About 11% of adolescents have a depressive disorder by the age of 18. Teens are the ones who are at high risk of teen depression. Most adults/parents aren't able to recognize teen depression. To them it's just another phase the child is going through which they don't seem to mind. Teen depression can occur due to some of these many reasons:
1. low-self esteem 2. loss of a family member 3. homosexuality 4. problems with friends/family members
Warning Signs of Teen Depression:
1. Changes in a teen's eating/sleeping patterns 2. The use of drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol 3. Lack of motivation or enthusiasm
4. A sense of guilt, unhappiness, or hopelessness.
5. Fatigue or lack of energy
6. Not being able to concentrate 7. Withdrawal from friends/family members 8. Changes in behaviors or personality, such as extreme moodiness, which can get violent sometimes.
Many adults/parents don't understand teen depression for many reasons. For one teens act differently than adults during depression. In general teens are more moody and more independent than adults. There is really nothing that can be said about them. It's very overt that teen depression is different than adult depression.
There are 6,852,472,823 people in the world. Why are you letting ONE of them bring you down? Have you ever been bullied or seen someone once being bullied? Have you ever done something to stop that bully? If not, then why would you just stand there? Why become another one of those statistics that prove that bystanders will never speak up for others? Just recently I found an article on teens who have committed suicide due to bullying. I thought about sharing this with others through my blog.
Oct. 7, 2003 Ryan Halligan of Essex Junction, Vt., commits suicide at age 13 after middle school classmates threaten, taunt and insult him incessantly in person and online. His father, John Halligan, a former IBM engineer, lobbies for laws in Vermont to improve how schools address bullying and suicide prevention. He also gives speeches at schools in other states about the story of his son. Below is a list of teens who have committed suicide due to being bullied. June 29, 2005 Jeffrey Johnston, a Cape Coral, Fla., straight-A student, commits suicide after being bullied in person and online. Oct. 9, 2006 Rachael Neblett, 17, of Mount Washington, Ky., kills herself in her parent's bedroom after being threatened with violence on the Internet. Megan Meier, 13, of St. Charles, Mo., hangs herself after receiving a flurry of cruel messages on MySpace. On May 15, 2008, a federal grand jury indicts adult neighbor Lori Drew for her alleged role in bullying Meier online. Aug. 23, 2008 Alexa Berman, 14, of Brookfield, Conn., hangs herself in her bedroom three days before starting high school. Adopted from Russia as a 3-year-old, she had made a smooth transition until adolescence, when former friends tormented her in school.
July 3, 2008 Jesse Logan, 18, of Cincinnati, hangs herself in her bedroom after an ex-boyfriend sends nude pictures of her, to other female students at Sycamore High School. She had gone on a Cincinnati television station to tell her story, as a measure to prevent people from going through what she had, but the attacks continued. Jan. 14, 2010 Phoebe Prince, 15, hangs herself after being harassed mostly in school, but also on Facebook and through other electronic forms. The teen had just arrived in South Hadley, Mass. from Ireland months earlier to begin ninth grade. On March 29, Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel indicted six students on charges that included statutory rape. The town's school committee approved a 62-page anti-bullying policy June 30.
March 22, 2010 Alexis Skye Pilkington, 17, of West Islip, N.Y., is the target of insulting online messages before and after her suicide. Though her family did not believe the messages were a major factor in her death, classmates, relatives and friends were incensed over what they called creepy, insensitive messages about Pilkington, many posted anonymously and also appearing on other Web sites since her death. April 14, 2010 Ashley Rogers, 15, of Kernersville, N.C., hangs herself in her bedroom. Though she was clinically depressed, her parents believed harassment by fellow students via text messages and taunts at school fueled her depression. Sept. 22, 2010 Tyler Clementi, 18, jumps to his death from New York's George Washington Bridge, prosecutors say, after his roommate Dharun Ravi, and fellow Rutgers freshman Molly Wei transmit a live image of Clementi having sex. Ravi and Wei are charged with invading Clementi's privacy.
Nov. 10, 2010 Authorities in Michigan dismiss a rape charge against Joseph Tarnopolski, 18, after his 14-year-old accuser, Samantha Kelly, committed suicide in her mobile home following harassment by classmates.
These are just some of the many teens who have committed suicide over the years due to bullies. These teens had done nothing to be treated this way. They were brought down by their own peers and the ones who stood by and watched did nothing to stop them. If you are being bullied the first thing you should do is talk to someone. Weather it's a parent, friend, or teacher. It's nice to have someone know what's going on. And if you have friends who are bullies and have seen them putting someone down, then you are no better then that bully. This year about 1 in every 3 teens have been bullied. The only way I can think of preventing bullying is by standing up to the bully face to face. Yeah, I get it sometimes it's hard and you just can't do it, but in the end it feels good to have stood up for someone. Here are some links to some sites that help prevent bullying. https://meanstinks.com/ http://www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/#/home http://www.makebeatsnotbeatdowns.org/facts_new.html Below is a list of the different forms of bullying:
• Physical – hitting, kicking, pinching, punching, scratching, spitting or any other form of physical attack. Damage to or taking someone else's belongings may also constitute as physical bullying.
