Let’s Talk about mental health

A guide to understanding and coping with сommon mental health issues

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Let’s Talk about mental health

A guide to understanding and coping with сommon mental health issues

First Publication March 2022

Written by Dr Hannah Farnsworth

Published by Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland Publications Limited

Reprinted 2022, 2023. This document is copyrighted to the authors and licensed to Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland Publications Limited on an exclusive basis. The Four Steps to Help Programme is republished by kind permission of Alan McKelvie and Anthony Philpott. Four Steps to Help Programme Copyright © Alan McKelvie and Anthony Philpott 2010 – 2023. All rights reserved. E&OE. Written by Dr Hannah Farnsworth, a retired Medical Practitioner (GMC 7072713).

This publication may not be copied, reproduced or changed in any way without the express written consent of the publishers. You must obtain written permission before editing or changing this document. Selling without prior written consent is prohibited. In all cases this notice must remain intact. This work cannot be retailed or resold without the publisher’s written consent. Published by Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland Publications Limited.

All information herein is provided as an information resource about suicide prevention and research activities only. It is not the intention of Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland Publications Limited to provide specific treatment or care advice. Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland Publications Limited does not provide certification or accreditation for any counselling organisation, individual practitioners or treatment or care models that users may find out about through our information or publications or other materials provided by or through us. Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland Publications Limited does not endorse or recommend any of the service providers, agencies or organisations listed on any leaflet or publication provided by us or any other organisation. In no event shall liability exist to any user (or any third party who obtains access to the information) under any law for any loss or damage (including but not limited to direct, indirect, economic and consequential damage) in respect of any matter whatsoever related to any information in any website or leaflet or publication nor for the use of the information nor for actions taken or not taken as a result of information contained in this or any other websites leaflets or publications (including, without limitation, loss or damage caused by negligence). The material contained in this leaflet is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute care, treatment or other professional advice. Due to the general nature of the information provided in the leaflet, should you require specific help, you should seek the assistance of an appropriately trained professional person. While every care has been taken in the preparation of the information contained in this leaflet, due to the nature of the information and the processes of publication, the information may not be complete, correct or up to date. Information contained in this leaflet which has been provided by recognised third parties is provided in good faith and no liability shall exist for any errors or omissions contained.

Introduction

4
Warning Signs of a Mental Health Crisis

5
- What is a Mental Health Crisis?
  
  5
- How Do I Recognise a Mental Health Crisis?
  
  6
- What are the Warning Signs of a Mental Health Crisis?
  
  7
- I have a friend who is showing some warning signs. What should I do?
  
  8
- I think my child might be having a mental health crisis. What should I do to help?
  
  8
- Are there any teen-specific warning signs?
  
  9
- What should I do in an emergency?
  
  10
Coping with Anxiety

10
- What is Anxiety?
  
  10
- How do I know if I’m Anxious?
  
  11
- How Can I Reduce my Anxiety?
  
  12
- How Can I Help my Friend Who is Having a Panic Attack?
  
  14
- Final Thoughts on Coping with Anxiety
  
  15
Coping with Depression

15
- What is Depression?
  
  16
- How Do I Recognise Depression?
  
  17
- What Can I Do to Cope with Depression?
  
  18
- I have a friend who might be depressed. What can I do to help them?
  
  20
- I think my child might be depressed, what are the signs?
  
  21
- What should I do if my child is depressed?
  
  21
Coping with Stress

22
- What is Stress?
  
  22
- How Do I Recognise Stress?
  
  23
- What Can I Do to Deal with Stress?
  
  24
- I have a friend who is stressed. What can I do to help them?
  
  27
- I think my child is stressed, what are the signs?
  
  27
- What should I do if my child is stressed?
  
  28
Bullying and Cyber-Bullying: How to Recognise It and Deal with It

28
- What is Bullying?
  
  29
- What is Cyber-Bullying?
  
  29
- How Do I Recognise Bullying?
  
  30
- What Can I Do to Deal with Bullying?
  
  31
- I have a friend who is being bullied. What can I do to help them?
  
  32
- I think my child is being bullied, what are the signs?
  
  33
- What should I do if my child is being bullied?
  
  34
What is Active Listening, and How Can It Help?

34
- What is Active Listening?
  
  35
- Who Can Be an Active Listener?
  
  35
- What Are the Benefits of Active Listening?
  
  36
- The Characteristics of Good Active Listening
  
  36
- How to Be a Good Active Listener
  
  37
- Is There Anything I Should Avoid When Listening to My Child?
  
  39
- Final Thoughts on Active Listening
  
  40
Help and Assiatance

41
About the Charity

42

Introduction

Most of us already know that it is important to look after our physical health, as this helps to prevent us from becoming ill or developing health problems later in life. What can be less obvious is the importance of taking care of our mental health.

Many adults will experience a period when their mental health takes a dip, but teenagers are also at risk of experiencing mental health difficulties. Feeling positive about yourself, having good levels of self-esteem, coping with life’s ups and downs and being able to live life the way you want to are all important parts of your mental health.

Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland has provided free education and training services to schools and colleges in Ireland for many years. As a charity, we offer advice and support to young people with mental health concerns. We also work hard to raise awareness of mental health issues that affect adolescents.

In the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly affected the mental health of many teenagers. Strict social isolation and restrictions, personal health anxiety, fear regarding the risk to vulnerable family members, and bereavements may all have left you feeling down or distressed.

Whether you or a friend are experiencing anxiety, depression, stress, or even think you are in crisis, there are steps you can take and places you can turn to for help. In this booklet, we will cover everything you need to know about the mental health conditions that commonly affect teenagers. We will also provide tips on what you can do to help yourself, and who to approach if you need help.

