Teenage Depression Test for Parents
Teenage Depression Test for Parents
If you suspect an adolescent is suffering from persistent sadness, loss of interest, loss of self worth and discouragement, you can use a teenage depression test for parents to guide you.
It is normal for young people to be non-communicative at times, or to suffer from lack of esteem. It's when normal mood swings escalate into a true depression that the situation is serious and requires outside help.
A test can help sort out all the changes you are seeing, and help you decide if it is teenage depression.
b: if it's drug-related
c: where to investigate
d: where to get help
e. how to talk to your teen
f. figuring out insurance coverage
Adolescent mood swings are a common occurrence; the transition from a good mood to bad mood and back can happen over several days or in the course of a few minutes. The fact that normal teens experience the same feelings as the clinically depressed makes diagnosis a challenge. You may want to try this depression test from Erika's Lighthouse.It is in a PDF format available for download at no charge.
Adolescent females are depressed twice more than adolescent boys, according to statistics.
The teenage depression test below is based on the 6-ITEM Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale. The Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale serves as a self-report scale especially created to diagnosis and measure the degree of teenage …
Causes of Depression
- bad school performance
- relationship break-up
- failing relations with friends and family
- chronic illness
- child abuse
- stressful lifestyle
- poor social skills
- unstable care giving
- depression in family history
The combination of body and hormonal changes along with acute awareness of social status can make what should be the best years of one's life some of the worst. Teens are very prone to poor self esteem.
Symptoms of depression in adolescents are
- eating disorders
- weight change
- irritable mood
- excessive sleeping in daytime
- excessive temper
- criminal behavior
- memory loss
- self preoccupation
- difficulty concentrating
- worthlessness feelings
- loss of interest
- self hatred
- obsession with death
- thought and attempts of suicide
None of these symptoms should be ignored, and every threat of suicide needs immediate medical intervention.
Depression not only affects interpersonal relationships, but school performance as well. Depressed adolescents are more prone to take drugs and alcohol as an attempt to block the overwhelming feelings they face. They believe no one else understands, or feels as badly as they do. They will often begin to associate with other troubled kids in an attempt to be around people they believe relate to them better.
Unfortunately, an untreated depressive disorder can also lead to the development of other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, mania and anxiety. It is also important to determine whether the adolescent poses a risk for himself/herself and others. Family and school personnel can provide valuable information to help determine the level of treatment needed.
Therapy for depression for adolescent is somewhat similar to the treatment of depression for adults. Along with the psychotherapy, sometimes antidepressant medications are prescribed. However, young adults are chemically different. Medications that work for grown ups can have undesired effects on teens.
Family and school support is necessary to tackle the depression of the adolescent. Parents can get their children admitted in emotional growth schools, boot camps or wilderness programs to treat the behavioral problems. These programs consist of non medical staff and confrontational therapies. But care must be taken as some of the programs can in turn harm children who are depressed and sensitive.
We found an interesting piece on a computer game that claims to help with teen depression, called SPARX. Unfortunately it is only available to residents of New Zealand at the time of this post being published.
Computer Game Promises To Deal With Teen Depression A recent report unveiled how computer games can address adolescent depression. It has been claimed that the SPARX video game has been targeted to make …
With funding from the Ministry of Health, a team of specialists in treating depression in young people, learning technologists, young people and cultural advisors have joined forces with Metia Interactive www.metia.co.nz (a local computer game develo…
Kids who commit a criminal offense optimally should be taken care of by their parents. Certainly the child needs to face the consequences and learn a lesson from it.
Depressed adolescents respond well to treatment if they are treated comprehensively and early. More than half of the adults are known to have depression when they were in their teens.
If you have any doubts, or questions, take the teen depression test for parents to learn more.