Sixty percent of people who commit suicide are depressed (Hales 16). Depression often leads to suicide or attempted suicide. In 1997, a high school student from Detroit was depressed about not graduating high school with his class. He ended up shooting himself in the head, and putting an end to his life. Four students from his school committed suicide within a short period of time. He was third (Wolff 52-53). There are plenty of warning signs to suicide. A person may talk about committing suicide, have trouble eating or sleeping, experience drastic changes in behavior, give away prized possessions, have already attempted suicide before, have difficulty concentrating, or take unnecessary risks (Hales 69-70).
Depression can be caused by an illness, loss of a family member, or a break up in a relationship. Some episodes last for a week or two, and some for several months. Everyone goes through periods of sadness but it depends on the circumstances and how long the sadness lasts to determine how severe the illness is. Intense grief is not considered an illness unless it exceeds a normal period of mourning. It is harder to tell that teens have an illness because they tend to hide their feelings and close people out (Wolff 10).
Some believe that depression results from heredity and others think it is due to psychological distress. Some think the genes we inherit from our parents also determine our personalities and how we feel, think, and act while others believe "what happens to us early in life.is a more important influence on our feelings and behavior" (Wolff 23). It has been thought that people can inherit a chemical imbalance that causes these illnesses to develop. It has been shown that people with family members who suffered from depression are twenty to twenty-five percent more likely to suffer from depression themselves (Wolff 26).
Teens are very hard to diagnose because they work hard at hiding their feelings.
