DEPRESSION IN ADOLESCENTS 13-17 YEARS OLD: signs, causes and symptoms

Cyclothymia is an affective spectrum disorder, accompanied by sudden mood swings from general emotional elation to a depressed, melancholy state. In most cases, the disease manifests itself at a relatively early age (14–17 years), and cyclothymia in adolescents is especially severe, since the symptoms of such a disorder are closely intertwined with the psychosomatic manifestations of puberty. Cyclothymic disorder is treatable. After a preliminary examination and confirmation of the diagnosis, medical doctors individually select a plan of psychotherapy and drug treatment. As a rule, we quickly manage to achieve a positive result, and an integrated approach minimizes the risk of relapse in the future.

Depression in a child (adolescent) – what is it?

The word "depression" comes from the Latin deprimo - "to crush", "to suppress".
Depression in a child (adolescent) is characterized by depressed or depressed mood, reluctance to have fun, pessimism, sleep disturbances, and sometimes suicidal tendencies. Children between the ages of 10 and 17 experience various emotional upheavals: a quarrel with a close friend, conflicts in the family, failure at school, failures with the opposite sex. In addition, many are dissatisfied with their appearance (acne or “unfashionable” clothes, appearance that does not meet “beauty standards”), which also negatively affects the psychological situation.

The situation is aggravated by hormonal changes in the body: for some children they pass without a trace, and for some teenagers it is another storm of emotions that must be overcome.

The danger of being outcast

It is adolescence that manifests itself with all its force into intolerance and unwillingness to help someone who is very different. If a teenager has problems with appearance, expect trouble. There will definitely be those who will laugh, others will support “for the company.”

Such problems are not uncommon among teenagers. They are an important psychological characteristic of adolescence. Due to rapid hormonal changes in the body, 12-14 year olds often develop skin diseases and excess weight. Boys suffer from uncontrollable erections.

Becoming an outcast is very dangerous for a teenager. Everything can end not only in isolation, depression, neuroses, but even in real tragedy - a suicide attempt.

Teenage boys more often begin to become very interested in something - they become “nerds”, athletes, musicians. At the same time, the teenager greatly exaggerates his own capabilities. A 12-year-old boy is endowed with the finest psychology. It's easy to break it.

Signs of childhood depression:

In the hustle and bustle of workdays, parents do not always have time to fully communicate with their children. But you can notice a negative attitude in a short period of time. Pay attention to the following symptoms:

• decreased interest in favorite activities (studies or hobbies)
• sleep disturbance (for example, cannot fall asleep for a long time in the evening or wakes up several times during the night)
• weight change (gaining extra pounds or losing weight)
• state of increased fatigue
• loss of appetite, prolonged refusal to eat
• feelings of guilt or shame
• absent-minded, unable to concentrate on a specific task
• reluctance to communicate with anyone
• thoughts of suicide

During the day, symptoms may not appear immediately, but gradually: the teenager wakes up in a good mood, has breakfast, and is happy to get ready for school. When faced with difficulties in class or communicating with peers, he begins to fill himself with negative emotions. Often there is a fixation on one’s experiences, a withdrawal into oneself; When he comes home, he may sit motionless, look at one point, and refuse to eat. At such moments, teenagers often complain about others, criticize any situation, notice only the negative side, without seeing the positive notes.

A thought settles in his head (I’m ugly/fat/boring/I have no friends/nobody loves me/nobody needs me), which accompanies him throughout his depressed state. Constantly thinking about this, he cannot fall asleep peacefully, which leads to sleep disturbance.

Depression in children is accompanied by a sudden surge of good mood - the child is happy, jokes, and communicates. But an hour later he sits again, tired, sad, dissatisfied.

Clinical manifestations

Depending on the symptoms, the following variants of cyclothymia in adolescents are distinguished:

• vital;
• anesthetic;
• apathetic.

Vital form

The predominant clinical manifestations are:

• causeless pessimism;
• despondency;
• depression;
• yearning;
• anxiety;
• constant feelings of guilt, self-flagellation, which is accompanied by obsessive ideas of shame and moral responsibility;
• low self-esteem.

Often this emotional state is accompanied by quite tangible somatic manifestations. The child complains of discomfort, tightness, a feeling of constriction, a “tight hoop” tightening the chest. Shortness of breath often appears, worsening in stressful situations.

Anesthetic form

This type of cyclothymia in adolescents is characterized by emotional alienation and detachment, and in severe cases reaches the level of painful insensibility. The child has no mood, no desire to do anything, he does not feel boredom, melancholy, joy, or pleasure. Everything seems unnatural, distant, alien to him. Often the patient describes his condition as “existence behind a high fence,” “complete isolation from the surrounding reality.”