• Verbal – name calling, insulting, making racist, sexist or homophobic jokes, remarks or teasing, using sexually suggestive or abusive language, offensive remarks
• Indirect – spreading nasty stories about someone, exclusion from social groups, being made the subject of malicious rumors, sending abusive mail, and email and text messages (cyber bullying).
• CyberBullying - Hurting someone in anyway through technology. It can be a text message, phone call, e-mail, e.t.c. You don't realize you're hurting someone until reality hits your face and you've finally realized what you've done. It's better to learn about these things now and take action then later when it's too late. The thing I don't understand is that even though anti-bullying has been brought up by many people in many places, teens still don't understand. I remember in 4th grade I had a classmate who would constantly be bullied each day. I was a new student at the school at this time so, I didn't really know her or anyone else. Soon I saw that everyone in my class played a game called "it." Each time someone touched that girl they had to pass on her "germs." At first I didn't play this game called "it" because I actually really liked that girl and she helped me fit in. I remember the entire school year what big jerks all my friends were to her. I couldn't even just once tell them to stop. I told some teachers, but they never believed me so, I eventually let it pass. Today, after so many years I feel bad that I couldn't do anything to stop them. I getting in touch with my former friend, but feel ashamed of what I would say and do. But, that doesn't mean I'm up for bullying today, I regret my choices of my past and say to myself, "what if I had stood up for her?"
I hope this plants a seed somehow in your brains and maybe in the future you can be brave enough to stick up for someone.
Have you ever thought about smoking? Or are you a new smoker? Then maybe you should think about what you've just done and be prepared to how it will affect your life in a long term run. Yeah, I've heard people say it feels good and apparently it "calms" people (mostly teens) down. Many teens smoke because they have seen their parents smoke and think it's OK if they do it as well. Other times teens are exposed to seeing their friends smoking and just believe that they'll look "cool" if they tried it to. Because if a friend offers you to smoke it will look "bad" or "not cool" if you chose to refuse. This is known as peer pressure to which you have to be strong to and fight against right away. But before you go and take that cigarette in your hands you should know how it is to change your life. Not only does smoking affect every organ in your body, but it is also one of the leading causes of death in America. About 443,000 people die every year due to smoking or being exposed to secondhand smoke. Smoking causes about 90% (or 9 out of 10) of all lung cancer deaths in men and women. Smoking can increase the risk of stroke and can cause heart diseases as well. If you're one of those "I really take care of my face" types of teens then you should prepare yourself for this. Wrinkles around your mouth are formed at a young age, due to smoking. To add on, smoking affects your physical ability to partake in many sports. Sometimes when people have become addictive to smoking it becomes harder for them to even climb stairs. Do you know how much a pack of cigarettes cost now a days? In some cities it's about $10 per pack. In other places it's sometimes even more. So, why pay for something that is only there to kill you in the end. Not to mention, once you start smoking you become a danger to others. Secondhand smokes cause about 50,000 deaths each year. Not only are you dangering yourself, but you are also dangering the innocent ones who don't want to be a part of this.
Sometimes it's hard to tell weather your friends are Real or Fake. There are times when all you want is a good friend around, but sometimes it's best to know weather you can trust that friend or not. If you have a friend who calls you a friend, but insults you then you should know that he/she probably isn't your true friend. Here is a list of some things that you should look for in your friends before calling them your TRUE or BEST friends. A REAL Friend: -Supports you through your tough times. -Is happy when you succeed. -They listen to you when you need a shoulder to cry on. -Knows how crazy you are yet, are still willing to to be seen in public with you. -Is the one who believes you. -Is honest and knows that they can trust you. A "FRIEND": -Does not always believe you. -Calls you a friend, but insults you in a crowd. -Only thinks about themselves. -Selfish and rude. -Blames you for everything and refuses to accept their responsibilities. -Doesn't trust or respect your needs. These are just some of the many things you should note about your friends. If you find that your friend is fake and is not to be trusted then don't waste your time with them. Get out of that friendship fast because life is too short to be wasted on friends who can't even be there for you.
You have the right to change. The right to be who you want to be. I have always imagined life as a story. Everyday is another chance and another path to which you fill with your story. We are incomplete. We are all in the process of completing our story, hoping that one day others will pass our story on, like Cleopatra, Aristotle, Martin L. King and George Washington, who are remembered by their stories to teach us the meaning of ours. Remember you have the power to say "this is not how the story is going to end." You have the power to change and become someone stronger, smarter, and better.
