Adolescent Depression and Suicide

Many people seem to feel that adolescent depression is just somethingthat teenagers go through and that there is no real reason to be alarmed.Instead, these young individuals will grow out of it as they get older.However, depression is very real, and it is a disorder. These individualscannot just ‘snap out of' the problems that they are facing. All toooften, these adolescents end up taking their own lives when theirdepression gets too painful for them and they have not received the helpthat they need. Even the medications that are designed to help them getthrough the depression can sometimes make things worse, as variousmedications for depression and anxiety carry a risk of suicide, especiallyfor young people, when they are just starting or just getting off of the It is important, therefore, to look at the problem of adolescentdepression and suicide from the perspective of the different kinds ofdisorders that cause it and the ways that these disorders can be managed sothat the depression can be reduced and the risk of suicide lessened. Inorder to do that, the paper will examine major depressivedisorder,dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder.
Psychodynamic approaches, or psychosocialapproaches, generally translate in lay terms to counseling or therapy ofsome kind. These skills are so vital because just thinking about something in adifferent way does not always lead to proper behavior. This is significant, because it allows practitioners and researchers thechance to see if what they have done so far is working, or if there isstill much more work to be done. For those that have depressive or other disorders, however, medicationsand other treatments and vital to ensuring that these adolescents feelbetter and enjoy their lives once again. There are several waysto treat this disorder, and the most common is with medication. The highest, risk, however, is from adolescents that already have amental disorder. Noticing thedepression and not saying anything about it, or...