At the same time, the patient is fully aware of the changes in his psyche and behavior, and suffers from this. The ability to concentrate, generalize, systematize and analyze new information decreases. At the same time, the feeling of hunger, satiety, thirst, etc. is dulled.

Apathetic cyclothymia

Characterized by a decrease in overall vitality, indifference to everything that happens around, including the results of one’s own work and academic success. All actions are performed rather by inertia, automatically. In addition, facial expressions lose expressiveness, speech becomes monosyllabic and simple, movements become slow and constrained.

The child prefers to spend most of his time in bed, showing no interest in anything. The clinical picture is dominated by feelings of internal discomfort and hopelessness. This is combined with general lethargy and asthenia.

General symptoms

For all forms of cyclothymia in adolescents, the change from a depressive episode to hypomania (hyperthymic affect) is typical. Melancholy and depression are replaced by a feeling of euphoria, which is accompanied by:

• acceleration of cognitive processes;
• talkativeness, excessive sociability;
• increased physical activity, psychomotor agitation;
• general emotional upsurge;
• cheerfulness;
• a feeling of bodily comfort, well-being;
• lack of feeling of fatigue.

The teenager makes many plans and strives to immediately begin to implement them. But as a rule, it is extremely rare to finish what you started - the child is often distracted and “switches” to other things. He quickly gets bored with monotonous, painstaking activities that require attention, while there is no sense of responsibility or commitment.

Hypomanic syndrome with cyclothymia in adolescents is characterized by a constant need for pleasure. This is what usually becomes the reason for the use of alcohol, drugs, and the search for new sensations in committing illegal acts.

Causes of depression in children and adolescents:

Depression in a child never occurs out of nowhere. There are always prerequisites for such a state. Most likely, the teenager was faced with a stressful situation, and due to his age, was unable to properly accept and survive it. And this is quite enough for a fragile child’s psyche.

The main reasons include:

1. Hormonal changes are a “turbulent” and lengthy process. The maturation of the reproductive system is accompanied by high emotional stress: irritation, melancholy or increased anxiety. As a rule, this period passes after 2-4 years. During this time, accumulated stress can easily develop into a serious disorder.
2. The realities of the adult world - he comes to understand that the world that he saw with children's eyes is not so kind and cloudless, but is full of cruelty and injustice.
3. Youthful maximalism - a teenager feels that he is being ignored, not seen and not noticed. Everything is divided into black and white, bad and good. Against this background, conflicts arise with parents and teachers.
4. Family conflicts - children react sharply to quarrels between parents, have a hard time with divorce or a difficult financial situation. It’s hard if he constantly hears criticism of himself or parents’ dissatisfaction related to poor performance at school.
5. Lack of friends. The most important thing for a teenager is communication with peers, a communication environment, and the opportunity to share common interests with friends. In adolescence, emotional emancipation from parents occurs: if previously the child shared his experiences with his parents, now he can close himself off and not talk about the events of the day and his experiences. In general, this is normal for a teenager, but it is important to find a place where this exchange of emotions can take place. A teenager is looking for emotional contact with peers, and if such contact was not found, there was no acceptance in the team, no establishment of friendships - for a teenager this is very painful and traumatic. He feels unnecessary and unsuccessful.
6. “Unideal” appearance – teenagers tend to worry that they don’t look like everyone else, are overweight (in their opinion), or that skin problems will turn the whole world against them. Failure to meet the notorious “beauty standards” or the standards accepted in a particular group (for example, it is necessary to be athletic or dress in branded clothes) can result in a teenager being ridiculed by the group, low self-esteem, anorexia and, ultimately, depression.
7. Frequent moves - separation from the established team and its usual comfort zone - unsettled. Having arrived in a new place, a teenager faces difficulties in communicating and creating new connections, which of course affects his condition.
8. Bullying in schools - teenagers often show unjustified cruelty, which leaves its mark on the psyche.
9. Addiction to the Internet and computer games - in the virtual world it is easy and simple to be successful, in the real world it is much more difficult.
10. Increased loads - some children have a hard time with the school curriculum. And many parents insist on attending additional classes and clubs, believing that this is only beneficial. This rhythm of life creates an additional stressful situation that not everyone can handle.
11. Unrequited love or the first unsuccessful sexual experience - experiences in such a state take up a lot of energy, and there is often no one and nowhere to share your experiences and receive support.

