Depression
Depression is a mood disorder that shows up most often during the teenage
years. It is a fairly common misconception that depression is an adult condition,
but evidence shows that it’s also quite common in children and teenagers.
Even though it is common for people to say “I feel depressed”, often what is
being referred to is just sadness. Depression is not the sadness caused by life
events such as bereavement or relationship problems, however severe this
might be. Depression is a diagnosable disorder where a person’s mood is ‘down’
over a long period of time (more than two weeks at a time) – even when the
circumstances do not seem to justify it – and this affects their everyday life.
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