Story of a teenager living with depression

A teenager who lives on the neighborhood in a house whose compound full of indigenous trees, where you find many variety of birds, few weeks ago asked me whether I have been depressed. Told him yes, and his next question was, as an adult or youngster? My response was both.The teenager says his isolation is not a factor in his depression as both parents are working abroad, but he says it does make it harder to access parental love.As well as having the added issue of having to move around to find support groups, the stigma attached to mental illness is particularly strong in tween and teens who don’t live with their parents.However, I did realized the teenager also uses the term depression when he is feeling sad or low on moods, but he doesn’t have an idea that depression is actually a real illness that completely affects mental health. The depressive conditions normally goes unnoticed for months and even years, and it can badly affect the life of a sufferer but thats not the case with the boy who seems to have noted he has mental problems. Depression is not a condition that can easily be cured by having fun or chilling with friends or family. Like for the boy, his depressive disorder has made him lose the ability to take control of himself. It has altered his health condition compared to six months back when i last saw him, mood and thoughts seems to interfere with his daily life.Depression is a serious illness that needs to be treated and as a result of the teenage boy confession, to avoid his condition getting worse that will affect him as a person and other people in his life, I urged him to contact parents about it and with my involvement they were able to understand his situation.

 There are different types of depression that show different symptoms but for the teenager doesn’t know which depressive disorder he carry neither could I tell as I’m not a medical expert. However there are certain symptoms that can be noticed in the teenager’s interactions. He seems to experience continuous sadness and feel like he doesn’t have control of himself. I also noticed he has very low self-esteem and no motivation to do anything including doing exercises like before. While talking to him, the teenager was feeling anxious and over-worried about something that I couldn’t tell what it was. He also has difficulties in making any decisions, like when i asked him to contact parents about his conditions, he was hesitant but eventually i convinced him. Also, he looked very intolerant with his Pitbull dog and while we were having a chat by the roadside where he stopped me, he avoided any youngster who tried to say hi to him. It was devastating to learn that at just 17 years he has been thinking about committing suicide.As I write this, he is now seeing a psychiatrist for a diagnosis and I’m not worried as such about his future because depression is treatable and he is undertaking his treatment. He dropped me an email saying he is taking prescribed medication and is combining it with other types of treatment.Good news is that the teenager is not letting his depression stop him from exploring the things in life that bring him pleasure like gaming.He's a keen eSports player, taking advantage of his parents grandiose house, two days ago he sent me captured magnificent shots of native birds around his home’s compound. If you have someone you know or care about having issues with depression of their mental health, please do something like i did with the teenager.

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