![]() If someone who should love you doesn’t care about your pain, you would be depressed, too. But when they bury their heads in the sand, all their teenagers see is that their parents don’t care. In some cases, parents feel better when they pretend nothing happened. Feeling depressed is not an active decision to dwell on it. Your child will not dwell on their depression if you pretend nothing happened. ![]() “Just get out of bed and do something.”.Comparing and guilt-tripping is another form of invalidation that will only make your teen feel worse 5. The pain of one person does not negate the pain of another. This approach, again, trivializes their distress. When you try to offer your child a new perspective by drawing comparisons, it implies that their struggles are insignificant compared to the hardships others face. You can’t make cancer go away by comparing it with another sickness. You hope that comparing will help your child realize they shouldn’t be depressed.įirst, people don’t choose to be depressed any more than they choose to have cancer. “Think about others, not just yourself.”.The more you invalidate your teenager’s pain, the more painful it becomes, and the more depressed they are 4. Ironically, minimizing someone’s pain makes it bigger. Even if you may have experienced depression before, each instance of depression can differ. You don’t know how your sad child feels if you have never had this condition. Minimize or dismiss their pain, and it will go away. In the end, it makes you apathetic to your teen’s pain. Saying things to dismiss this serious condition doesn’t make it go away. Depressed patients cannot think away their mental illness, either. I’m so depressed.”Ī major depressive disorder, however, is an illness, not a temporary feeling of sadness.Ĭlinical depression is an illness that requires medical care, just like cancer or diabetes 3.ĭiabetics cannot think away their condition. Unfortunately, the word “depressed” describes other common and temporary experiences, such as “I don’t get to go to the party. You may think it’ll eventually disappear if your teen thinks it’s not there. What Not To Say To Teenagers With Depression Dismiss The Condition In their desperate attempts to comfort their teens, parents may end up saying things that make their teens’ depression worse rather than better. When it comes to their teens, they feel like they’re walking on eggshells and don’t know what to do or say to them. Parents of teens with depression may be concerned or scared. Teenagers are more vulnerable to mental health problems when they experience physical, emotional, and social changes.įrom 2000 to 2017, suicide rates among 15 to 19-year-olds increased significantly in the United States, with the highest point in 2017 2.Īlthough the increase could result from more accurate reporting, depression-related suicide is still among teenagers’ leading causes of death. Mental health problems among teenagers are a significant concern.Īccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in seven 10-19-year-olds worldwide suffers from a mental disorder, adolescent depression being one of the most prevalent 1.Īdolescence is a period of unique growth and development. What not to say to teenagers with depression.
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