Why teenagers suffer depression?

Depression is more than feeling sad. Feeling sad at times is part of life for most people, especially when things aren't going well. However, for a depressed person, feeling sad will make it difficult and impossible to function normally at home or at work. Sometimes, a feeling of sadness is not due to particular event such as death of a love one or divorce. A negetive life event may bring about depression. However, this is not the case for many people with depression. In fact, their life may be going smoothly overall when they become depressed. Symptoms of depression may be as follows.:

-difficulty in thinking, concentration and making decisions.
-change in appetite, sudden loss of weight or gain weight.
-sleeping problems, such as sleep too much or unable to sleep.
-feeling of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt.
-lack of energy, feeling tired all the time.
-thought of death or suicide.

No doubt many people might think that depression is only occurs among the elderly, especially the age group who lost their spouses or facing family problems; but through my experience working with the teens, many teens faced depression. The reasons could be very simple ,it may be the issues of peers pressures, or not accepted by their friends. Teens facing peers problem could lead to depression. Many issues about family problems , whereby the parents were about to divorce might also cause depression among teenagers . Some parents have high expectation on their children and keeping them close eyed until they couldn't breath might also be the cause of depression. Next comes examination pressure, failures , and the most popular issue is about the LOVE issue.
Mei Ling was only sixteen when she attampted suicide for the first time. Nobody expected she could do that for she used to be a good student, obidient and quiet. It was until she met her first 'lover', who was only eighteen, she had changed. Their relationship was objected by both parents and finally the boy decided to end their relationship. It was terrible for Mei Ling , she locked herself in her room most of the time, not talking to anybody. She also had problems in school, until her parent decided to send her away to a boarding school far away from home. There, she decided to end her life.
Many parents could have faced the similar problems nowaday. The teens seem to matured faster then they suppose to be. In school, they started to coupled up during Form 2 to 3. Why they need to couple up at this early age has been a question to most parents. We could not deny about the physical growth and psycological changes that occurs, the feeling of affection towards opposite sex blooms. Most parents reacted vigorously as they couldn't make sense about the needs of their feeling. Danny, a friend of mine told me that he went and peeped his daughter and caught her red handed, kissing with a boy under the staircase outside the school compound while they suppose to attend school at that time. There is no perculier reason to explain why they should fall in love. Most parents are too busy to attend to their teens. Most teens complain that they are lonely and they need a companion. Most adults relate love to marriage wherelse the teens don't. Most teens doesn't think about marriage cos they just want to have funs. Mei Ling had high self esteem and she couldn't face the fact 'BEING DUMP' by someone. Its ' shame', she said. and the feeling of worthlessness. 'Death can settle problem', she told me and I am sure she watch too much movie. Many teens would face depression in this similar situation. Some could just cop up with the situation but in some couldn't. The sadness had grown into depression.