Teenagers are busybodies.  The schedule of an extremely involved student can be quite strenuous; beginning the school day bright and early with a before-school activity, moving to seven hours of advanced, heavily weighted classes, followed by a few hours of practice or rehearsal after school, and finally, hours of homework.  Students get overwhelmed.  Preparing for the real world can be filled with anxiety and stress.  Pressure exerted on them by classmates, teachers, parents, colleges, and most intensely by themselves does a great deal of harm to their mentality and conscience, leaving them melancholy and feeling angry or alone.   But these emotions are expected.  Everyone knows teenagers are emotionally developing sacks of tears, complaints, dramatic behavior, and rebellion. Kids will be kids.

Signs of depression are oftentimes overlooked and just seen as normal emotion – especially in teens and children.  According to WebMD, roughly one in eight children in the United States suffer from teen depression.

 However, the issue is too often looked over as simple emotions and hormonal unbalance.  Depression in all of its forms is a dangerous disease that is often misdiagnosed in children and teenagers, leading to a life filled with its negative effects.  This is frightening and unfortunate, because suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that about one in twelve teens attempt suicide.  It is so tragic to see newspapers littered with the stories of kids who had enough.  In many cases, it comes as a complete surprise, because these kids had never shown any of the tell-tale signs.  The parents probably shrugged it off as a bad day.  It is so important not to allow for any more preventable deaths to occur due to misdiagnosed depression.

The main way to prevent these deaths is just to observe and notice changes in behavior.  The starting symptoms of depression are easily mistaken for normal emotion, but  WebMD offers an extensive list of all the signs to pay attention to. The main characteristic is a sudden, out of nowhere change in mood.  Children and teens are concerned about being seen as weak, so many times they will not allow themselves to notice signs of depression.  Parents may not notice anything either, because much of the time, they suffer from depression and their influence that caused their to showcase depressive behavior.  The disease in a misunderstood, underestimated killer.  Above all, it is important to talk to potential sufferers.  It is the worst for a teen to go through a depressive state without anyone there to support them.  Everyone must remember that there is always a way.  There is always a solution. There is always treatment.  This epidemic must end.

Childhood and teenage depression is  serious issue in society because of the growing number of deaths which are from the kids taking their own lives.  Too many are lost to this preventable, curable disease.  For kids and teens to consider suicide is heartbreaking, because young people should never feel the need to do something so drastic.  If someone can realize that there is something going on that is out of the ordinary, then treatment is around the corner.  Break misconceptions and know that there is a way out.  Preparing for college is a daunting task with hundreds of tasks needing to be completed.  The last few years of high school are a time where stress levels run high and anxiety is prevalent.  These pressures, along with any other emotional occurrences, are what spiral out of control and lead to teen depression.  Do not allow a preconceived notion to cloud the fact that something very detrimental could be at hand.  Never just think “kids will be kids”… because sometimes, they won’t.