by Vanessa Bruce Little
A recent UK study asked people to report on their experience of mental illness and found something quite shocking: More than 40% of people who completed the survey said they had experienced Depression – almost triple the lifetime prevalence reported by previous studies.
But does this actually mean that 40% of people in the UK have Depression? No, it doesn’t. What it does suggest is that a significant number of people are confusing normal and expected negative emotion with the mental illness of Depression (see last month’s post for more information on this). We certainly don’t doubt that the people who make up this 40% have had experiences that felt negative, demoralizing, sad, and frustrating. But were they episodes of Depression? For most people, likely not. But to know when it might be Depression, you first need to understand what Depression is.
Depression is more than just having a bad day
For someone with Depression, these feelings of sadness are pervasive. They’re not usually a reaction to a specific event (e.g., the loss of a loved one), but if they are preceded by an event, the person’s reaction is often out of proportion to what actually happened (e.g., feeling devastated and worthless after a minor disagreement with a friend). These sad and low feelings are not time-limited (e.g., feeling sad and low for just a few hours) or situation-specific (e.g., only experienced during math class). Depression is intense, persistent, and can be all consuming. It’s not something you can just “snap out of”. And Depression is not caused by “being stressed out” (see last month’s post for why feeling stress is actually a good thing!).
Symptoms of Depression can include:
- Feeling persistently depressed, sad, unhappy or something similar (sometimes this can feel like not being able to feel anything)
- Losing pleasure or interest in all or almost all activities
- Feeling worthless, hopeless, or excessively and inappropriately guilty
- Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions
- Thinking about suicide, death, or dying
- Excessive fatigue or loss of energy
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Physical slowness or, in some cases, restlessness
- Significant changes in appetite or weight
Because each person is different, Depression will look a little different in each person. However, a teenager with Depression will have a number of these symptoms at the same time (usually within a two week window) and these symptoms will be sufficiently intense and pervasive to cause problems in many different areas of their life – from family and friends to school and work to general hygiene.
If you’re worried that your teenager may be experiencing Depression, talk to them. Ask them how they’ve been feeling. Let them know that you’ve noticed that something is wrong and that you’re here to help. Don’t downplay their thoughts and emotions, but don’t dramatize them either. Do your best to listen to what they’re telling you and think before you respond. If you’re worried that it is Depression, bring your teenager to your family doctor to be assessed. In many cases, your doctor can provide initial treatment or if necessary, they can refer you to appropriate evidence-based treatment. Depression is unlikely to resolve on its own without effective treatment so the earlier you seek help, the better.
For more information on Depression, including what is known about its causes and evidence-based treatments, check out http://teenmentalhealth.org/learn/mental-disorders/depression/
NOTE: The Netflix series, “13 Reasons Why” has received considerable attention from both teenagers and the media lately. There is concern that this series may increase the risk of self-harm and suicide for vulnerable adolescents due to the way suicide is portrayed. If your children are watching this series, it’s important to have a discussion with them about how they perceive it. For information on why the series may be problematic and how to proceed, Dr. Stan Kutcher and Dr. Alexa Bagnell from the IWK Health Centre have prepared these considerations for educators that may also be helpful for you: http://teenmentalhealth.org/news-posts/responding-13-reasons-considerations-schools/
Other helpful resources:
Vanessa Bruce Little
Vanessa Bruce Little is the Knowledge Translation Lead at TeenMentalHealth.org (IWK Health Centre/Dalhousie University), a role for which she relies heavily on her background in Clinical Psychology, clinical training, and experience working with youth and families with behavioural, emotional, and social issues. In addition to developing the content of many of Teen Mental Health’s resources, Vanessa also coordinates large-scale projects and supervises students from a variety of disciplines. She strongly believes that you have to communicate in a way people will “hear” and that the quality of the content is irrelevant if your audience can’t understand it.
Previous post:
Not Everything Is A Mental Illness
by Vanessa Bruce Little
Youth today – and parents too – know far more about mental health and mental illness than past generations. Awareness campaigns, among other initiatives, have raised the profile of mental illness both in Canada and worldwide.
As a society, we often assume that awareness is a good thing – that it increases identification of people with mental illness, and consequently, allows them to access treatment and improve. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. These public service announcements (PSAs) actually seem to confuse the issue further. Rather than the people who need help seeking treatment, we’re seeing that the people seeking help are those who don’t actually need professional treatment – and that those who do need the help are actually seeking help less. In other words, the exact opposite of what these PSAs are hoping to accomplish.
Part of this issue stems from the fact that awareness without understanding can be just as harmful as no awareness at all. People know that mental illness is a problem, but not what mental illness actually is. Many of us have a very superficial understanding of Anxiety or Depression (and all mental illnesses) – and consequently, start to label any negative emotion as a potential sign of a mental illness – which is certainly not the case. As a result, kids are being labeled as having an Anxiety Disorder or Depression, when in reality, their negative emotions are not only normal but expected (e.g. a reaction to an upcoming test or the death of a family pet). A first step to understanding mental illness is understanding that not everything is a mental illness; in fact, very little is.
Negative emotions are not only normal but healthy for kids and youth to experience. We don’t want to shield kids from experiencing negative emotions because it deprives them of the opportunity to grow and develop healthy coping strategies for later life. No one lives a life without low patches – there will always be emotional ups and downs – and now is the perfect time for someone to learn how to cope with these emotions in healthy and productive ways. If a child has had every problem pushed out of their way for fear of them feeling sad or anxious, they will enter adulthood without having practiced any of the coping skills necessary to successfully navigate independent life. Allow your child experience highs and lows. Your job is to help your child learn to navigate those stressors, not to remove the stressors completely from their life or to label a normal reaction as something much more problematic and concerning.
Over the next few months, we will be sharing overviews of the most common mental illnesses in adolescence. These will be short snapshots of the illness, but more information on each disorder can be found at teenmentalhealth.org. As you read through each one, remember that most negative emotions are not a sign of a mental illness, but if you are concerned about your child, talk to your child’s doctor.
Vanessa Bruce Little
Vanessa Bruce Little is the Knowledge Translation Lead at TeenMentalHealth.org (IWK Health Centre/Dalhousie University), a role for which she relies heavily on her background in Clinical Psychology, clinical training, and experience working with youth and families with behavioural, emotional, and social issues. In addition to developing the content of many of Teen Mental Health’s resources, Vanessa also coordinates large-scale projects and supervises students from a variety of disciplines. She strongly believes that you have to communicate in a way people will “hear” and that the quality of the content is irrelevant if your audience can’t understand it.
Read the entire blog series:
Depression Is More Than Just Having A Bad Day
