How to Recognize the Signs of Teen Depression

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Laura Grashow; a Licensed Psychologist with drgrashow.com. Okay, now let's talk a little bit about signs of teen depression. We already know that adolescence is a time of intense emotion, passion and we see a development in critical thinking skills. So oftentimes what we see in adolescence are kids who can be moody, irritable and argumentative. But when we're talking about real depression in teens, we're talking about something that's more severe; there are more symptoms and it's chronic and longer lasting. The first thing you want to look for is a sad or depressed mood, expressed feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, a lot of guilt, there could be intense fear of failure; you might see your teens changing friends and start to hang around with other kids who seem to be preoccupied with more, more of the things in pop culture like their music or their movies for example. Then of course, there's always expressed thoughts of preoccupations with death, let's say or thoughts about suicide. You might also see a change in eating and sleeping habits; but again, these signs are more than just a typical teen angst and they're longer lasting."