What is Depression?

Its perfectly normal at some point in your life to feel down or sad. Depression however, is different. Depression is an illness, where you feel sad and hopeless for a long period of time. To be medically diagnosed as having depression you must feel constantly depressed for over two weeks.

It is perfectly normaly to feel unhappy at times as a teenager, or at any age, but depression is also a possibility, and if you feel that your mood is never lifting, it is possible you could be suffering from depression.

There are many types of depression, but most of them follow similiar sympthoms of: (please note that you do not necessarily have to display all these)

• Prolonged feelings of despair and sadness lasting longer than two weeks.
• Lack of concern or care for yourself
• A loss of interest in things that usually interest you
• A chance in your sleeping patterns (Sleeping more, or less)
• Engaging in reckless and dangerous activities
• Self harming behaviour
• Feeling worthless and like a failure
• Difficulty concentrating

Depression can be caused by many things, or in fact, triggered by nothing at all. However, some of the main causes of depression are:

• Abuse or neglect
• Existing mental illness
• A traumatic event
• Some medications
• Home/Work/College Issues
• Stress/Anxiety
• Genetic