How can depression affect my teen's life?

The effects of depression can seriously affect every aspect of the teenage years. Feelings of happiness, contentment, enthusiasm, and pleasure are diminished. Socializing becomes a bore or extremely uncomfortable, making it difficult for them to enjoy the normal activities associated with adolescence. Work, school, and other activities that require concentration become extremely difficult. Even love, an emotion of pleasure, becomes difficult to feel when symptoms of depression are being experienced. In the extreme, it can lead to poor school performance, truancy, running away, substance abuse, and even suicide, all of which will have a lasting affect on your teen’s life well into adulthood.

Many teenagers with depression describe a feeling of separation from themselves. They view their life from the outside, like watching a movie. This isolation impacts relationships with friends and loved ones. Until the symptoms of depression are treated, depression negatively alters life and makes it extremely difficult for those suffering from it.