Most people feel sad or irritable from time to time. Most of the time, we can deal with these feelings and get past them. However, sometimes they don't go away....
Depression is a pattern of thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and physical symptoms that don’t go away and may even get worse.
Nothing feels “right” when you’re depressed. It affects you at school, at home, and with friends.
Whatever was normal is no longer normal—even the simplest tasks can be too much.
Everybody has days when they’re unhappy, but that’s not you. Your feelings of unhappiness last for weeks. Sometimes you feel like it will never end. If you’re depressed, you’re not alone. About 1 in 5 non-indigenous teens have had feeling of depression. Among Indigenous teens, the rate is 1 in 3.
The “fall out” of depression could be limited to your day-to-day life being disrupted for a short time: Maybe your grades drop or you have trouble interacting with friends and family. But eventually you come out of it.
It’s much harder when the depression takes over your entire life. Then almost anything can happen. You can become hyperactive or detached. To cope, you might turn to drugs or other high-risk activities, such as having unprotected sex.
Depression can be traced back to a single problem or multiple issues, such as problems at home, unhappiness with your status at school, and struggling to cope with a big change in your life, such as your parents splitting or losing a friendship.
