Hi loulou, great thing you chose as your subject!
Teens with depression are the most common to be suicidal....
The first and formost in determining this is for the parent to take them
to there family Dr. First so he/she can distinguish wether it is actually
clinical depression or a feeling of unhappiness! The parent should not
let it up to the teen to seek help on there own!!!!!!!!!!! They have the
right to discuss this with the family Dr. First and then encourage them
to go. Never recomend they see a psychiatrist right off the bat! This
will make them think right away that something is wrong with them!
Serios depression exists of feelings of never getting better and pessimism! The parent also needs to establish themselves if there home and
parental envirenment can be a possibility and this is determined by
the parents, especially single or divorsed. If the parent has an
unstable life or mind, this very much makes the chances for the teen
to be unstable and depressed!
Often in these cases the parent is reluctant
or too buisy worrying about there own problems to prioritize there child!
They should always make sure that they let time to talk.
Bottom line;sad but true, the very best thing for a
parent to do is familiarize with the warning signs because nomatter what
it's a basic fact of today that,,, the third leading cause of death in
adolescents is death! You do not have to be born with a chemical
imbalance, emotions can cause this imbalance at any time with anyone
and it depends all on the person themselves wether this becomes a
serious problem or not!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately the most affective
treatment for this is medication to modify the chemicals in the brain
which the type of med's is to be determined after evaluation by a
proffesional!! A high-risk establishment should be enough for the
parent to be familiarized with these warning signs in order to know
whether need to seek help!!!
Sorry I all-but wrote a book, but
this is a very strong subject to me
due to unfortunate experiance!

Let me know what you think!

Diamond