be today i'm here with daniel affair by a nationally certified counselor with a master's degree in clinical mental health today we are going to be talking about depression many teens are suffering from this disease depression affects people of all ages genders and backgrounds today we are going to be talking about how to help assist someone struggling with depression and how to treat this disease thank you for being here to someone get a diagnosis of depression so it's a big broad category that we're talking about in regards to depression but to receive a diagnosis you actually have to go to a doctor or a doctor you could start the process like your primary care physician or something that you've seen for a long time and they could start to say my think that there might be something there and when they say that then they might refer you over to a psychologist or a counselor like myself and then we we would diagnose a depressive disorder ok so does it start at home so like the parents usually like alert the doctor maybe that there's some tongues going on for my parents actually the kids the ki the teens young adults even college age individuals can affect anybody of all ages and they are typically the ones that just say something just doesn't feel right yeah i've noticed something about myself that i don't like or that i feels different and i want to hopelessness so i mean i i have depression i suffer from this disease but so like i was dying i was diagnosed with major depressive repressive disorder yes and so they like automatically put me on medication like that like i don't know is so there's too many cooks in the kitchen you know and then says well you should be on medication well you should just go to therapy where you do nothing and just change or die it's kind of how just as well there's studies that show that as us and our eyes are as our eyes don't have any differences and in cognitive capacity or depression symptoms it's more so how does a person feel her they react to it  your thought patterns so depression is a thought pattern and that's consistent of what i do wrong why did this happen i'm such a failure talking yourself a negative way and so we can catch those negative thought patterns and we can catch that negative self talk and we can change it and so we teach skills as like thought replacement without stopping something called cognitive restructuring we change those thought patterns and we can change that thought pride in that we can change their motions that are associated with those thoughts as well so what's the difference between depression like a mood disorder so that's like a big umbrella chair right so mood disorders you look at not only from the d s m four this is one addition previous what we're using right now the mood disorders like that not only just oppression but also bipolar in anxiety ok so if somebody is coming to me and they say why the mood disorder well time out let's see we're going out here are you worried about what's going on today are you worried about what's going on in the future or there have sleeping too much or too little significant weight loss or weight gain i mean there's there's specific symptoms that are categorized in depression versus bipolar what are some roles do you think like in the environment you grow up like does that have a role of the famous question nature versus nurture is it the parents or is it the vironment around us right is that what we were born with is that our biological make up or is it going to school or living in a community that has a negative effect to us as an ongoing what comes first the chicken or the egg there's no real pinpoint to what happens and what causes depression but we know that it's definitely affected in different areas of the life development ok so why are teens more susceptible to being diagnosed depression so teenagers and of themselves so let's kind of take is that back to my question because you're also talking expressed myself as either male or freak female right you see a higher rate of those females who identify with depression of work experience depression and that's attributed to an influx of hormones during the puberty period and that's typically an onset of like age twelve thirteen years old i think back when you were like twelve or thirteen years old there was a whole lot of stuff going on you not just becoming a woman but then also the social implications as well so going on the scole having to  navigate what that looks like friendships developing different social friendships breaking down maybe looking at different athletic teams or groups to get involved in there's a lot of stuff going not only on biologically but also socially so what do you think of the parent who like my mom was like this she was just like you're being dramatic like you don't have depression like what do you how do you explain to parent he doesn't really believe them so there's like a continuum right and so it's very accepting or very rejecting so if you have a parent who's very jack being any step forward that accepting continuum is a much more improved so if i can get a parent from changing from their minds that to  all my daughter doesn't have i think there's nothing wrong with her or my son has nothing that's going on or to well maybe let me embrace this and what can i do to help support them as a change in their diet is a getting them involved a social club is it seeking a counselor for them what can i do to help support them in that area and what is the difference between depression and seems an adult teen adult ok so there's not much difference to speak per se and for adults i would said probably the onset is a little bit earlier so if a teenager who expresses a dream to express as i should say experiences one episode of depression is more likely to then develop additional episodes of that the rates are kind of higher in that teen area because of that biological component but a lot of adults also experience depression as well so the symptoms look the same but a teen depression the