More than 2 million U.S. teens depressed
- added May 13, 2008
- 40 responses
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- stone246
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More than 2 million U.S. teenagers have suffered a serious bout of depression in the past year, including nearly 13 percent of girls, according to a federal government survey released on Tuesday.On average, 8.5 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 described having had a major depressive episode in the previous year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.But there were "striking differences" by sex, with 12.7 percent of girls and 4.6 percent of boys affected.Depression is the leading cause of suicide, which in turn is the third-leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds in the United States.
"Combined 2004 to 2006 data show that rates of past year major depressive episode among youths aged 12 to 17 generally increased with increasing age," the researchers wrote.
Researchers at SAMHSA and RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, prepared the report using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
"Combined 2004 to 2006 data show that rates of past year major depressive episode among youths aged 12 to 17 generally increased with increasing age," the researchers wrote.
Researchers at SAMHSA and RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, prepared the report using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
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This story says that depressed teens are more likely to try pot.
More news to make teens depress.-
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- Future_America
- 2 months ago
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true that
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I think depression is over-diagnosed, like ADD... wait what's going ?
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I don't think depression is over dignosed I think it is a problem that affects teens, at some point every teen im sure is affected even for a short time with depression, just because of the hormonal changes in the body. But I also think for it to be dignosed it would have to be affecting the teen long enough, and that would most likely be brough on, in my opinion by the environments in our schools. After all the kids don't always play nice, or if someone has a introverted personality, they may not socialize properly and become depressed by how others treat them.
Lifes tough, our schools in my opinion need a major overhaul, especially in schools with extremely large student bodies. -
Well I have family members who've had one bad month and they get put on meds that only make their life into a living hell. They probably would have gotten over it too.
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i think it has a lot to do with middle-school.
we need two groups. k-8 and 9-10.
we can't uproot kids at that vulnerable age, it's damaging in so many ways.-
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- innocent_criminal
- 2 months ago
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how many of these people are depresed because of other people bullying them?
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I would think that the bullies would have be at risk for depression, I mean bullying is a sign of insecurity.
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great job parents. see whats happening with the hippy generation? their kids are all messed up.
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Middle school screwed me up, that's for sure. But I wasn't depressed. Quasi-homicidal possibly, but not depressed.
As for the gender difference, I point to advertising. Impossibly photoshopped pictures of models would probably lower my self esteem by a good chunk if I were a 13 year old girl.-
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- Dmitri_Molotov
- 2 months ago
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Uh, stop smoking pot!
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are you trying to legitimatize an argument that pot makes people depressed, because I have been to too many concerts that prove otherwise.
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"rates of... major depressive episode... generally increased with increasing age"
Just like NBC said... The More You Know! - (the more depressed you'll be) -
ignorance is bliss
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Being 1 of those 2 million teens id say its due to not dealing with issues in thier past and future with family, death etc. even the way people treat each other and carry themselves now a days gets me down not enough love in this world sadding.
onelove
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while i believe that depression has hereditary as well as environmental tendencies and any type of depression is best treated with therapy rather than (or at least before the introduction of ) any pharmaceutical drug, we must also realize and recognize that kids these days are up against pressures that their bodies and minds are not always capable of. today's american lifestyle holds less actual work on young people with all of it's electronic gadgets and increased acceptance of living at home through the early twenties instead of being wed and maintaining a farm or business at the age of seventeen, but at the same time kids are surrounded by images of sex, violence and wealth to which they then are forced to live up to. weather we as a people are consciencly doing this or not is questionable, but either way it is happening more and more with every new generation. children grow up too fast in today's society, while not actually growing up at all... and that i believe can be quite confusing.
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- fruitoftheearth
- 2 months ago
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watch this comment being used hereCalling one's self "depressed" seems to be a fad among teens these days. The term seems to be thrown out there like "ADD". It makes me wonder if these kids actually know what they're talking about.
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- MissJonaLyn
- 2 months ago
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They areTeens!!! Of course they are sad.....Then happy, then mad, then........well you get it.
What...You forgot what being a teen was like?
Come OOoooonnnnnnn..... -
This makes me want to swear.
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I think it would be quite funny if the number of teens who suffered from depression was very similar to children who suffered from ADD and took medication to rectify the social disorder.
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- Varex_Sythe
- 2 months ago
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I guess the culture of money, fame and worldly gain just doesn't make you happy. I think people should try contentment.
'The richest person is the one who is content with what they have'
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- CleftAsunder
- 2 months ago
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I blame the parents for the lack of communications and understanding with their children.
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So many of them live on junk food, and this will certainly lead to depression in anyone - the highs & lows from sugar and the lack of B vitamins is a recipe for depression.
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depressed teens? Like that's something new?
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- SamuraiDave
- 2 months ago
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I don't know how this would come as a shock to anyone.
I think there are a lot of factors to why this is so but like I said, it's nothing new. I agree with patsarts, that it's about what are kids are consuming.
