Common Contributing Factors that Cause Teen's Depression

Genes

Genes are materials in the cell that determine our physical and other charac­teristics such as eye color, height, and blood type and are passed on from one gen­eration to the next. Probably several genes are involved in depression, and families with histories of alcohol or anxiety problems also carry a higher risk of depression. This does not mean that if a parent has depression (or bipolar disorder), that the child will have depression (or bipolar). In fact, when a first-degree relative of a child (parent or sibling) has depression, there is a 1.5 percent chance of the child being depressed and 16 percent chance they will have bipolar disorder. Likewise, if a first-degree relative has bipolar disorder, the child has a 4.5 percent chance of becoming bipolar and a 14 percent chance of experiencing depression. The bottom line is, most children of depressed parents do not become depressed, but they are at higher risk than the average child.

Brain Chemicals

A number of brain chemicals, or neurotransmitters, help brain cells communi­cate with one another. Serotonin and norepinephrine are two such chemicals, and people who are depressed tend to have lower than average levels of these chemicals in certain parts of the brain. Because medications that increase levels of either of these chemicals tend to be helpful in about 80 percent of depressed people, we con­clude that many people have a biological basis for their depression. However, these brain chemicals are also influenced by environmental factors. Children who are abused, for example, can have altered brain chemistry associated with their abuse.


Kindling

Once the brain gets used to thinking in depressed ways, it becomes progressively easier to slip into these depressed thinking patterns in response to problems. This "kindling" (or tendency for commonly used thinking styles to become automatic) is one reason why early treatment of depression is so important!

Life stress

Most people respond to stress with a "fight or flight" response, to either deal with the stress or escape it. Depression occurs in reaction to stress only when the stress is either:

1)too great to deal with (for example, a major loss); or

2)repeated and perceived to be inescapable (termed "learned helplessness"). Stress often acts as a trigger for an episode of depression.

Learned Helplessness

Learned helplessness (the perception that stress is inescapable) is particularly prob­lematic, because it interferes with the desire to help oneself. After all, what's the point in trying to change things if you can't reduce the stress anyway? Eventually, this attitude leads to hopelessness and despair. Some theorists link most or all depression to this state of mind.

In most cases, depression is due to a combination of several of these factors and not just one alone.



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