“That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as

long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily,

that it's impossible to ever see the end. The fog is like a cage without a key”. These quote

express a big amount of feelings, meaning and cry for help. Depression affects a total of 17

percent of Chile´s population, which makes the country be in highest rate of depression in

the world (Tian shaohui). This issue affects many teens and often goes untreated or

unnoticed and that is why youths commit suicide. As this issue is affecting all the

population especially adolescents the government should implement some measurements to

decrease and prevent this problem such as; reduce the amount hours of work of parents and

implement in schools an educational system.

Depression is majority known as a serious mental health problem in which people

suffered long periods of sadness, loneliness, hopeless, and other negative feelings. These

feelings are more commonly presented in adolescents because they are going by an episode

of their lives where they experience greater changes as the transition from childhood to

adulthood as, they enter to high school, they quest for independence, desire to experiment,

within others. Untreated depression can end in serious problems, even the loss of someone,

“untreated depression is the number one risk of suicide among youths”(Jackson Blvd).

This issue goes untreated because adolescents are afraid to be rejected. These often

happen because they do not have someone to trust on, or they do not have the necessary

trust to count on someone. Students spend the majority part of the day on schools, so that

means that schools are responsible of detecting when a student is presenting any conflict or
any uncomfortable symptom. As schools are responsible of their students they should

implement measurements to solve it.

Schools are responsible of students, they have the duty to care about them and know

what is happening. Teens need a support, they need someone to trust on. During school

hours many things can happen, bulling, cyber-bulling, teasing, name calling, ostracizing,

jokes, and physical confrontation, within others. Sometimes these things can be surpassed,

but when they get constant they can hurt people. They are not longer jokes they are

wounds.

It also goes untreated because people in general, do not know how to detect when

one is suffering the problem. People are not close to the symptoms of depression and that is

why it goes unnoticed. “An adult does not diagnose two-thirds of depressed teens”

(Michael Simpson), this means that two-thirds of the cases are not discovered and are left at

risk of suicide. Although teens would not show any obvious symptoms to people because

they have the “need” to hold themselves to a standard that everyone needs to see them

happy. This is produced because adults are not informed about the symptoms, so they are

not able to recognize youths suffering. All of this is connected to the hours of working of

parents; they are not able to be with their children the necessary time to be able to

recognize the behavior of their infants.

One of the most devastating and frustrating feelings of depression is hopeless. This

apart from being a feeling that they have, is a symptom that they present. They start to get a

negative vision of everything, that produced them have an extreme loss of interest, things,

activities and even people that used to be pleasant now are odious. Hopeless increases over

time, and produce them have dangerous and impulsive acts.

 Since parents and schools are not informed about the symptoms of depression and

are not able to detect when a teen is suffering the issue the rates of suicide have increase.

Journal of Mental Health Counseling states that "from 1980-1997, the rate of suicide

among 15-19 year old adolescents increased by 11% and among those aged 10-14 by

109%". Be informed about the symptoms would help adolescents. Adults would be able to

help them and we could prevent many depression cases. “Up to 80% of those treated for

depression show an improvement in their symptoms generally within four to six weeks of

beginning in treatment”( Jackson Blvd).

In Chile the work hours is really high, in fact Chile is positioned in the sixth country

with the more number of average annual hours. “16% of all workers labor more than 50

hours a week”. This excess of working hours disadvantages them in the way that they are

not able to spend the necessary time with their children. The Baylor University study found

that “a well-off home also benefits long-term health, but only if the children also have a

warm and healthy relationship with their parents”. The time spend with parents is really

important, it builds a positive sense of self-worth and makes teens feel more positive about

themselves if they are valued by their parents. This way parents could help their teens feel

valued and makes them have more confidence about themselves.

Spending the necessary time with parents will encourage an open communication.

That means that they will have the trust to talk with them and would be able to talk about

anything. Adolescents who spend more time with their parents are less likely to get

involved in risky behaviors. According to studies done by the National Center on Addiction

and Substance Abuse via Arizona State University, “teen who have infrequent family

dinners are twice as likely to use tobacco, nearly twice as likely to use alcohol and one and
a half more likely to use marijuana.” Spending the necessary time would absolutely

decrease these activities.

Untreated depression might lead to serious problems. Most of the time it goes

unnoticed, and because of that it goes untreated. This is due because of adults fault,

specially close adults, teachers and parents. They are not able to recognize when a teen is

suffering, they are not able to recognize when a teen is crying for help, they are not able to

recognize when a teen is being destroyed emotionally, physically and psychologically,

adolescents are crying for help and adults are not capable to identify it. They need to make

themselves responsible and need to implement the necessary measurements.

Depression is more common than one believes it is a global problem, and it

specially affects adolescents. Chile is an example of it. Adolescents are being victims of it

and one needs to fix it. Implementing the necessary measurements as the educational

system and decreasing the hours of work of parents can immediately reduce this issue.

Making both, parents and teachers present every day, not to judge or criticize them,

communicating openly and respectfully and supporting each other would make a change,

hopefully prevent this issue and probably in the future reduce significantly this problem

which is now a major issue within teens. “ Parents and Teachers play a crucial role in teen

suicide prevention” (LeRoy).