Tackling teen depression
Sheikh Mahiruqh
Depression is a word of a few letters, but its effect is of wide radius. According to WHO, ‘it is a common mental disorder, characterized by persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activities that one normally enjoys, accompanied by an inability to carry out daily activities for at least two weeks.’ Depression can affect persons of any age, but here we will discuss how it engulfs the young for whom it should have been otherwise an alien concept.
As mentioned above, depression affects the normal conduct of a person and can be caused by any of the factors which do not gear up with an individual’s curiosity. Punctilious inconveniences to one’s mind or a mere lowest degree kick up over petty issues, agitation with parents or friends or having a trouble in any of the subjects of life can cause a person to get into distress.
Therefore, it is but natural that such an atmosphere will surely invite a fatalistic response over an augmenting mind going through a hormonal transformation, and over the pity bosom abiding through emotional trauma.
A teenager, a blooming bud while facing any type of harsh situations jumps into a frantic gossamer and adopts a peculiar and strange way of life according to his own codes, and when such a child is introduced violently to the world of actuality, he or she suffers from an atrocious disorder that is what has been diagnosed as “depression”.
Now the challenges arise as to how this behavioural disorder in young children can be tackled. To uproot this nasty part of one’s behaviour at the bud only, we need to perceive the victims of depression very closely. They need our engagement and time. If we leave them to the mercy of God only, and create a vacuum between them and the rest of the world, we are left only with the disorder with both the victim as well as the society at the receiving end.
In a Kashmiri society, people have adopted stubborn approach vis-a-vis such problems in youth. We tend to ignore these kinds of patients and get busy with the new trends in life aided by technology and bla bla, and in the process such victims of depression have become more and more forlorn and untouchables.
It is not necessary that a person looking out for a psychiatrist is mentally unstable and is to be tagged as a psychopath. We have to get out of this sluggishness and have to gallantly confront the reality. We are witnessing an increase in the number of suicide cases not only in our valley, but in the whole country or it can be said that this lethal mesh of depression and suicide has grabbed the whole world into its clutches. Not only people with ordinary and plebeian backgrounds, but intellectuals are falling prey to this horrendous cognitive state.
Kashmir has been witnessing instability for many years now and owing to it the worst hit are the prodigies and youth of Kashmir. In every form, the conflict is psychologically affecting the youth of Kashmir.
According to a study, violence in Kashmir has left thousands dead since 1989 and most of them were in their youth. Another study says that unemployment rate in J&K is far greater than elsewhere. These all conditions have resulted into a depression and anxiety in the youth of Kashmir.
According to a medical research at the valley’s premier medical institute (SKIMS, the prevalence of depression in Kashmir is 55.72% and among this the prevalence is highest (66.67%) in the 15 to 25 years age group.
At present, during the lockdown, we have been continuously witnessing many suicide cases of young people owing to our sheer neglect of those whose psychological behaviour is at odds with the normal ones.
People with loads of achievements and successful careers too have ended their lives by committing suicide. Suicidal thoughts come into the mind of a depression patient when he/she finds negative feelings and anxiety so profuse that there seems no better way than to end life.
But there is a better way if the society in general and the families of the patients suffering from depression behave responsibly and reasonably with them and make them feel that they are not alone in their struggles and hence bear the impatient behaviour of the victims patiently.
We will have to stand for them collectively and make them understand that this is not the end of the world, rather there is always another way, which we have to just discover to live our life peacefully.
Teen depression, if seen at another glance, has some vicious reflections on the personality and etiquettes of a child. To find the pleasure of heart and mind, which is very rear in the state of depression, a child in a frenzied way can entangle himself into some atrocious habits like, drug addiction, smoking, self-harm etc.
To protect our children from this blaze, we will have to analyse facts and figures, particulars and knowledge about depression and look for possible mental solutions to save our posterity from going astray.
Government organizations, NGOs, Mass Media have a vital role to fight behavioural problems in our youth. At personal level everyone should try to help those people who seem to be aloof or sad. As humans it is our responsibility to protect other people and provide a happy and charming atmosphere to every person.
(The author is a student)
KV Network
