When low mood becomes extended, severe, and impacts very significantly on our daily life, it may indicate the start of clinical depression. This will need to be diagnosed by a mental health professional but some indicators include poor sleep or reduced appetite, consistently negative outlook, lack of enjoyment and low motivation and energy.
Depression responds very well to psychological treatment. This will often include finding out the cause of the depression and changing negative thoughts and behaviours. This form of treatment is called Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). It’s also possible to change the behaviours associated with depression through a treatment called Behavioural Activation Therapy (BAT). However, all of us are different and one form of treatment may not always work. In which case, there are many other treatments to try. Depression affects confidence too. Working on building self-esteem can definitely help.
Whilst self-esteem is built of many components some tips include:
- Changing your story – we all create a ‘story’ about ourselves. When we have low self-esteem this story is often negative. Change the story into something positive and see how it might change your outlook on yourself
- Ditch the Self Bully: We can often have a very ‘bullying’ self-critical view of ourselves, which, a bit like a bully brings us down. Change your voice into a coach instead. So instead of saying ‘I’m useless’, practice saying ‘I can improve if I try it differently’
- Stop comparing! When we are depressed because our thinking is negative it’s easy to compare and despair! Recognise your positives and work on building these
Visit our Further Advice page for details of other organisations that can help.
Download the Move Mood app
Move Mood uses the evidence-based treatment Behavioural Activation Therapy to help you improve your mood by encouraging you to increase your motivation to carry out a variety of tasks in order to help you to move forward, take control and feel positive. It can be downloaded free from the App Store or Google Play. Find out more at https://movemood.stem4.org.uk.
