Therapy For Teenage Depression
Suicide & Crisis Hotline: dial 988
Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741
Being a teen is HARD. I mean that just as plain and simple as I said it. There’s no other life stage that involves so much expectation, while requiring so much exploration, in such a maelstrom of hormones. I’m dizzy just thinking about it! Just existing through it all takes a heavy toll on teens’ mental health. Thank goodness there’s therapy for teenage depression…
A teenage brain is busy balancing all kinds of chemicals within itself, and is volatile at best even without external stimuli. And boy oh boy are they being met with some external stimuli! The expectations of doing well in school, making friends, NOT making enemies, pleasing your parents, understanding yourself, and so on burns through some happy chemicals like nothing else, which is why therapy for teenage depression is so needed.
Parents, watch out for these signs:
- difficulty concentrating
- memory issues
- loss of appetite
- social withdrawal
- irresponsible behavior
- hyperfixation with death
No single one of these can be used diagnostically, but a pattern of several gives a pretty solid clue.
Teens, know this: you are not going through a phase. You are not alone. You should seek help where it’s safe. Depression is incredibly common, treatable, and nothing to be ashamed of! Please seek therapy for teenage depression!
Counseling/therapy can be very useful for treating depression in teens, largely because it helps to have a professional to put words to what you’re experiencing. What feels so new and confusing to you has been studied at length! Once you get to know a mental health provider, and they get to know you, they will adapt all of that studied to YOUR brain and circumstances.
The perspective that a therapist can give you for mental health skill-building is INVALUABLE! Find a provider you can trust, and TRUST THEM. With this as a baseline, therapy for teenage depression is not so impossible to overcome!