onset of those symptoms are quite telling so why isn't there more education on like depression schools or just like learning about like different mental health issues i think that there are a lot of different programs available you know i was doing research for teen depression i was wondering the same question why why don't we teach this in school why don't we encourage mental health and self care and coping skills i don't as a class and there's no real good answer to that i think it just has to come from comparability not only from the individuals asking to seek help but also from the teachers providing that help and those are a model is there an assessment is there a teaching program a manual that can be introduced to teachers principals administration that can help help them feel more confident in dealing with these types of problems so whenever you go to like a therapy session like what are the different times like treat people that's what i do and so the individuals that come in i believe that they all have a different story to tell until my job and what i tell people to do is to tell that story how can i help them encourage them and motivate them to be the person that they want to be and write their own endings so what happens i don't know if this has anything to do with it but like it could be hereditary great depression so what happens if your parent is diagnosed like are it's going go away there you go i three yeah no it's not no it's not concrete there is a genetic factor to depression in developing depression individuals who have a first biological parent or first first and relatives with mom and dad not second generation grandma grandpa but first generation are four to five times more likely to develop depression so it's not to say that they are absolutely going to develop depression we just have to be a little bit more aware and vigilant of  right and so it actually talks about dietary changes as one of the biggest attributes to changing your mood and so what the book looks like is how are you feeling what nutrients has your body to been depleted of and what best foods can you eat to replenish those  example a lot of individuals who are stressful say why just eat chocolate their bodies are actually craving the chocolates craving the magnesium that's in the chocolate and so that it's that book takes a look at what can we do what we eat and healthily holistically feel better ok so when should somebody start talking about the way they feel like like i don't know whenever i started feeling this way like i felt like i always thought that they were going to think that i was like crazy or like they were going to like put me away like that was like my biggest fear just because of like suicide never thing and i didn't want them to think that like it was that extreme  makes sense that's a very common fear and you know the only person that has told me that i go to the doctor then the like lock me up and i goes crazy movies and i see that's not the case and teen depression and suicide are very closely linked and related and individuals who have depression are more likely to experience suicidal ideation and so it's very very important to start to talk to somebody whether it's a friend a parent a coach a neighbor somebody you feel comfortable with if it has gotten to that  point there's there's also numbers and resources available for individuals who are at that point but for individuals who are at that point they're like well it's not that bad you know we don't want to get that bad and we want to prevent this from happening and so whenever you feel like something's off or you feel that you are sad know that my first reaction is a counselor isn't going to be like oh hey you need to go someplace else now it's how can we help you how can i help you today so what would you say to somebody who thinks that like who feels like the medication isn't doing what it needs to be doing like it's not working almost like they still feel down all the time so that's something that we are afraid to as habituation so our body is like an ecosystem that likes to regulate  so that's what it's called habituation so your body becomes habitual ated to this drug and so the only people that would be able to know that would be doctors are psychiatrists and psychologists specialize in the medication for mental health concerns ok  what are the stigmas associated with being diagnosed so i think we've talked about that right you said you said i felt like i was going to be a rock that is the big but everyone thinks like oh i don't want i don't want to be labeled as that because what we really want is human interaction social connectedness and if i assign this label to myself or if i get this label sign to me then my fears i'm not going to be accepted by other people i'm not going to experience a social connected ss and so that's the biggest connectivity that's the biggest fear the social stigma that surrounds mental concerns for is there any connection between children developing depression and like say family problems like a divorce family being part of a door or forced family or like being adopted or anything like that yes that falls under the category of psycho social stressors anything from finances to major life changes to medical concerns anything that has to do with outside influence says can impact a person's mental mental health and so divorce is a big one especially for kiddos learning difficult to navigate that transition or medical concerns if you're diagnosed with a severe medical condition diabetes that's another life transition and so kind of coming to terms with this is how my new life is going to be  i've done some research i don't know how accurate it's stated that children who are adopted are more likely to develop depression how does that work if you're like mistrust getting the care and nurture of the baby is very important to the development of yourself growing as you grow older and so again that chicken versus the egg which came first is it the lack of nurture that was