Running Head: Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue?

Depression Among Adolescents: Is Mental Breakdown Among Teens Serious Issue?

Leyla Suleymanli

ADA University

WRIT-1202-20181
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 2

Introduction

We all had a time when there was nothing to worry about in social life, different problems, and

we were freer from responsibilities. When kids reach the teenage years, their life perceptions can

be changed, both good and bad, which are affected by our environment. Sometimes many days

can not be as fun as they can, and when we need our parents’ attention the most, they may not be

able to understand our concerns. The same thing goes for the school, which is why most teens

prefer to keep everything to themselves, and the results do not satisfy in the end. The disease that

may occur in them is called depression. Depression is the most severe disruption that may

ultimately influence people's state, behaviors, and relationships with others. Many studies have

shown that nowadays, many young adolescents suffer from depression, and it takes quite a long

time to recover. While researching the reasons behind the weak mental disorder, here comes the

question: How is depression associated with the complexities of life? Based on a degree of

psychological well-being, today’s teenagers are expected to be responsible for their future,

regulate their emotions, and comprehend the difference between a pastime and an actual

profession. This responsibility is placed on them, damaging the dream world or self they have

always desired to be. These challenges can lead them astray. Throughout the research, there will

be in-depth information about the levels of depression, their factors, and their effective therapy

methods.

Methodology

Different approaches were presented to solve the research issue within the boundaries of this

study. This paper mainly relies more on the quantitative approach that focuses on data collection,

surveys statistical analysis rather than qualitative methods that primarily deal with words and

meanings. To investigate the current problem, it is necessary to prove the evidence of the scope

of the issue by maintaining the results of surveys, test scores, and effect analysis using statistics.

All the well-known electronic databases used in the paper were taken from the ADA library,
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 3

where there was a big focus on JSTOR, Taylor & Francis in 2000-2022. These journal articles

are peer-reviewed and, therefore, reliable.

Literature Review

1. Factors of depression

Many factors, such as health, family communication, social contacts at school, and education,

can impact a person's physical and mental health, depending on the environment, household,

geographical location, and lifestyle. According to Laura N. Desha, Jan M. Nicholson, and Jenny

M. Ziviani (2011), parental interactions begin building a child's mental stability. Adolescents

report less unhappiness when they spend more time with loving parents. In this stage of a

psychological issue, it is essential not to lose instant communication with the teens and try our

best to prevent the expressive symptoms from complicating the condition. However, in most of

the events, we observe that the environment that affects adolescents slowly damages the

worldview they set up for themselves. Even the medications and interactions cannot help. They

may think they are failing to reach the performance standards they have set for themselves.

Therefore, they are always dissatisfied and depressed. They have a negative view of the world

and consider themselves worthless. This problem has eventually led to a host of severe concerns

in their academic careers, such as low exam grades (Mahnaz F. Khesht-Masjedi et al., 2019).

2. Levels of Depression

Recent research has described the causes and effects of mentally disturbing adolescent behavior.

Additionally, it is critical to recognize that different persons may have varied symptoms of

depression depending on their illness stage. That is why we must examine the stages of

depression in kids to intervene by helping. To thoroughly investigate the issue, the youth

completed several tests and surveys, which can be used to support immediate treatment

decisions. According to major prospective studies done by Anita Thapar, Stephan Collishaw,

Robert Potter, and Ajay K Thapar (2010), adolescent depression is associated with an increased
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 4

risk of suicide (odds ratio 11 to 27), and suicide is the third largest cause of death in the 14–19-

year age group. Moving on, the further discovery made by Mahnaz F. Khesht-Masjedi et al.

(2019) entirely disregard gender distinctions of the teens and how symptoms and degree of

depression that may occur in their well-being by declaring that the 18–19-year-old was found to

be significantly different from the 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17-year-olds in this study. According to

their research conducted in Shiraz, pupils over the age of 17 had the highest depression rate

among teens, and there was no distinction in the depression between males and girls. By

summing up the results, we may arrange depression levels in an acceptable way given the

findings of scores from across the world by summarizing all of the data. The results of the tests

establish four categories of distress: Normal or symptom-free (0–15); mild depression (16–30);

moderate depression (31–46); severe depression (47–63).

3. Effective Methods of Therapy

The majority of investigations have relied on illness incidence and severity logic. Following the

previous research (Mahnaz F. Khesht-Masjedi et al., 2019), it is time to develop practical

approaches to treating depressed teenagers. Many published assessment studies have focused on

the short-term effectiveness of newer generation antidepressant drugs, cognitive-behavioral

therapy (CBT), or both. There is a scarcity of data on long-term efficacy and relapse prevention.

In contrast, large, controlled research (TADS) from the United States found that CBT alone is no

better than a placebo in moderate-to-severe depression. It is only beneficial when paired with

fluoxetine. The research was extensively studied and defined the primary goal of CBT. Parent

involvement, detecting and treating parental mental illness, teaching patients about depression

(including the use of educational leaflets), situation, attending to recent family or peer group

disputes, coping with the disorder, and coordinating with schools and other agencies are all

proposed ways, all while tracking mental status and utilizing an empathetic, reflective approach.

Food and health recommendations, exercise (45 minutes to an hour three times per week), sleep
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 5

hygiene, and anxiety management are all recommended, guided self-help and semi-supportive

therapy (Anita Thapar, Stephan Collishaw, Robert Potter, and Ajay K Thapar,2010).

