Adolescent major depression is often masked or minimized, yet the consequences of it going untreated can be devastating.

The opening sentence from Melissa Healy’s April 29, 2011 Los Angeles Times article, “Depressed Teens Mostly Struggle Alone,” reads:

Some 2 million Americans adolescents experienced a bout of major depression last year, but only about a third of them got any help in dealing with the sadness, irritability,  anxiety, guilt and loss of interest and energy that are the hallmarks of such episodes, a report says.  [Read the remainder of the article…]

Given a significant number of people who suffer from a mental illness turn to substances to help self-medicate the mental illness [Note: This ‘feels’ like it works because the substance targets the dopamine neural networks in the Limbic System. Dopamine is our “feel good” neurotransmitter and the key to the brain’s pleasure/reward neural pathways.]  and that mental illness is one of the key risk factors for developing a drug addiction/alcoholism, reading all of the research and resources cited in this article is important. But, I’d like to draw your attention to one online resource in particular: TeenScreen Schools and Communities.

This online resource was designed by the National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University to help health professionals, school administrators, educators and concerned community members bring mental health checkups to local schools and community-based programs that serve youth. Check it out and learn more about:

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Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com

Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.

Latest posts by Lisa Frederiksen (see all)

• Does a Loved One Have to Hit Bottom? - November 20, 2022
• Resources for Parents of Children with Substance Use and Mental Disorders - October 18, 2022
• 4 Things to Support Brain Health and Function for Recovery - August 30, 2022