What Depression is to Me

First off- The rates shown in the lesson are the most conservative I've seen. 3%? From where? Today, depression affects 47% of males, and 65% of females aged 12-17 as shown from a study made by Newport Academy on May 15, 2018 specifically on Major Depression. ALSO not mentioned was self-harm. As the lesson said, and i quote- "Often teenagers react to the pain of depression by getting into trouble: trouble with alcohol, drugs or sex; trouble with school or bad grades; problems with friends or family ". There's another rough estimate of how many teens *reported* self harm, and 15% of teens report it. Now, i wasn't asked if i was self-harming before, were you? Were you ever asked if you had depression? Were you honest, if so? But anyway. No survey is really accurate but I just wanted to add another point that was missed (or, ignored, honestly) by whoever was too uncomfortable to bring it up.

To Answer The Question, Finally---

I feel like so many teens are depressed today for a plethora of reasons, it's almost impossible to list all of the possible causes or which one is worst, but here's a list of usual reasons that leads to many cases of depression

· Stress

· Relationships

· Genetics

· Isolation

· Abuse

· Lack of (money/love or social life/a home/etc.)

And then there's Social Media.

Mentioned in all the posts thus far. Social Media seems to be a topic spoken of the most. Since speaking on this is just repeating what every ones said enough of already, I'm gonna go on and talk about what i believe is also as important.

Misrepresentation (and also, advice on how to deal with depression)

Misrepresentation-the action or offense of giving a false or misleading account of the nature of something.

I believe that teenage depression is not being talked about enough, nor is it being spoken of correctly either. In the media, depression is usually spoken of when a celebrity overdoses on drugs and it's seen as a suicide. There's constant negatives thrown on with the word "depression", "suicide", and "self harm". To mention again, even our own lesson represents depressed teens as trouble-making kids with bad grades. That is just another form of misrepresentation, and that is just toxic. I want to be the one to say, instead of "you're not alone, you can get help", that I want to actually help! Be an activist, represent who you are, and let it be known that not everyone fits a definition!

A way that I always turn to, instead of self harm or bottling up emotions to let it explode later, you could actively tell people how you feel, or vent it as soon as you can! For me, I write my heart out and it always helps me calm down at least. I know I don't want to hurt myself, so i try not to. And well I'm still here (and, you are too, I would assume?). Writing it out was also how JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter! Cool fact in my opinion at least. Though, do anything that makes you happy that you can! You don't have to do what people say should make you happy or not, your are your own person whether others like it or not. When dealing with others, unless they're causing you physical harm, it doesn't matter how you look, or dress, or if they just don't like you for who you are. If they're people you don't like in the first place, why should their opinion matter to you? Even if no one in the world is there for you, be confident that you didn't wanna be liked by shallow people like that anyways.