Feature Article for Telegraph Magazine: The Kids Are Definitely Not Alright

Below is a copy of my feature article that was shown in the Telegraph Magazine. It follows the story of a 19-year-old teenager battling with depression and sheds light on the new pressures the younger generation are facing in a completely online world.

The layout was made on Adobe InDesign and the pictures were taken by myself on a Canon DSLR 500D. You can find the full wording below.

Feature Page 1

The Kids Are Definitely Not Alright

Picture you are in bed, just waking up to another normal day, but this time, something is different. You don’t want to get out of bed anymore. In fact, you don’t want to do anything. Everything feels pointless. You lie there for a little while. A little while turns into an hour, an hour turns into a day. And this day never ends.

“You can’t imagine what it's like to see your daughter feel like she has nothing else to live for.” Linda’s middle child, Lucia*, was only 17 when she first tried to commit suicide. In fact, according to research conducted by Clinical Depression UK, the fourth biggest killer of teenagers is suicide. After a string of bad luck, the once intelligent and funny girl was suddenly unrecognisable to her family.

“As a mother you can never stop worrying, it is the child that has the hardest part,” says Linda. “It’s as if one day she was flying high and the next she was falling.” Unfortunately for Lucia, it took an entire two years of suicidal and depressive thoughts before she was diagnosed with severe clinical depression. At first, Linda thought it was typical teenage hormones, something Lucia would easily grow out of. “Teenagers now-a-days act like if they aren’t wearing the current fashion or have the current iPhone, then life is not worth living. To me, that’s all she seemed to be like at first.”

“You can’t imagine what its like to see your daughter feel like she has nothing else to live for.”

The similarities between depression and teenage hormones tend to overlap during these frustrating years. Depression can vary from isolation, insomnia, change in eating habits, aggressive behaviour and lack of health and wellbeing – signs commonly seen in growing teenagers. As a parent, at what point must they seek help if they fear their child suffers from more than typical teenage syndrome?

At 15, Lucia was forced to see the GP by her mother Linda and was diagnosed with epilepsy, which she says played a major part in her declining mental health. Lucia had never experienced a seizure before she was diagnosed, but shortly after, while simply attending school, she collapsed to the floor, not being able to control anything in her body. The doctors and her family alike simply decided this was the reason for her depressive attitude later in life.

It wasn’t until after going back to the GP at 17, shortly after her suicide attempt, that she was finally referred to a child psychiatrist. “For me, the only thing that has ever helped me was talking to someone. I’ve taken more pills than there are stars in the sky and nothing came close to my shrink,” Lucia laughs at her own joke. It is hard to think that with all her struggles, she can still laugh at her own pain.

According to Young Minds, a charity that specialises in mental health problems for children and teenagers, 1.4% of teenagers 11-16 in the UK are said to be seriously depressed. A Surrey GP doctor, who has asked for anonymity due to her profession, said “parents should never presume or self-diagnose their children. If they are concerned, then the first step is to bring them to us. We take teenage depression very seriously in the UK and our main priority will always be the welfare of the child.”

The extremity of depression varies from person to person, some signs barely noticeable. Carolyn, a psychiatrist for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)** says, “The main sign to look for is if the child stops doing something they love. If they love socialise with their friends and suddenly this stops, then that is the time to bring them to us. It could even be as small as painting their nails.”

This was a problem for Eleanor, a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Kent who lives at home with her two heavily autistic brothers. “For me, my room is literally my sanctuary. I have trouble talking to anybody. It’s like I don’t know what to say and whether I am saying the right thing? What’s worse is I always think someone is judging me as I am talking to them. So I just stopped talking.” Eleanor recalls how her mother, who is a stay at home carer for her two sons, has always assumed Eleanor is autistic due to her brothers. “She just says I am probably like them. But I know I’m not.” At just the age of 13, Eleanor decided to completely cut her friends out her life. “I can honestly say the hardest thing for me is keeping friendships, so I decided not to have any.” Even to this day, after showing a crucial symptom of depression, Eleanor has still never been taken to the doctor. “I just feel alone. All the time.”

Carolyn reminds teenagers “depression doesn’t need to affect you for life. Talking to someone as soon as you can is really the best step you can take. “ But most of the time, all someone really needs to do is simply listen.

*Names may have been changed for anonymity.

**If you have been affected by any of these issues mentioned, please contact NHS CAMHS here.

***Please contact me for the name of the model

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