Is It Natural Teen Behavior or Teen Depression?

by: HealthandYou

Being a teenager is suppose to be one of the happiest and carefree times in our life, but it is also probably one of the hardest. Teens are in that "in-between" age. They are too old for childish behavior but not old enough to be considered or treated like an adult by most people.

We still punish them the same way we did when they were younger, but we demand that they think and act like responsible adults. Do you think that, maybe, we are giving our teens conflicting messages.

To top it off, teens have to deal with constant peer pressure every day, with no end in sight. This peer pressure not only comes from their friends and school mates, but from the media, local and government officials as well. Adults make no distinction between the teens that are constantly in trouble and those who are not. Adults don't like generalizations, why should they?

Is it any wonder that the number of suicides among teens is so high? Higher than most any other group. Is it conceivable that the increase in kids, who are little more than babies, are killing each other and that school shootings are the teens attempt at assisted suicide? Do you really believe they thought they could walk away from something like that alive?

Are our kids trying to tell us that they are tired of fighting an uphill battle? That no one appears to care enough to listen when they cry out for help?

Surviving Puberty

Terrance Lile (Uncle Terry)

So you made it through the œterrible two and early parts of childhood. You went through the potty training. You survived the tantrums while shopping when the little ones wanted everything they saw and would start screaming when they didn't get it. You tried shouting at your child and found that this works as well as driving your car with its horn. Soon things are going much smoother and you are finding it easier to love your child. It looks as if you have trained some very well mannered children that know you are the boss and they better listen up or else. Once again, I hate to remind you folks but you also have the joy of puberty and adolescence to look forward to. Now, I realize you were a perfect child and never gave your parents a bit of trouble. You never back-talked, fibbed, snuck out of the house or did anything else that your parents should be upset about. I understand just where you are coming from, for I was a perfect child too. Now my brother and sisters, I know they gave our parents plenty of trouble but me, I was just the one that got grounded or spanked when they did something wrong. Now with your child it will be different than it was with you.

Combination of Medical Food and Antidepressants May Be Better Than Antidepressants Alone

June 1, 2010 (New Orleans, Louisiana) — Combining an L-methylfolate prescription medical food supplement (Deplin, Pamlab) with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or a serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) provides greater improvements in depressive symptoms of depression than monotherapy with an SSRI or SNRI, according to a large retrospective medical record review study.
The investigators, who also found that these improvements occurred 23% faster in the combination group compared with those treated with the monotherapy, presented the results here at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2010 Annual Meeting.
"We found that adding L-methylfolate to an antidepressant at the start of treatment has valuable benefits for these patients," principal investigator Lawrence D. Ginsberg, MD, from Red Oak Psychiatry Associates in Houston, Texas, said in a statement.
"The shorter time to improvement strongly implies that combination strategies right from the start may be a more time-efficient approach than antidepressant monotherapy,"