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How do you know if your teenager suffers from depression?

2021-07-27T18:02:30.501Z


Identifying the symptoms will make it easier for the situation not to turn into something more serious that endangers the life of the minor. Isolation or compulsive use of the internet and social networks favor the development of these disorders


In 2013, the Colombian poet Piedad Bonnett wrote in

What has no name

: "The news that it was a suicide makes many lower their voices, as if they were hearing about a crime or a sin."

The book narrates one of the most terrible taboos, that of suicide.

Although his son Daniel had been in psychiatric treatment for a long time and led a normal life, the suffering consumed him inside, and it was that unbearable pain that led him to throw himself out of the room of his student apartment in New York.

It was literature that saved Piedad after this, because she found in writing, in that book, a reason to live, a kind way to go through her grief.

"Pain is appeased by being shared with others," he also wrote.

More information

  • Childhood depression, what erases a child's smile?

  • Can children have anxiety or depression?

According to the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP), suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescence, a situation that, according to Gemma Ochando, a member of the Society of Child Psychiatry of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, may worsen in the next months if no urgent action is taken. If children have not been given the attention they needed in managing the coronavirus crisis, adolescents have also been blamed throughout all these months. The expert believes that this is "very unfair" because most have shown themselves to be very responsible despite the fact that their world had collapsed. “Socialization, attending classes… everything is very important for them. Together with the elderly, they are the ones who have suffered the most from the pandemic ”.

José Carlos Espín, coordinator of the Child and Youth Mental Health Unit of the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid, explains that many children and adolescents have been and continue to be exposed to stressful, traumatic and painful situations, derived from confinement and social distancing, without having a shock absorber support. “The family, the school, the social relationships have ceased to have the buffering and channeling effect of the emotional problems of the young people. Factors such as the closure of schools in the first wave, the loss of routines, the inability to carry out outdoor activities in the company of friends, physical distancing from loved ones, loss of family members, unemployment and family financial problems, general uncertainty about the future,The excessive use of the internet, the interruption of specific therapies and treatments, and violence and abuse in the domestic sphere, among others, underlie this wave of mental health problems in children and adolescents, as mentioned in different works, reports and publications in this regard ”.

From the care point of view, according to Espín, more serious and complex cases have been derived from Primary Care, psychiatric emergencies for adolescents have increased significantly, and admission demands have also increased exponentially from the first wave of the pandemic. “In our Hospital, both emergencies and admission demands have quadrupled. And at the level of the Community of Madrid we have suffered the presence almost on a regular basis of a high number of adolescents treated in the pediatric emergencies of our hospitals waiting to be admitted to a hospitalization unit ”, he points out. Despite this, and in this context,In a very short time, the opening of a brief Psychiatric Hospitalization Unit at the Hospital 12 de Octubre for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, which will have 24 beds, has been achieved in a very short time.

The most frequent psychological manifestations in adolescents who go to the emergency room are anxiety and depressive symptoms with a predominance of irritability, boredom and the loss of the ability to enjoy activities and things that they previously enjoyed.

“Suicidal thoughts and attempts appear very frequently in these paintings.

Isolation, compulsive use of the internet and social networks and addictive behaviors favor the development of depressive disorders, suicide attempts, eating disorders and addictions ”, explains José Carlos Espín.

Suicide can be prevented

Carles Alastuey, teacher and psychopedagogue, founded the association of survivors After Suicide 14 years ago as a result of the death of his 19-year-old nephew. Since then he has given talks, written articles and participated in workshops to teach suicide. Carles does not like that the approach to suicide in adolescents focuses on the figures, “because the issue was already there before”, but he does consider that much attention must be paid to the impact that the pandemic is having on the mental health of adolescents and in suicide attempts. “In Catalonia there is a system for accounting for attempts. We know that in the units in which there is a child-adolescent care unit, they have observed an increase of 30% in suicide attempts. It seems that within that 30%,girls have increased in proportion more than boys, so it could be related to eating disorders ”, he says.

