According to Mayo Clinic, depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It is also called major depressive disorder. There is no pill that can be taken to simply cure depression in an instant. It, sadly, isn’t that easy. Yet, there must be a continuous effort towards being okay and fighting depression. A student from Whitney Young Magnet High School, who wishes to remain anonymous ‘19 expressed “Being diagnosed with depression was very hard. Acknowledging it hurt, but I have been doing better after being diagnosed”.

There are several different treatments for depression. There are several ways to treat depression, mentally and physically (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Medications are one possible treatment based on depression being characterized as a hormone imbalance. Yet, some people complain that there are too many side effects to balance out the good within each medication. Another form of treatment would be forms of therapy because while depression is not something one can physically ‘get over’, the emotional issues that are the root of the problem can be analyzed and lessen some of the sadness that they cause.

We, as teenagers, face many problems and stress. Especially as teenagers, we tend to have a very limited scope of what is detrimental to us versus what is a simple problem to fix. Zyana Cabrera ‘19 explained, “I constantly stress over assignments and know that too much stress can be detrimental to my health.”While depression is not caused by stress, if one’s stress is not resolved it can lead to a lack of success and a feeling of failure. Teenagers, having a limited scope, then tend to glibly say ‘I have depression’ or ‘I want to kill myself’, which can be offensive to those with depression. Mearieta Clemente ‘19, when mentioned this tendency of teens, responded, “Depression is a serious issue. While we don’t mean to be offensive, I can see where it bothers someone who does have depression or suffers from these feelings.”  Professionals agree.While unintentional, speaking about depression loosely makes true problems seem like a joke. Therefore, it is something we must work on. One solution is The Rule of Five: If it won’t matter in five years, then don’t spend more than five minutes on it.