Some signs of potential depression in a teenager:

• Feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness – a teenager can study well, lead a normal life, but still feel empty. There is no understanding of why he lives; everything seems monotonous and uninteresting to him.
• "I do not want anything" . Lack of interests, lack of desire to communicate, make friends, apathy.
• “No one needs me” - the feeling of being not needed by anyone becomes driven. Having fallen under the influence of a stronger comrade, the disorder only intensifies.
• Emotional swings. Sudden changes in mood, prolonged bad mood can be replaced by fits of rage and aggression, and then passivity and self-deprecation.
• Conversations about death and suicide. If a teenager has become interested in the topic of death and suicide, it is important to pay attention to this in time. A teenager may use phrases such as “there is no point in living”, “we will all die anyway”, “I don’t see the point...”.
• Pointless actions, fixation - fixation on a useless activity, for example, constant presence on social networks (regularly updating the “feed”, in anticipation of new meaningless information).
• Drastic changes - a teenager dramatically changes his social behavior, changes his appearance (dye his hair, piercing). Changes may concern lifestyle, interests, social circle and worldview.
• “Always successful” - these are children who “bend themselves out of their way” to achieve positive results and achieve success. But behind the screen of a “successful teenager” is a child who hides his true experiences. Often such achievements do not bring moral satisfaction and are accompanied by a strong fear of disappointing parents.

Each individual item may not necessarily be a sign of depression, but a combination of signs and/or clearly expressed manifestations may be a cause for concern and referral to a specialist.

Control his life - or let him go?

One of the most accurate ideas a mother can have is that she is, after all, not responsible for her son. Call it providence, fate, luck, or God, as I do; but there is something that controls your boy's life. We do not choose the time of his birth and death, and we only partially control his life between these two events. Most people live with the illusion of more control over many aspects of their lives than they actually have.

You let your child go free, and this process begins at the moment of his birth. It is then that you realize that you are powerless and cannot fulfill your most ardent desire - to completely protect him from pain and fill his life with only pleasant things.

He needs to be released into a world where he might be in trouble. And you start to let go. You let his father and siblings mess with him. Neighbors take your son to school, and a nanny looks after him in your absence. You let your son choose his friends and girls. Now he is already learning to drive a car, and a stranger explains to him the parking rules. How is he coping? You do not know. Just hope it's good.

It is believed that a good mother should delve into all aspects of her son’s life - control his studies, sports, dating, friendships - and all the decisions that the son makes. Of course, you need to “keep your finger on the pulse,” but you should not always take an active part in everything. Raising children is 10% control and 90% free-floating.

It is very important to loosen control over your son in a timely manner. There are three reasons for this

First: without this he will not become a man. He will grow up, but he will remain an eternal teenager if you don't let him go. The second reason is that you will not be able to form a normal relationship with your adult son unless you create a certain distance. And finally, you will both be more emotionally balanced if you maintain this distance.

I am sure that you have before your eyes an example of friends who constantly interfere in the lives of their children as if they were still living with them. Maybe your parents were also overly involved in your life, and you know very well what that is. This won't happen if you let your son go.

Types of depression:

Reactive – considered a benign type of disorder. This condition is typical for teenagers who have experienced severe emotional shock. For example: parental divorce or death of a loved one.

Melancholic – characterized by a state of depression and melancholy, interest in everything is lost, often sits in one’s room in one position or moves slowly (lethargy). Against the background of these symptoms, sleep and appetite disturbances develop. For girls, disruptions in the menstrual cycle are common. Suicidal thoughts may be added to prolonged melancholy.

Bipolar disorder is characterized by rapid changes in phases, sometimes in short periods of time. The younger the age, the shorter the phases and can range from several hours to 2-3 weeks. Mania manifests itself in the form of aggression and anger. Psychologists may not notice bipolar disorder, citing “adolescent character changes,” so it is recommended to involve a specialist with a narrower profile (clinical psychologist, psychiatrist).

Dysthymia is a long-term mental disorder that usually lasts for a year, possibly several years. The child appears passive and lonely and cannot concentrate on completing a specific task. May be accompanied by sleep disturbances and loss of appetite. This disease often becomes chronic and is occasionally interrupted by mood changes.

Severe (major) depression is protracted. Lasts from six months to 9 months. The teenager is sad and irritable, he is not interested in anything. Symptoms may not be obvious, for example sleep disturbance: the parent refers to fatigue and workload. Some children begin to “eat up” this condition with large portions of food. This is the moment that should alert you. The situation is aggravated by thoughts, in some cases, suicide attempts.

