5. Get Help for Depression
Depression can be treated. Talk to your doctor or a mental health professional.
If left untreated, depression can be devastating, but depression can be treated with medication and therapy. It's normal to feel "down" once in a while. But if the sadness won't let up, or if a person loses interest in things, it might be depression. Alcohol and other substance abuse can make depression worse.
What to Do
Talk to your doctor or a mental health professional if for 2 weeks or more you:
- • Have little interest or pleasure in things.
- • Feel sad, anxious, guilty, or hopeless.
- • Sleep too much or too little.
- • Have difficulty concentrating.
- • Feel slowed down (or speeded up).
- • Think about dying or hurting yourself.
Recognize Depression in Your Child
- • Children and adolescents often cannot communicate feelings directly. They need parents and other adults to notice a problem and get them help if necessary.
- • Children and adolescents may show different signs of depression, including irritability, emotional withdrawal, behavior problems, falling grades, and use of alcohol and other drugs, including tobacco.
Talk to your doctor or call 1-800-LifeNet (1-800-543-3638), or call 311 and ask for LifeNet.
Additional Information and Tools
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