Depression is a disease that afflicts the human psyche in such a way that the afflicted tends to act and react abnormally toward others and themselves. Therefore, it comes to no surprise to discover that adolescent depression is strongly linked to teen suicide. Adolescent suicide is now responsible for more deaths in youths aged 15 to 19 than cardiovascular disease or cancer. Despite this increase suicide rate, depression in this age group is greatly under –diagnosed and leads to serious difficulties in school, work and personal adjustment, which may often continue into adulthood.

Brown, in 1996, has said the reason why depression is often over looked in children and adolescents is because ‘ Children are not always able to express how they feel’. Sometimes, the symptoms of mood disorders take an different forms in children than in adults. Adolescent is a time of emotional turmoil, mood swings, gloomy thoughts, and heightened sensitivity. It is a time of rebellion and experimentation. Blackman observed that the ‘challenge is to identify depressive symptomatology which may be superimposed on the backdrop of a more transient, but expected, developmental storm’.

Therefore, diagnosis should not lay only in the physician’s hands but be associated with parents, teachers, and anyone who interacts with the patients on a daily basis. Unlike adult depression, symptoms of youth depression are often masked. Instead of expressing sadness, teenagers may express boredom and irritability, or may choose to engage in risky behaviours. Mood disorders are often accompanied by other psychological problem such as anxiety, eating disorders, hyperactivity, substance abuse, all of which can hide depressive symptoms.

The signs of clinical depression include marked changes in mood and associated behaviours that ranges from sadness, withdrawal, and decreased energy to intense feelings of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts. Depression is often described as ‘an exaggeration of the duration and intensity of normal mood changes’ (Brown 1996). Key indicators of adolescent depression include in a drastic change in eating and sleeping patterns, significant loss of interest in previous activity interest, constant boredom, disruptive behaviour, peer problems, increased irritability and aggression. Blackman proposed that ‘formal psychologic testing may be helpful in complicated presentations that do not lend themselves easily to diagnosis’. For many teens, symptoms of depression are directly related to low self-esteem stemming from increased emphasis on peer popularity. For other teens, depression arises from poor family relations, which could include decreased family support and perceived rejection by parents. Oster and Montgomery, in 1996 , stated that ‘ When parents are struggling over marital or career problems, or are ill themselves, teens may feel the tension and try to distract their parents. This ‘Distraction’ could include increased disruptive behaviour, self-inflicted isolation and even verbal threat of suicide. So how can the physician determine when a patient should be diagnosed as depressed or suicidal?. Brown suggested the best way to diagnose is to screen out the vulnerable groups of children and adolescent for the risk factors of suicide and then refer them for treatment’. Some of these ‘risk factors’ include verbal signs of suicide within the last three months, prior attempts at suicide, indication of severe mood problems, or excessive alcohol and substance abused. Many physician tend to think of depression as an illness of adulthood. In fact, Brown stated that ‘ it was only in the 1980’sthat mood disorders in children were included in the category of diagnosed psychiatric illnesses ‘. In actually, 7-14% of children will experience an episode of major depression before the age of 15. An average of 20-30% of adult bipolar patients report having their first episode before the age of 20. In a sampling of 100 000 adolescents, two to three thousand will have mood disorders out of which 8-10 will commit suicide. In 1995, Blackman remarked that the suicide rate for adolescents has increased more than 200% over the last decade. Brown added that an estimated 2,000 teenagers per year commit suicide in the United States, making it the leading cause of death after accidents and homicide. Blackman stated that it is not uncommon for young people to be preoccupied with issues of mortality and to contemplate the effect their death would have on close family and friends.

Once it has been determined that the adolescent has the disease of depression, what can be done about it?. Blackman has suggested two main avenues to treatment: “psychotherapy and medication”. The majority of the cases of adolescent depression are mild and can be dealt with through several psychotherapy sessions with intense listening, advice and encouragement. For the more severe cases of depression, especially those with constant symptoms, medication may be necessary and without pharmaceutical treatment., depressive conditions could escalate and become fatal. Brown added that regardless of the type of treatment chosen, ‘it is important for children suffering from mood disorders to receive prompt treatment because early onset places children at a greater risk for multiple episodes of depression throughout their life span’.