Discussion

During the comparative and critical analyses of relevant sources, this research paper

demonstrates that nowadays, in today's society, one of the expected outcomes is depression

because of the considerable burden that students have on schools and social life. As a result of

the study, researchers conclude that depression is a heavy burden that students carry at school, at

home, and even in social life. Each depressed teenager may experience one of several depression

degrees. Depending on the level, it may be easy for some teens to recover but more challenging

for adolescents with deeper stages of mental disorder. According to Mahnaz F. Khesht-Masjedi

et al. (2019), there are two types of medications such as CBT and antidepressant drugs. They

prevent severe types of depression, while other types can be prevented through specific school

programs, for example, appointments with psychologists. Additionally, they claim that the

research was extensively studied and defines the primary goal of CBT. In a further study of this

effective method, the analyzers confirmed the effects of the use of CBT. The study done by

Heather L. Crisp, Gretchen R. Gudmundsen, and Stephen R. Shirk (2006) maintains that

diagnosable children treated with CBT were likely to be less symptomatic than roughly 85

percent of untreated or control-condition kids at the end of therapy. In a 1998 evaluation of

empirically validated psychosocial therapies for youth, CBT for teenage depression was not

included among "probably effective" treatments. Even though the most effective type of

treatment for the severe type of adolescent depression is considered CBT, most schools cannot

implement it for young students for one of several reasons. This medication is not suitable for

some students who need the whole treatment program consisting of aid and visits to specialists or

keeping ill teens in specific hospitals for full supervision if there is a need. For these types of

cases, scholars came up with easing the disease prevention program by distributing it online on

computers. The primary reasons for this interest were that they enjoyed using computers or
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 6

online games or that it would be easier than talking to someone. Other respondents agreed that it

would be beneficial for individuals who dislike communicating. The impact of the online

structure shows satisfactory scores in enhancing students' wellness. In agreement with Theresa M

Fleming, Robyn S Dixon & Sally N Merry (2012), electronic treatment was viewed well by the

students in this research. Conversely, researchers maintained that only 25% of youngsters who

have used CAMS services wanted to use a computer program. Following these statistics,

scholars also discovered that roughly half of the university teenagers assumed they used an

online program to assist school performance. Digital treatment may appeal to our sample of

young people who are not getting support anywhere. This method is also helpful to those who

are a little embarrassed in interacting with others or do not see themselves as confident enough to

express their real feelings. Even though the computerized version can achieve many cognitive

results, drawbacks need to be noticed. Theresa M Fleming et al. (2012) state that direct and

indirect difficulties in adopting a depression computer software were identified. The most

pressing fear was humiliation or embarrassment when other young folks discovered they were

sad. One prevalent hurdle discovered was a shortage of computers at certain alternative schools

and a loss of actual room to house computers. Even though all of the sources in the paper fully

engaged in determining and understanding the correct way of solving the problem, it seems that

there are various that should be taken into account, such as: considering that teenage depression

can vary depending on the mentality of the country they live, traditions and rules that each

family can build, or trying to reduce the external sources of depression among adolescents, for

example, bullying, the impact of social media or violence and conflicts happening between

parents that affect students' emotions.

Conclusion

The teenage years are the most difficult, fragile, and stressful to cope with. As many aspects

determine teens' struggle, the mental breakdown can be divided into different levels depending

on how long the students kept their concerns to themselves. If there is no action taken to help
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 7

deal with depression spreading in many schools, teens are more vulnerable to committing

suicide. Even though many sources used for the research gave the enough information and

support for the analysis, there are some drawbacks that needed to be considered. For example, all

the surveys and tests introduced in the paper had only one main purpose: to understand the

reason behind teenagers' mind breakdowns, however, none of the testers tried to discover the

logic of depression in the connection with parent nurturing. .For the further implementation, by

getting more knowledge about the mental disorder that is common among young teenagers,

parents, school counselors, and even survivors of the depression will be able to join many teams

in opening special programs for helping teenagers understand that they are not alone in this

journey, that it is okay to talk about anxieties that bother them despite it to be in a family,

between peers, friend or school. As it is a lot easier nowadays to test the students' mental health

and take some statistics or survey results, school counselors will distribute the step-by-step

solution list, which consists of appointments with psychologists, attending different prevention

programs, and even taking medicine needed to maintain each students' health.
Depression Among Teenagers: Is Mental Disorder of Teens Serious Issue? 8

Bibliography

Crisp, H. L., Gudmundsen, G. R., & Shirk, S. R. (2006). Transporting Evidence-Based Therapy for
Adolescent Depression to the School Setting. JSTOR, 287-309.

Desha, L. N., Nicholson, J. M., & Ziviani, J. M. (2011). Adolescent Depression and Time Spent with
Parents and Siblings. JSTOR, 233-238.

Fleming, T. M., Dixon, R. S., & Merry, S. N. (2012). ‘It’s mean!’ The views of young people alienated from
mainstream education on depression, help. Taylor & Francis, 195-203.

Khesht-Masjedi, M. F., Shokrgozar, S., Abdollahi, E., Habibi, B., Asghari, T., Ofoghi, R. S., & Pazhooman, S.
(2019). The relationship between gender, age, anxiety, depression, and academic achievement
among teenagers. Taylor & Francis, 799-804.

Thapar, A., Collishaw, S., Potter, R., & Thapar, A. K. (2010). Managing and preventing depression in
adolescents. JSTOR, 254-258.