Adolescence can be a stressful period in one's life. Some teens just can't handle the combination of pressures in school and conflicts at home. The rapid changes that they are going through, physically, emotionally, and psychologically, are also hard to deal with. Many become overly critical of themselves, develop a bleak outlook on life, and harbor suicidal thoughts. These are just some of the telltale signs of teen depression --- a condition that can lead to disastrous and tragic consequences if left untreated. If you or someone you know suffers from this condition, the following tips will pave the way for recovery.

Symptoms of Teen Depression

Not all teens display clear symptoms of depression. If you feel depressed, you may try to hide your symptoms in an effort to feel better or repress your emotions. Common symptoms of teen depression last for more than two weeks, and include:

• Sadness and hopelessness
• Poor self-esteem or feelings of guilt
• Overreaction to criticism
• Anger and rage
• Forgetfulness and lack of concentration
• Lack of energy or motivation
• Feelings of failing to satisfy ideals
• Withdrawal from social interaction
• Agitation and restlessness
• Poor performance in school
• Changes in sleeping patterns and eating habits
• Problems with authority, which often manifests as rebelliousness
• Suicidal thoughts or actions

Tips for Overcoming Teen Depression

Your depression may be caused or exacerbated by things that you routinely do. Little changes in your daily routine can have great effects on your mood and behavior. Try the following tips to turn things around.

• Get plenty of sleep: Sleep deprivation makes depression worse because you lack the energy to do your daily tasks. Aim for eight hours of sleep each night, and get on a better sleeping schedule to have more energy for the day.
• Bask in sunshine: Research shows that mood is affected by the amount of light that the body receives. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), another type of depression, is even treated with controlled amounts of light. Try shaking off your blues by taking short walks outdoors or having coffee outside. Try to get as much sunlight as you can and look for places where you can relax.
• Exercise to release your energy: A simple 10-minute walk can improve your mood for up to two hours. Do some aerobic exercises each day to loosen up your muscles and facilitate breathing. Continuous, rhythmic exercises like yoga, walking, swimming, stationery biking, and even dancing can counter depression.

• Real happy meals result in happy moods: Feel-good foods like french fries, baked goods, or pasta satisfy your appetite, but they quickly lead to a crash in energy and mood. Instead of eating these foods, go for foods rich in complex carbohydrates such as bananas, oatmeal, baked potatoes, and whole grain breads, because these can boost your serotonin levels without a crash. In addition, never skip meals because long gaps between meals can make you feel tired and irritable.
• Negate your negativity: Stop being so hard on yourself because most of the time, your self-image is vastly different from how others see you. Keep a journal of negative thoughts and review your negative thoughts when you're feeling positive or optimistic. Now, consider whether those negative thoughts are warranted or if they are exaggerated. Try to replace each negative thought with a positive one and then try to think of those positive thoughts when you're dealing with people in your daily life.

• Identify your depression triggers: Ask yourself, “What are the things in my life that make me feel bad?” These can include: burnout, health problems, people who are not supporting you enough, and substance abuse, among others. Once you've identified these triggers, figure out how to avoid them or minimize their impact on your life.
• Go easy on yourself: A lot of depressed people are perfectionists. They hold themselves to impossibly high standards and then beat themselves up when they fail to meet their own expectations. Think outside yourself and ask, “Do people really expect me to do this?” “Do other people have the same standards?” Relax and realize that you can't do everything perfectly. It's not because you're no good, but because the task is too great or requires someone else who has the resources to pull it off. Try to be satisfied with what you have and what you can do, so you don't feel crushed when you fail.

Medical Treatments for Teen Depression

Several treatments are available to fight teen depression. You have to work with your doctor or therapist to make any of these treatments work, as you may not be well enough to handle them yourself. Support from friends and family will also help in treating the mood disorder. The following are the treatment options available for you.

• Medications: Teen depression can be relieved by a combination of psychotherapy and medications. Doctors typically prescribe antidepressants to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of teen depression. Antidepressants are categorized by how they affect the biochemicals in your brain that affect your mood. Your doctor will perform various tests to determine what's the best class of antidepressants for you. Commonly used antidepressants for teen depression include:
• Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): SSRIs are the first choices for treatment of depression because their side effects are more tolerable than other types of antidepressants, and they also work well. SSRIs include escitalopram, citalopram, sertraline, paroxetine, and fluoxetine.
• Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs): TCAs have been around longer than SSRIs but their side effects are more severe. They are often not prescribed until you've tried SSRIs without any improvement.
• Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs): MAOIs are often a last resort because they can have serious side effects. They also require strict dietary restrictions since they can cause potentially fatal interactions with food. There are newer versions of MAOIs that you can simply stick on your skin and have relatively fewer side effects. Your doctor may also prescribe stimulants, anti-anxiety medications, and mood-stabilizing medications or a combination of these to improve your condition.

• Psychotherapy: Psychotherapy involves talk sessions where you learn about the causes of your depression. This type of treatment can help you cope easier with the mood disorder. You'll also learn how to identify and deal with unhealthy thoughts and behaviors and set realistic goals for your life. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a commonly used talk therapy for depression. It identifies negative, pessimistic beliefs and behaviors and replaces them with positive, healthy ones. It's based on the idea that you can always redefine an unwanted situation, so that your outlook becomes more optimistic, and you're able to behave positively.
• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): This form of treatment involves sending controlled amounts of electrical currents into your brain to trigger seizures. The procedure may sound scary, but it actually offers fast and effective relief from depression symptoms. Experts believe that the electrical currents affect the neurotransmitters in your brain, altering your mood and behavior. Side effects include confusion and brief memory loss. ECT is typically recommended for patients who don't get better with other treatments, and who are likely to commit suicide.

• Hospitalization: Teen depression rarely requires hospitalization. Psychiatric hospitalization is recommended only when you can't take care for yourself anymore, or you can't stop yourself from harming other people. Your options for hospitalization include partial or day hospitalization, 24-hour inpatient care, or residential treatment.
• Neurotherapeutic treatments: If all other treatments fail to improve your condition, you may consider nontraditional treatment methods, such as neurotherapeutic treatments. These generally involve direct brain stimulation to alter your mood and behavior. Neurotherapeutic treatments include:

• Vagus nerve simulation (VNS): VNS is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States for treatment of severe cases of depression. In this method, a surgically implanted pulse generator produces electrical impulses that affect the mood centers of the brain.
• Deep brain stimulation: This is a highly experimental treatment where the brain is stimulated by surgically implanted electrodes.
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): This is an experimental procedure that uses magnetic fields to change your brain activity. An electromagnetic oil is held against your scalp to generate electrical current that stimulates your brain.

Always remember that adolescence is just a brief period in your life. All your negative feelings, however consuming they might be, are driven by hormones and other bodily processes that are, to a certain extent, beyond your control. Someday, when you reach adulthood, you'll look back at these depressed episodes of your life and realize that not all of them were really that serious. Don't give up, and always try to see the brighter side of things because these are the only ones that matter.

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