hey everybody its Mallory Grimste, teen therapist from Woodbridge, Connecticut
and today is an Ask a Teen Therapist with Mallory Grimste that's me!
it is a little after 12:30 I apologize I'm running a little bit late today but I'm
here I had a few technical glitches but I'm here and today I'm going to be
answering the question "is my teen depressed?" but before I do that I've got
to go over my little mini disclaimer as you know if you're new to the videos
make sure that you don't fast-forward through this part if you've already
watched them you already know this these videos and anything across the web like
this unless you are an active client of mine this is not meant to be counseling
or psychotherapy the content of these videos and the purpose of them is to be
for informational and educational usage only and as a self-help tool based on
your own personal judgment and discretion if you need the help of a
professional you should go ahead and find one and
hopefully locally because as you know local is always better because they're
familiar with your area the resources available to you and all that good stuff
all right so today I'm just gonna jump right into it "is my teen depressed?"
obviously I cannot answer that specific to your teenager but I can give you the
basic warning signs so the difference between the two is that when it comes to
depression there is the feeling of feeling depressed and then there is the
actual clinical condition of depression so the difference between the two is
that everybody has felt depressed at some point in their life feeling
depressed is an overwhelming sadness or emptiness or loneliness that it just
doesn't feel good it's in the unpleasant emotion category having
clinical depression means that you must meet at least five of nine different
characteristics or criteria to be diagnosed by a mental health
professional so in the state of Connecticut where my practice is based
somebody who is a licensed mental health professional such as myself I am what's
called a licensed clinical social worker I am allowed to diagnose these
conditions people who are medical doctors whether they are psychiatrists
neurologists, that sort of thing, can diagnose in this category
there are other licensed mental health professionals such as LMFTS which is
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy, LPCs licensed professional counselor,
psychologist, I mean the list goes on and on but I won't bore you with all
those letters but just so you know even a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) such
as myself is able to diagnose this condition safely as long as they have
passed the exam which I have done and have gotten all their clinical hours all
right so what does teenage depression look like? teens with major depressive
disorder or an unspecified depressive disorder which means that they have
sprinklings of depression but it's not a full-blown episode tend to report
feeling hopeless they feel sad they feel empty they feel lonely they feel
irritable or angry this is really important most people think irritability
and anger are just general teenage angst however if it's coupled with some of
these other things it's something to pay attention to because anger is a
protective emotion and so it can be protecting the teenager from a deeper
hurt of sadness or emptiness something that just keep in mind with teenagers
and kids in particular they also report feeling unmotivated, tired or
exhausted, worthless, excessively or inappropriately guilty, restless, have
a low appetite, they can be indecisive and the really
scary one is they can start to feel suicidal, thinking that the world would
be better without them, now of course we do not want any of our teenagers to be
feeling this way and if you are noticing a huge shift in your teenager's general
mood, behavior, or affect, that's how they express or show their emotions, and they
are reporting or looking like they are feeling at least three of these feelings
that I just mentioned it might be worth consulting with a
local mental health professional to determine if counseling could be
beneficial to have a diagnosis of a major depressive disorder you need to
have a major depressive episode that means that it's a two-week period of
feeling depressed every day or most of the day during those two weeks and also
having five of those other criteria met so I hope that that answered your
questions about "is my teen depressed?" and I'm sure you're wondering you know what
would be the next step
isolation and feeling disconnected are probably two of the biggest risk factors
for teenagers with depression so getting connected with with other like-minded
teens and helping each other can be really helpful my teen girls therapy
groups are enrolling now for the summertime so if you want in on that
it's a small group limited to maximum of eight girls in each and I'm very
selective about who is accepted because I don't want to just put just anybody
together because that's not helpful either so if you're interested in that
head over to mallorygrimste.com/teen-girl-group and
check out that information there or you can just go to mallorygrimste.com
and click on that link for the teen girls therapy group alright everybody
I hope that this is helpful thank you for joining me and I will see you in a
few days to answer the question "is my teen anxious?" thanks everybody
be well
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