Depression is a disease that afflicts the human psyche in such a way that the afflicted tends to act and react abnormally toward others and themselves. On a day-to-day basis many people suffer from depression. We all have problems in our lives from family, work and our own emotions; we tend to deal with them differently. Some people cry, some eat a lot or even try to hurt themselves. I have always wondered why people get depressed, so with the aid of reference and research I will discuss some causes of depression and how they are treated or even cured. But what Im really going to focus on is how it affects adolescent. In children and adolescents, rates and forms of mental illness change with age and differs for boys and girls. For example, depression and anxiety disorders occur at the same rate among girls until mid adolescence. At an adolescence age they have problems dealing with depression suicide is now responsible for more deaths in youths aged 15 to 19 than cardiovascular disease or cancer (Blackman, 1995). Despite this increased suicide rate, depression in this age group is greatly under diagnosed and leads to serious difficulties in school, work and personal adjustment which may often continue into adulthood. How prevalent are mood disorders in children and when should an adolescent with changes in mood be considered clinically depressed? Brown (1996) has said the reason why depression is often over looked in children and adolescents is because "children are not always able to express how they feel." Sometimes the symptoms of mood disorders take on different forms in children than in adults. Adolescence is a time of emotional turmoil, mood swings, gloomy thoughts, and heightened sensitivity. It is a time of rebellion and experimentation. Blackman (1996) observed that the "challenge is to identify depressive symptomatology which may be superimposed on the backdrop of a more transient, but expected, developmenta...
