About 20% of teenagers suffer from depression on their way to adulthood and now more are due to the spread of the internet and the easy access to cyber-bullying by those they know and complete strangers as well. However while some do grow out of it without help, others need a bit of a push to get out of their mental shell keeping enclosed in something that feels like an endless hole, a constant sink. And sometimes those who need to give them that push are their parents, but how can parents really help? How can they actually put a positive impact onto this dark moment in their kid’s life?
While this planet is evolving, so are the people living in it. In this whole world mental disabilities like depression or anxiety are sky-rocketing especially in teens between ages of 12 and older, take America, for example, according to those in the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and the University’s Mailman School of Public Health in Columbia, rates of teen depression and anxiety started to rise at an incredible rate within the years of 2005 and 2015. Since that was during 2015 it is most likely that, along with the advancements in technology, that by 2020 this will not only be a simple occurrence and instead become an worldwide epidemic.
There are parents all over the world, and while some are living in problematic areas where they need to work more than others and don’t have enough time to genuinely take care of their children, while they still do care they need to earn more money in order to support their children financially. But they can still look out for a lot of symptoms most don’t realize their kids are going through, and all these slight changes are things even children themselves should be looking out for. Such as, a sudden change in the amount of food they eat, like the quantity decreasing or increasing, seeing them deny food with reasons like ‘ I lost my appetite ‘ or ‘ I already ate ‘. This is very unhealthy but most often parents all around the world usually assume that their child is just trying out a new diet or just doesn’t feel hungry in that moment. Other symptoms are like sudden outburst of anger or getting irritated or angry easier and at more insignificant things. Often having abrupt snaps at people in their life, distancing themselves from friends and family, keeping them at arm’s length.
Especially with wanting their kids to go through school and have a better future than they did. But in countries that have an overall higher rate of teenagers gaining depression and anxiety parents should be looking out for the symptoms that I have previously mentioned. The highest overall country with the most depression rates is India with China and USA following close behind, however for countries with higher anxiety rates the tables turn into China being first with India and USA following at 2nd and 3rd. In countries like America there are a lot of therapies that parents try to send their kids into or kids would go in by their own will to help themselves with their mental problems or to get diagnosed / checkup. On one side therapy can really help a child but on the other it can simply make things worse with children feeling worse after having explained it all and putting all their fears and emotions out there to a stranger they hardly know.
According to the study that the World Health Organization coordinated, Indonesia, the country in which I, and many others, live in, is in the 4th place for the country with most deaths due to the behavioral disorder that is scientifically diagnosed as ‘depression’ and is in 5th place for the most decease from anxiety. From an interview hosted by ‘NCDalliance’ featuring the Chairman of Indonesian Psychiatric Association (PDSKJI) Eka Viora it is said that an astonishing 3.7 percent of Indonesia’s population has to endure depression during their youth.
That is approximately 9 million people with depression and an extra 8 million whom suffer from anxiety, with some obviously being teens and children or young adults. While there are many hotlines for people who suffer from this to call, that doesn’t entirely fix the problem at hand, that millions of people are under going this kind of mental unstableness that they have almost zero control since depression was studied to be relatively genetic and so far in Indonesian and in fact the whole world, permanent cures haven’t been found. While anti-depressants are available they come at a price and for those who can’t afford psychiatrists they can’t get a prescription and therefor cant obtain the medicine. The average cost of a bottle of antidepressants like Zoloft and Prozac range from 39 dollars to a large 74 dollars. A month.
While seeming like a temporary fix it also comes with several side affects such as nausea, increased appetite, fatigue and insomnia just to name a few.
From what I could gather from all the research I went through I found out that parents really have a very big part in someone’s mental health. While sometimes ill behaving parents could be the cause of one’s depression it is also genetic and parents whom suffered from it may be passing it down to children, but the fact that the parents have gone through depression means that they can also help their child when it comes to the kid’s very own mental stability. If parents were to actually help their children when they come out and ask for it or open up to them, I’m sure that the rates of depression would decrease by a landslide compared to what it was before.
There are hundreds of possible complications emerging if even a small thing was to go wrong, little ripples can create problematic waves. Many of those dilemmas is one most parents secretly fear deep down, their child committing self-sacrifice, also known as, suicide. This would be one of the worst endings to a kid’s life, but witnessing them struggle and go through traitorous highs and triecious lows, is also very painful to endure. Similar to watching those you love going through self-harm and a constant thought of wanting to end it.
With worse to come if the children are unfortunate and was gifted with parents whom couldn’t care less about a child’s mental state and would simply let them be, without these guardians to look up to children often fall deeper into this mayhem and end up worsening their already terrible diagnosis. A child could very well also be depressed and suffer from anxiety due to the ways their parents treated them along with the fact the most schools around the world either have horrific bullying cases which lead people to insanity and to have them jump or end it with a knife, some schools also have abusive teachers and faculty members which shouldn’t be anywhere near kids. With all of these parts coming into play it almost seems like there is no escape, but truly there is. Multiple ways of doing so, in fact.
There are many ways to nip this problem in the bud, some including anti-depressants and professional help from a therapist. But that all would be very costly and for parents who wouldn’t want to spend that much of their money on things that can also be solved with just better care taking of their child, such as listening to it all, being there and providing a shoulder to cry on when their kids need it most.
Firstly parents need to have a very close relationship with their children, while parents can’t expect kids to open up to them without a very close friendship and trust, families all around the globe should already be close enough so that the members can feel safe to open up to others.
Now onto how parents are supposed to deal with this, if their children show signs of possibly having it. It’s natural for parents to be worried when their children display signs of unstableness or the lack of will to live, however very few times do parents actually acknowledge these little changes their child shows. While most adjustments are very common like those I have previously mentioned and are easier to notice, this reason is one that very few people realize. The blanking of the eyes, looking into the eye of someone who is going through something difficult or have lost hope often seems blank, or as if all the twinkle it once had has disappeared or vanished between a period of time. But for one to realize this disorder by themselves is often found out by the constant or reoccurring thoughts of death and suicide.
After knowing how to see if your child has this mental disability one must move onto how to either stop it or at least weaken its blow. With plenty of methods online, parents shouldn’t stop trying, if one of them could simply save their child’s life, all parents should do it. Even if it takes time from one’s schedule. The ways are simple enough, like taking time to talk to them, ask them about their day and just being a caring parent. However methods differ from child to child. Just take time to spend with them before they get too deep to get out.
My personal response to all of this is very basic yet many people seem to push it aside. Children, while still young and not having experienced the whole world, are still human and while being human they also have weaknesses and their weaknesses should be pushed aside. Since people often would assume that a child’s weaknesses are nothing in comparison to what they might be experiencing but to a child their flaws could be something that feels like utter hell and because of others telling them that It its nothing it could make them feel weaker. For one this isn’t something any human should do to another, making them feel inferior just because of their age.
Others watching from the sidelines probably don’t know how much the child is going through and calling it ‘nothing’ or that it isn’t that bad is just not correct, everyone has different breaking points. Like how adults have different alcohol tolerance its differs from man to man, it’s the same as how people feel about certain issues and events ongoing in their life, maybe to one is seems like nothing but to others whom are weaker it could be the end of the world. Just like how one may pass out if partaking in too much intoxicating alcohol and how another which has just consumed the same amount could feel as though it was nothing.