You should pay special attention if you increasingly hear references to death and suicide, for example:

1. Reads poems and stories about suicide, or has started writing on this topic himself
2. Romanticizes death and the dying person.
3. Jokes about death
4. Says goodbye to family and friends as if for the last time
5. Frequent injuries and cuts
6. You hear the phrases: “It would be better if I died,” or “Why was I born?” or "There is no way out"

In this case, you need to act immediately and find a specialist to provide assistance as soon as possible.

What should parents do?

The family atmosphere is very important for the formation of the child’s psyche. Parents will always pay attention to their child’s unusual behavior. But what exactly should you do if you have problems with your studies or school friends?

If you notice signs of depression, experts advise the following:

• Talk in a comfortable environment for him. Try to find out what exactly caused the concern and this result.
• Help strengthen his self-esteem. Show him how important and meaningful he is to you and those around you.
• Find out about his hobbies, what he is interested in, what he does while you are at work.
• Limit custody, make him feel that you trust him.
• Give him the right to choose, don’t decide everything for him.
• Try not to criticize, but to direct them to the right action.
• Avoid high-pitched conversations, try not to conflict.
• Find a common interest - this could be an evening walk together, or riding bicycles, or playing football. Attend master classes: draw and create.

Psychologists advise finding as many common points as possible. It is important for a child to feel supported and cared for. But do not forget that increased guardianship will only harm and complicate the situation.

Always sincerely say that you love, appreciate and respect him. Warm and trusting relationships in the family are the key to good mental health of all its members.

If you understand that the situation is beyond your control, do not delay visiting a specialist.

Treatment of depression

Depression in children and adolescents is a serious illness that requires consultation with a specialist. Parents must understand that only they can help their child by recognizing the characteristic signs. You shouldn’t leave things to chance; it’s better to keep everything under control, following the advice of a specialist.

The mild form lends itself to counseling treatment: this can be individual work with a psychologist or visiting a psychological group. Severe cases (for example, suicide attempts) require a more serious, medicinal approach. In such cases, a psychologist and a psychiatrist often work in pairs, complementing each other.

Usually the first specialist you need to turn to for help is a psychologist. During the conversation, he helps to understand the cause of the disease. It will help you find out what emotions and feelings accompany a teenager. Using different techniques, the specialist will be able to explain what fears and doubts have settled in the child’s head. There is a possibility that after communicating with a psychologist, he himself will find ways to solve the problem and get out of this state.

A psychologist will help you cope with mild forms of the disease. If the situation is complex, then you will need additional help from a psychotherapist or psychiatrist.

A psychotherapist is a doctor who helps patients cope with mental illness. The treatment regimen contains psychotherapeutic techniques in combination with drug treatment.

To make a diagnosis, the doctor conducts a conversation with the patient, during which he assesses his condition. Diagnostics helps to establish the exact disease that accompanies the teenager, as well as determine the method of treatment.

If the protracted nature of the disease is revealed, then conversations alone will not be enough. Antidepressants can be added to treatment, which will relieve symptoms of anxiety and apathy, help eliminate irritability and cope with fears.

"Empathy" - studio of practical psychology

Children and teenagers with various emotional problems come to Empathy. We help them overcome difficulties. To do this, our team has specialists who have been working with children and adults for 17 years, helping to deal with internal problems.

Adolescence is a period of personality development. And our task is to help the child not go astray. We help teenagers and parents find and maintain the harmony in which everyone can live and develop comfortably.

“Empathy” runs psychological groups for teenagers, where kids can share important experiences, get support and feedback, learn how to build relationships with peers and find friends. Here a teenager can share his problems, and we will help him understand and understand himself. In this format of communication, support, respect and trust in peers are formed, and the prerequisites for the development of depression in a child go away by themselves.

Of course, we cannot talk about a universal panacea, but psychological work in a group is obviously a prevention of depression; if necessary, we also refer the teenager and parents to specialists with a more specialized profile. You can read about how to invite your child to participate in a psychological group here.

If you are faced with misunderstanding within your family, or have discovered signs of depression in a child, contact us for help. We are waiting for you at the Studio of Practical Psychology “Empathy”.

What could be the consequences?

Teenagers who did not get help when they needed it may experience a lot of problems in adulthood:

• frequent emotional breakdowns;
• neuroses;
• psychological disorders;
• isolation, closedness;
• suicidal tendencies;
• craving for illicit drugs.

Parents should do everything possible to ensure that their child survives the teenage crisis with minimal losses. It will be much easier to overcome moments of crisis if parents adhere to proper upbringing from early childhood. By the age of 13-14, the child will know the basic rules, learn to adhere to them and develop communication skills. Emotional outbursts, unfortunately, cannot be avoided, but they will pass much easier if you set clear rules in advance and build friendly relationships with your children.

Read on topic: How to survive self-isolation with teenagers