Bent 1

Cora Bent

Lisa Cook

English 1201.B55

9 July 2020

Literature Review

Depression and anxiety are among some of the most commonly known mental illnesses.

These mental illnesses also happen to be the ones that are most common in teenagers. Both

depression and anxiety can be hard to deal with, and sometimes people are not very nice to those

with the illnesses. A lot of people assume that people with depression are just lazy and that

people with anxiety are just shy, but that is not the case. It is so muhc more than that, and some

people are impacted more than others. The question that must be asked is: why are teenagers

more likely to be diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety?

While all of the articles I read were on the same page as to how severe depression and

anxiety are, they had slightly different ideas on why teens are more likely to be diagnosed. The

Mayo Clinic Staff seems to believe it is a mix of things, such as genetics, trauma, and being

LGBTQ+ in an unsupportive environment, Harvard Health Publishing believes they are caused

by things such as stress impacting the brain, Kinany, Kinany, and Zerriffi believe it has

something to do with teen dating violence, and The New York Times thinks it has something to

do with being concerned with their safety. Each article had next to the same answers as to what

causes the mental illnesses, however, some expanded on them by adding more possible causes.
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In “Teen Depression” written by The Mayo Clinic Staff, they describe depression as “a

serious health problem that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and lack of interest in activites”

(Mayo Clinic Staff). This website is an educational site to help educate you on various medical

conditions and it is written by doctors that are actively researching and dealing with patients with

said medical conditions. The purpose of this specific article was to inform people on the dangers

of teen depression. Later in the article, it lists possible causes for depression. One example of this

is inherited traits, where the article states, “depression is more common in people whose blood

relatives—such as a parent or grandparent—also have the condition” (Mayo Clinic Staff). Their

article on anxiety has similar causes, and describes each anxiety disorder and how they impact

the lives of those who are diagnosed.

Harvard Health Publishing goes quite in depth with their possible causes of depression.

They make it known that they research mental illness thoroughly, and even use graphs to show

the readers what they are talking about in case they do not fully understand. They bring up a

cause that is said by multiple different sources, but then go on to explain why simply saying that

cause is not enough to fully capture the cause of depression. They write, “To be sure, chemicals

are involved in this process, but it is not a simple matter of one chemical being too low and

another too high . . . There are millions, even billions, of chemical reactions that make up the

dynamic system that is responsible for your mood, perceptions, and how you experience life”

(Harvard Health Publishing).

As of right now, I have a good amount of answers to my question. For example, inherited

genes and traumatic experiences. However, that does not relate directly to teenagers. In order to

find answers that talk about teenagers specifically, I need to look into finding surveys given to

teens about mental illnesses. As of right now, I have two of those, but they are not very in-depth.
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For example, in a The New York Times article it states, “Teenagers who grew up in the post-

9/11 era, and amid many school shootings, may have anxiety tied to an environment filled with

dire warnings about safety” (Zraick). Similarly, S. Kinany, K. Kinany, and Zerriffi state, “The

strong correlation between dates’ substance abuse, teen dating violence occurrence, participants’

feelings of depression, anxiety, and suicide commands urgent intervention for secondary school

students in Fez city . . .” in the conclusion of their research in “The Association between Teen

Dating Violence, Dates’ Substance Abuse, Depression, Anxiety, and Suicide: Fez City as a Case

Study.” I need to continue to explore deeper into depression and anxiety in teenagers.
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Works Cited

Kinany, S.e.l., et al. “The Association between Teen Dating Violence, Dates’ Substance Abuse,

Depression, Anxiety, and Suicide: Fez City as a Case Study.” Revue  D'Épidémiologie Et

De Santé Publique, vol. 66, May 2018, doi:10.1016/j.respe.2018.03.322. Accessed 5 July

2020. 

Mayo Clinic Staff. “Anxiety Disorders.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education

and Research, 4 May 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/symptoms-

causes/syc-20350961#:~:text=Having%20a%20health%20condition%20or,or%20ongoing

%20worry%20about%20finances. Accessed 5 July 2020. 

Mayo Clinic Staff. “Teen Depression.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and

Research, 16 Nov. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/teen-

depression/symptoms-causes/syc-20350985. Accessed 5 July 2020. 

Publishing, Harvard Health. “What Causes Depression?” Harvard Health, June 2009,

www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression. 

Zraick, Karen. “Teenagers Say Depression and Anxiety Are Major Issues Among Their

Peers.” The New York Times, 26 Feb. 2019, p. 6,

www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/health/teenage-depression-statistics.html. Accessed 5 July

2020.