Overcoming Depression

Help and tips for getting over depression

  • Home
  • Start here
  • Depression
    • Depression Symptoms
    • Depression: a Physical Illness?
    • Cognitive Therapy
    • Mood Analysis
    • Faulty Thinking Patterns
    • Postoperative Depression
    • Teenage Depression and Suicide
    • Achieving Good Self-Esteem
    • Get Rid of Guilt
    • Book Reviews
  • Anxiety
    • Types of Anxiety Disorders
    • First Aid for Panic Attacks
    • Tips for Overcoming Anxiety
    • Myths about Panic Attacks
    • Anxiety Relaxation Technique
    • Anxiety and love
    • Locus of Control
  • Stress
    • Stressed out?
    • Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale
    • Stress Relief Activities
    • Stress and Pregnancy
    • Stress Hives
    • Tips to Beat Exam Stress
    • Reduce Work Related Stress
    • How to cope when you’re looking for work
    • Winning when you lose
    • Crises of Adult Life
  • Alcohol Abuse
    • Codependent Checklist
    • Marriage and alcohol
    • Stress and Alcohol
  • Relationships
    • 5 Tips for Restoring a hurting marriage
    • Signs of an Abusive Relationship
    • Our Birth Family
    • 6 Common Human Needs!
    • 5 Stages of Grief
      • Helping a grieving friend
    • Overcoming Loneliness
    • Successfully deal with anger and criticism
  • Trauma
    • Trauma Survivor
    • Blaming the Victim
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
  • Blog

Teenage Depression and Suicide

teenage depression and suicide

In a dark place

The reality of teenage depression and suicide

Teenage suicide is a horrific reality in this world. Very sadly there are many teenagers end their lives just because of not doing ‘well enough’ in exams.The pressure of achieving and having too high expectations of oneself are all factors that can lead to a feeling of despair and inadequacy. Teenage depression and suicide are a tragic reality of modern life.

First step to helping

  • Listen carefully and look for signs of depression and warning signs of suicidal thoughts.
  • Don’t show surprise or shock and definitely don’t judge what the person is saying. Accept feelings and don’t shame the person with comments like “you’re not serious” etc.
  • Don’t interrupt the person while they are talking, thereby turning the conversation back to yourself.
  • Watch out for warning signs of depression and suicide in written messages like on Facebook and emails.
  • Don’t try and find solutions for your friend. Try to listen to how they are feeling and encourage them to express their feelings. It can help if you try to imagine what the person has gone through to have those feelings.  Reflecting back how a person is is feeling acts like a mirror and is helpful as it allows the other person to work through their problems.Use words that show you are trying to understand how they are feeling, for example “That must have hurt you …  or frustrated you .. or made you angry … “This isn’t easy because human tendency seems to want to make things better with words of advice. We’re not always in touch with our own feelings.

Suicide threats
Always take suicide threats seriously. Don’t ignore them because of your own discomfort. Find out more and ask specific questions. Don’t be afraid that your questions will encourage the person to commit suicide. It won’t. Questions give space for your friend to talk about how they are feeling.

Watch how you phrase your questions. For example a question like “you don’t really want to kill yourself, do you?” comes across as judgmental and unaccepting. Statements like this will definitely shut them up.

If the person has given an indication that they are planning to end their life, ask them if they have made a plan on how they are going to take their life. The answer will show if serious thought has gone into the suicide threat. A threat is especially serious if the person is planning to use a gun. Immediate action needs to be taken. Get your friend to a hospital.

Suicide must always be taken seriously. With suicide threats, the problem is often depression and the person needs medical help. Anti-depressants will definitely help.

How best to help your friend

  • Stay calm and listen to the person’s feelings.
  • Depression causes a person to think negatively. If the person is uncharacteristically negative it could be depression. Help your friend to understand negative thinking is a symptom of depression and can be treated. Stress results in a change in the brain chemicals leading to depression.  A more detailed explanation of how depression is a physical illness can be found here.
  • If you are a teenager yourself, tell an adult (parent or teacher). Even if your friend has told you to keep this a secret, you cannot. It’s too heavy a burden and irresponsible to keep a suicide threat confidential.  Tell your friend upfront that you cannot keep this secret because they are so special to you and that you are going to tell an adult. Better still take your friend with you. Rather have your friend cross with you for breaking confidence than losing your friend to suicide. Just imagine how you’d feel if your friend did take their life?
  • Tell the person that you care for them. A depressed person often feels unloved.
  • Don’t leave your friend alone. Go with them to get help rather than just telling them to get help. Call police emergency if necessary.

Related posts:
Dealing with exam stress

 

 

Recent Posts

  • Psychological withdrawal for addicts
  • Need to be needed
  • Why You Can’t Rescue an Addict
  • Your words have power
  • Taking a leap forward!

Like Me on Facebook

Facebook

Categories

  • addiction
  • Alcohol
  • Anger
  • Anxiety
  • Approval
  • Attitude
  • Bible
  • Blog
  • Book Review
  • Depression
  • Perfectionism
  • Relationships
  • slider
  • Stress
  • Success
  • Thinking
  • Uncategorized
  • Work

Tags

Abraham Lincoln addiction alcohol Andrew Verster Anger anxiety approval be creative be yourself Bill Clinton change your thinking cognitive therapy depression Dora Taylor drugs encouragement fight or flight forgiveness friends funny George Bernard Shaw guilt honesty hope interference J.K. Rowling Jared Diamond Collapse Joaquin Phoenix John Gurdon Joy Laurence Olivier life with purpose love nagging perfectionism perseverance poetry self-esteem shyness stress success trauma try again women workaholic

Comments

  • Karin on Why You Can’t Rescue an Addict
  • Tommy on Why You Can’t Rescue an Addict
  • tony deyn on Facing your giants
  • Veronica Frances Watkins on The real definition of relapse and why it matters
  • Roger Johanson on The old farmer and his horse

Archives

Categories

Latest blog posts

  • Psychological withdrawal for addicts
  • Need to be needed
  • Why You Can’t Rescue an Addict
  • Your words have power
  • Taking a leap forward!
  • Nagging your partner really doesn’t help!
  • The real definition of relapse and why it matters
  • The old farmer and his horse

Feeling Good By David Burns

This is the greatest 'value for money' self-help book ever. It changed my life forever and it can change yours! Available from Amazon David Burns

Need help for anxiety?

L- Theanine available from Amazon.coml-theanine image

Copyright © 2022 · Outreach Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Accept