provided for that child or that the nature of this child has just from the genetics that they've developed or they've obtained from their parents you know we don't really know what is is there like a specific age like the symptoms start like being noticed for depression spot for specifically talking about major depressive disorder because when we say depression that's really what we're looking at those other ones like seasonal affective disorder or even pre menstrual depression right  that actually has to do with the onset of hormones from an individual and so at age twelve is typically when we start to see those onset of teenage depressive symptoms anything that has to do with major life transitions then after we start to see an increase and prevalence  do you i don't know if you specifically know but what percentage of teens are diagnosed with depression i do have to look at my paper about a specific paper is re the how common is depression right so ages twelve to seventeen you're looking at three point one million million twelve almost thirteen percent of at least one depressive disorder or love at least one depressive episode that they've experienced but actually that numbers is a low estimate because you have to think these are individuals who are actually going to a doctor or a psychiatrist or counselor to be diagnosed with depression so the c d c actually came out and said in two thousand and twelve it's actually closer to about thirty percent thirty percent of teens actually experience depression so you have to that's one in three of your peers so in a group of three at least one of you may experience a depressive episode or depressive symptoms for a parent where the best places to do research mammy yeah the national alliance for mental national alliance for mental illness i want to call it a mental illness clinton like to touch that label but naomi is a great resource not only for teens and on  lessons that you're interested in what is this and what does it mean for me but also for parents and advocates and teachers and counselors and administration it's a great resource actually have a walk every year even get involved and you can meet new people and you can kind of express yourself or even just gather research in additional information so i never really asked about you why did you want to start being a psychologist or a c right after high school take a step back even further right after high school i left join the army was deployed to i station over in hawaii and then came back to pittsburgh and the entire time i was living in pittsburgh i thought i want to do more with my life so i was a medic before and i would help people medically but i wasn't really dealing with what they were feeling inside i could put a band aid on their wound and i could stop it from bleeding but i couldn't start stop the hurt or the sadness that  caused so that really triggered something is me that's what i wanted to do more for people and so after i came back from home i went to windsor university for my master's degree and be there became a licensed professional counselor  so what are i know we talked about i think we talked about the one what are the other different types of depression are oh so you have major depressive disorder and you have seasonal affective disorder  norm yeah so in pittsburgh i don't know if you know the colors of the sky all the time gray all the time right so seasonal affective disorder like that not not getting enough vitamin d so pittsburgh actually has a higher rate of seasonal affective disorder because we're around march april when it starts spring starts to come out sometimes are gone you feel great again that seasonal affective disorder that's more more common there's also adjustment disorder like you talked about before somebody having to go through a life transition there's a couple other ones as well but those are the ones i mean we work with ok what are some warning signs for teens who may be thinking about side like what are the major warning signs so there's kind of categorize it in three different areas i can talk about it i can tweet about it right to the verbal expression there's also physical expression as well and people kind of missed this one a little bit so physical expression and that if i like to do my hair every day and i like to put makeup on or i always kind of look put together to now i wear my hair in a messy bun all the time i don't really take care of myself i don't find value in myself and so i'm not going to show that other people physical changes and verbal changes so verbal changes saying i don't i don't feel like i belong anywhere i don't have a friend group nobody cares about me i want to expose some people who are explicitly say i want to kill myself or you know what if i woke up tomorrow i'd be ok i'd be ok with that one and then individual start to express those types of verbal concerns immediate responses and tell a teacher a parent talk to them about it make sure that they're safe make sure that so what are some coping skills that you give your patients to use when they're out home or they're not around other people and they're kind of feeling down so people write what what do i do with  people so i really like something it's called d b t skills dialectical behavioral therapy and one of the most common and most useful skills that i talk about is grounding skills where i ground myself because remember depression kind of affects this negative thinking habit how do i get out of my head and into the world around me and so grounding skills you look at your five senses so if i can do something that looks pretty right if i can do something that smells good a geek and i bake and apple pie if i can do something that feels good taking a bath using lotion right anything that engages the senses if i can exercise right anything to get me out of this negative mindset and to put me into the world around me if you need to reach out at any time please contact the national suicide prevention lifeline this is been all for the edge