Until recently, adolescent depression has been largely ignored by health professionals, but now several means of diagnosis and treatment exist. Brown says,’ Although most teenagers can successfully climb the mountain of emotional and psychological obstacles that lie in their paths, there are some who find themselves overwhelm and full of stress’. With the help of teachers, school counselors, mental health professionals, parents, and other caring adults, the severity of a teen’s depression can not only be accurately evaluated, but plans can be made to improve his or her well being and ability to fully engage life.

THE EFFECTS OF TELEVISION ON CHILDREN

Sitting in school, little Jane sits anxiously watching the clock.. The teacher is talking to the class, but Jane just can’t wait to get home. When the bell finally rings, she runs out of the classroom, and all the way home. After blasting in the house, she runs to turn on the TV. Having nothing more exciting to do, Jane will sit in front of the television until her mom pulls her away for dinner. This is an all to familiar scenario in many Americans home today. What many people don’t realize are the problems that can develop from young children watching too much TV. Many emerging dilemmas are resulting from this concern. When a young child with a maturing sits in front of the TV for several hours every day, it can instigate loss of creativity, impatience, and violence further along down the road.

The ability to be creative is an important factor in the development of a young child’s mind. By sitting down and watching TV for a couple hours, the child is entertained, but is also not thinking. Information, in a spoon-fed to them, so when it comes time to read a book in school, some can have a hard time grasping ideas. They are so used to having images flash before them to provide understanding; they have trouble moving their eyes side to side to gather the information for themselves. With the TV in front of them, supplying amusement, they may never stop to think that putting a puzzle together, or reading a book could also be fun. They could actually become dependent on this one source of fantasy, and never bother to create their own. As the child grows older, it is less likely to put effort into playing with other kids, or taking up a hobby.

While losing creativity, the child can also gain impatience. By having all the stories and facts plastered clear in front of them, they can easily loose interest sitting in a classroom all day. Even during their favourite TV show, there is a brief change of pace in the story line, when a commercial comes on., which is about every seven minutes. Their attention spans are being moulded by this continuous interruption, causing them to loose focus easily. Research has shown that teachers today are using many more multimedia devices to capture the students attention. Being so used to seeing information provided by the TV, they are more responsive to learning with it in school, and are more likely to remember it. Many links are showing up in studies between Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and watching too much television in elementary television. This disorder is becoming more common in the classroom, where they have a hard time concentrating.

Along with losing creativity and gaining impatience., the child is more apt to behave violently. They can slowly learn as it is played repeatedly, that they can get what they want by responding with violence. When they see a character shot, or beat someone up so they can steal their car, they may catch on to the idea. They come to expect it in the real world, and when they do not see it, the world becomes bland. The children then may create the violence that their mind craves. A child may also see a villain on TV, and try to test out his tactics to see if they really do work. In California, a seven-year old boy sprinkled ground-up glass in into the stew his family was to eat for dinner. When asked why he did it, he replied ‘ I wanted to see if it would be the same as on TV’. In Alabama a nine-year old boy was caught putting rat poison on a box of candy that he was going to give his teacher due to the bad grades he received on his report card. He responded by saying he got the idea from a TV show he watched the night before. These are certainly startling examples of how television violence can affect a child.

Is it surprising to many that statistics show television is the number one after school activity for young children?. On an average, kids from six to seventeen watch from three to four hours of TV a day. By the time of graduation, it can add up to 15,000 hours of watching TV, compared to only 11,000 hours of being in school. Growing older, it could result in lack of effort in work, communication problems, and even concepts of reality. Control needs to be taken by parents to limit how much and what types of programmes their child is watching. It can definitely help develop the young minds to expands their capabilities, stay focused and learn nonviolent ways of living.