What is Depression?

Most young people experience ups and down during their teenage years and occasionally will feel down or upset by certain things going on in their lives. But some young people feel sad, lonely, down, anxious or stressed for longer periods of time to the extent that it can affect their everyday lives and can prevent that young person from doing things they would normally do. This is known as depression.

Symptoms of depression include:-

- not wanting to do things that you previously enjoyed,
- not wanting to meet up with friends or avoiding situations
- sleeping more or less than normal
- eating more or less than normal
- feeling irritable, upset, miserable or lonely
- being self-critical
- feeling hopeless
- maybe wanting to self-harm
- feeling tired and not having any energy.

One in 10 young people aged 5- 16 suffer from a diagnosable mental health problem, that is three people in every class. Two per cent of children under 12 experience depression, and this rises to five per cent among teenagers which is at least one depressed child in every classroom, so it is not uncommon and adults experience it too – one in 10 adults can experience depression at some point.

Depression can be caused by a reaction to something in your life such as abuse, family breakdown or bullying. Depression may run in your family and be caused by genetic factors or it may be that you are under a lot of stress and feel you have a lack of support.

Depression is not the same as manic depression which is another term for bipolar disorder where people experience extreme highs and lows. For more on manic depression see our section on bipolar disorder.

Depression is easy to treat if you get help for it. See our next section on ways to get help.

Depression left me exhausted even with the simplest of things, getting up in the morning seemed pointless and a painful hassle”.