I also think it's our schools as well not because of the students, but because of the environment. You see, I went to a really old school with large windows in every classroom because they didn't have air conditioning back when they built it. So I always got natural lighting and fresh air. Then I see these new schools that are being built which are not only overcrowded but look like prisons. I've been inside of them too. White walls, fluorescent lights, no windows. It may be the cheaper way to go but now I can see why kids are going crazy. You're telling me that kids are suppose to grow in that kind of environment? A doubt a plant could. -
Two things I have seen through my life experience of raising two happy well adjusted kids are that not everything has to be cured with one pill or one method, as the drugs ads are telling us over and over again:
1. Nutritional deficiency in the USA cause depression. Helping your teen with supplements such as Omega 3, vitamins and a good diet with fruits veg and so on will help
2. Keep off the drugs except in rare case.
Look at these others who are telling you their experience and not covered in USA Media because it is supported by the drug companies:
Look at these carefully. Scrool to the bottom because the good rating are on top:
www.askapatient.com
http://www.askapatient.com/viewratings.asp?drug=20031&a...
http://www.askapatient.com/classreport.asp?class=ANTIDE...
3. Good network of social support and guidance through school-
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- CarolynGillis
- 2 months ago
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More than 2 millions teens depressed.
Duh. What's surprising is there are not more depressed teens and adults.
Depression is a sane reaction to the insanity adults have made of America.
My youngest child turns 18 today.
The world she, and her three older brothers is not the one I dreamed of when I was a teen marching against the Viet Nam War, reading to inner city kids in the projects and volunteering in the hospital as a candy striper.
Our generation has failed today's youth. We let the neo-cons steal the presidency, hijack our Constitution, and put our children in debt for an illegal war for oil in Iraq. Our greed for consumer products and cheap energy has brought the planet to the brink of destruction with global warming.
Naturally, teens are depressed.
They see what is happening.
One reason they retreat into depression, instead of being inspired to action, is that they feel powerless.
One step to jumpstart them to act, is to teach a teen a skill to make something or a way to help another person.
Unconditional love heals.
So does teaching something that leads to a life of "purposeful fulfillment."
All teens and children need love and acceptance. It doesn't just have to come from their own biological parents. Reach out and listen to the young people you meet. It may make a difference, and you will inevitably learn something from them.
All adults have a vested interest in nurturing youth. They are the future.
Anti-depressant drugs are no answer and can be deadly.
Click link above for pictures of Martin Luther King III and Albuquerque youth.
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i can believe this....every day someone in my school is goin to guidance for depression problems...i dont think theres one specific reason...like what we eat, wear, how much money we have or how our parents treat us (although that can attribute) but it comes from a combination of MANY things and it doesnt have to be just the above listed...bein an adolescent is hard and some people just dont understand that...its not that easy and for those of u who have said that youve been there before, u probably have but its a different generation and different times....
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- cerci_girl
- 2 months ago
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this story is really bringing me down....
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- mashton237
- 2 months ago
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So true, cerci_girl.
It is so different now, and much harder I think.
We still had hope.
It was crushed with the assassinations and Kent State.
But there's lots of us in that generation and subsequent who have kept working and hoping.
We are living in a particularly dark time.
Forces that feed on fear and violence are powerful.
But like all dark times, light can overcome darkness.
Peaceful social change for justice is the path Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned for us to build the beloved community. His son Martin Luther King III and thousands of Americans in the Realizing the Dream Poverty in America Initiative Network work today to realize that dream.
Our best defense is light and love.
Love unconditionally.
Find someone who loves you unconditionally.
Learn something, anything, to do that gives you a sense of purposeful fulfillment, then sell and give it away.
Teach someone else what you learn.
Lao Tzu wrote, "If you want peace in the world...Make peace in the self."
You can't defeat hate and war by fighting.
The only path to peace, is peace.
Connect to the light inside you, and let it shine as a beacon to others lost in the dark.
Hope can reignite in any generation. -
Doesn't every teenager go through a bout of depression now-a-days? Maybe they're not pretty enough, or maybe their grades are falling, or maybe there's relationship trouble? Again, depression is all in the diagnosis. If they're just have a tough week, is that really depression? I don't know, but I think that it's a common occurance for teens, and it always has been. Everyone has that down period.
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- x_darkly_charming_x
- 2 months ago
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Ah, 'depression'. A growing fad among attention-starved girls. I go to high school with hundreds of them. And meanwhile the truly depressed teens have to see little teenyboppers chatting about how 'sad' they are and pratically wishing a clinical illness upon themselves. Its pretty sick, if you think about it.
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- Wicker_duh
- 2 months ago
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This is a cultural phenomenon, not a medical one. If you stand outside our culture and look in, and look at what we do (not what we say), we do not value children. We pump their heads full of commercials and magazines insisting they look like sex toys and then wonder why they act out... Drugs are not the answer either. The pharm. companies are making a killing off all the anti-depressants, and all its doing is perpetuating the problem.
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What a joke! I guess sales of gothic clothing will be increasing at the mall.....
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poor kids just need their drugs =P
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This thread is making me feel depressed..... -
Some teens just turn a mole hill into a mountain. But, the parents do deserve some of the blame. Maybe if some of the parents would act like responsible role models we wouldnt have this problem.
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medication such as tranquilisers are too frequently given out by the medical profession. if the parents and law went a bit easier on teens maybe this wouldn't happen. put the drinking age down and gun license age up. maybe treat them like adults and see how that goes down
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- poppyshafto
- 2 months ago
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"I'm so depressed and emo..."
