How to Help a Teen Overcome Depression

Video Transcript

DR. F. FELICIA FERRARA: Hello. I'm Dr. Felicia, the parent coach, and I'm here today to talk to you about how to help a teen overcome depression. Depression is a very serious complex syndrome, and some children start with a depressive attitude at a very early age. Six, seven or eight, you already know they're chronically depressed, or some teenagers have a sudden onset at the teen years. It any case, any traumatic event, whether--regardless of what age you are, any traumatic even is enough to set off you into a depression. It's a normal reaction actually to some of the traumatic events like loss of a parent, etcetera. What you want to do is really monitor their behavior if you're worried about your particular teen. This is true if you also happen to have a group suicide or something like that happened in your community, in your local school. If there's a car accident and their best friends were killed or it doesn't even have to be a best friend, just a classmate is killed, the concept of death and trauma is very, very frightening to most kids so a teenager would very likely end up in depression just thinking about life and death. So what your job as a parent is really monitor and stick close to that child while this is going on. There are several warning signs. If your child is severely depressed for suicide, which is of course if they issue suicide statements, it will definitely be a concern. If they attempt any suicide of course that's a serious--you should call for a professional help either way, if they threaten it or if they actually try it. If they start to give a lot of their belongings away, that's also a bad sign of depression that they've given up and if they isolate themselves to the point of never coming out even with their own friends. So remember those four tips. If they have threatened suicide, attempt suicide, become withdrawn and isolated in their home or start to give all their items away, it's a very serious concern and please consult a professional to help you with that. Thank you and good luck.