Carles says that the association is contacted by many educational centers concerned about the worsening emotional health of adolescents, something that also worries from the feminist cooperative Pandora Mirabilia, where already during confinement it began to intuit that the pandemic was going to have an impact not only in the elderly, but especially in adolescents "because adolescence is a time of separation, of experimenting, of" leaving "the family and the pandemic has forced us to do the opposite".

Cuanta Violeta Buckley, sexologist and trainer at the cooperative's institutes, which was then when they designed a workshop that deals with crises from the perspective that every global crisis affects individually, so coping tools are required. “We thought it was a good idea to design empowerment tools to face crises, and what we do is work the crisis with the metaphor of the labyrinth, that feeling that there is no way out, that you are lost, and we give them tools to get out of it. he counts. Teaching these workshops in institutes they have found that in educational centers the students do not have the tools to face their personal experiences,but also with guidance departments completely overwhelmed by the new situation and the scarcity of resources they have. “What is happening in the centers reminds us a lot of the crisis of 2007. At that time we were already wondering how it was possible that it was not taking into account how the situation was affecting children and adolescents. Something similar is happening now, but we see that this time the crisis is affecting young people more ”.

José Carlos Espín insists that we must be alert and attentive to changes in the normal functioning of our children, in their state of mind or in their behavior pattern. “The loss of interest or enjoyment in their daily activities, especially those they prefer, or the decrease in school performance are other manifestations to take into account. Greater isolation, or less communication with the family, as well as negative, pessimistic, or lack of illusion comments must be heard and addressed. And of course, if young people verbalize thoughts of death or suicide. In all these situations, health professionals should be consulted ”, he explains. For Gemma Ochando it is important to talk about a fourth wave in the pandemic,the one that has to do with the deterioration of mental health and the appearance of associated pathologies. “These problems began in the autumn and are on the rise. Many hospitals have doubled pediatric emergency mental health visits for children under 15 years of age. It is a very high incidence and there is such a huge demand that not everyone can be catered for, so only the most serious things are cared for, forgetting that things that at the beginning may seem less serious lead to enormous problems ”, he points out.forgetting that things that at first may seem less serious lead to huge problems, "he says.forgetting that things that at first may seem less serious lead to huge problems, "he says.

If despite all the suicide is consummated, Carles Alastuey says that guilt and the feeling of failure are installed in families, which is very difficult to address. “When we talk about a traumatic death such as suicide, we experience a very complex and particular grief. In addition to the ambivalence of feelings, a phenomenon called psychological autopsy occurs: we wonder what I did, what would have happened if I had done something else, why. We mistakenly think that suicide was our fault. However, everything that the family has done, or has not done, has been from love. The person who takes his or her life believes that it will be the best for him or her, but also for his or her environment. Suicide attempts tell us that this person has such great, enormous suffering,that the pain is dominating him. And this is not something impulsive or derived from a specific problem, but it is a multifactorial issue, it is the accumulation of problems and situations that ultimately leads to behavior like this. “When parents lose a child they feel that it goes against natural laws. But when, in addition, that death is by suicide, there is the toxic feeling of not having done well "what they had to do", which generates extreme suffering and guilt that are very difficult to resolve. That is why the support in associations, professionals and other people who have experienced it is so important ”, he assures. It is not an easy path to travel because, as Piedad Bonnett wrote, “at the heart of suicide, even in cases where an explanatory letter is left, there is always a mystery,a black hole of uncertainty around which questions flutter like maddened butterflies ”.

Spain still does not recognize the specialty of child and adolescent psychiatry

From the AEP they ask to approve and implement the suicide law with specific sections for this population group.

In addition, to reduce the psychological impact of the pandemic on children and adolescents, they ask to improve psychiatry and mental health services, guarantee that all students return to the next course in a totally face-to-face way, in addition to promoting physical exercise and participation. again in extracurricular activities.



For José Carlos Espín, in the political sphere, this very adverse situation can be a great opportunity for the implementation of Mental Health Plans that provide the necessary resources and means to address child and adolescent mental health problems. Spain continues to be today the only country in the EU in which the specialty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is not recognized, something that, according to all experts, must change.



"The recognition of the specialty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry will imply a better endowment of the network of Attention to Mental Health problems of Children and Adolescents and a higher quality care for our children, adolescents and families", he concludes.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-07-27

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