Our mental health can fluctuate from day to day, and there will be some periods when we feel happier than others. Occasionally, our mental health can become significantly worse. A mental health crisis can be a very scary experience that makes you feel like you have hit rock bottom. In this situation, understanding what is happening and knowing that you must request assistance from a mental health team or the emergency services is vital. Recognising the warning signs of a mental health crisis may mean that you can seek help as early as possible.

Warning Signs of a Mental Health Crisis

Periods of poor mental health can affect us all at one time or another. You may notice an episode of anxiety, a time of persistently low mood, or a reaction to a bereavement, traumatic event, or exam-related stress.

Although it is normal to have fluctuations in how happy you feel, sometimes an individual’s mental health can reach a crisis point. This is the stage at which you might feel pushed to your limit or at breaking point. It may seem that there is simply too much for you to cope with.

If you think you might be heading for a crisis, or want to know what to do if this should happen in future, this article will tell you everything you need to know.

What is a Mental Health Crisis?

Many people live with mental health illnesses, such as depression or anxiety. However, there are times when worsening of your mental health can leave you in urgent need of professional help. If you feel that your mental health is at its worst, that you cannot cope, or that you are on the verge of emotional collapse, you could be experiencing a mental health crisis.

Whether your mental health seems to gradually worsen, or appears to become severe overnight, recognising the signs can help you realise when you need to get immediate help.

What Can Cause a Mental Health Crisis?

A mental health crisis can be caused by something traumatic, or occur despite there being no obvious trigger.

Sometimes there is an obvious cause for the crisis. This might include:

Feeling stressed about school, exams, or work
Worrying about money
Stress from family relationship breakdowns including your parents getting divorced
Having housing worries
Suffering a bereavement (someone dying) or another loss
Worries about your own, or someone else’s, drug or alcohol addiction
Going through a relationship break-up
Being abused by a partner, friend, or family member
Going through a traumatic event such as an assault.

If there is no obvious cause for a mental health crisis, this does not mean that you cannot be having one. If you feel that you are at breaking point but don’t know why, your concerns are just as valid. Whether there is an obvious cause or not, you are entitled to professional help.

How Do I Recognise a Mental Health Crisis?

A mental health crisis might feel as if you have hit rock bottom. Life can feel extremely difficult, and you may feel that each day is a struggle.

Feeling so anxious that it is impossible to leave the house or complete any of your usual daily activities
Feeling extremely depressed
Intense periods of crying
Having panic attacks or flashbacks
Self-harming behaviour, or the urge to hurt yourself
Feeling suicidal
Feeling ‘high’ (also known as feeling manic)

Hearing voices that other people cannot hear, or seeing things that others cannot see
Feeling paranoid about something despite there being no objective evidence of this (for example, feeling that people are turning against you when this is not the case).

If you experience a mental health crisis, specialist support is available. You must seek urgent help from your doctor, hospital, or crisis team to manage it.

What are the Warning Signs of a Mental Health Crisis?

Sometimes a mental health crisis can appear out of the blue, but at other times there are warning signs that a crisis may be about to occur. If you can recognise the signs of an impending crisis, being proactive in accessing help may help you to prevent the crisis from occurring.

The warning signs that you could be at risk of a mental health crisis include:

Wanting to withdraw from, or avoid, your family or friends
Severe mood swings
Not getting enough sleep, or sleeping too much
Feeling tired all the time
Not being able to concentrate, even on things you would usually enjoy such as TV shows
Not enjoying activities or hobbies you used to like
Eating too little or too much
Significant weight loss or weight gain
Thinking about self-harm, or actually causing harm to yourself
Thinking about suicide or death

Using alcohol or drugs, or engaging in another form of self-destructive behaviour
Giving away possessions you used to love
No longer taking care of personal hygiene or basic appearance, such as not brushing your hair or getting dressed each day.

It can be reassuring to know the warning signs, so that you can reach out for help if they occur. You do not need to have all of these signs to request help; if you feel like you are in crisis, support is available.

I have a friend who is showing some warning signs. What should I do?

If a friend is showing warning signs of a mental health crisis, there are some strategies that may help them to feel calmer. Your friend may want to try:

Relaxing exercises such as meditation, mindfulness or breathing exercises
Writing about their feelings in a journal
Completing a creative activity

Listening to music
Going for a walk
Having a bath.

A friend who shows warning signs of a mental health crisis may feel able to talk to you about how they are feeling. They might also want to speak to a teacher at school. Alternatively, they may appreciate you finding out about counselling services at school, or talking therapies or medication they could access by visiting their doctor.

Managing Emergency Situations

If your friend is currently in crisis, you may need to request emergency assistance by calling 112 or 999. You can then request an ambulance, Gardaí, or both, depending on the situation.

Don’t Try to Manage Alone

If you have a friend who is showing warning signs of a mental health crisis, it is important to remember that you do not have to manage it on your own. If you have concerns, you must speak to your parents, your friend’s parents, a teacher, or call 112 or 999 in an emergency. Although your friend may ask you not to do this, in a mental health crisis they may not realise how unwell they are. Others need to act on their behalf to provide the help they need.

It can be scary to see a friend struggling, and you must make sure that you are also supported. Speak to friends, family, or your teachers if you need some help, too.

I think my child might be having a mental health crisis. What should I do to help?

If there is an immediate risk to your child’s health or safety, you must either call 112 or 999 for emergency care. If they require urgent but not immediate care, you should take them to A&E or another emergency healthcare setting yourself.

For non-emergency, but urgent, care, speak to your family doctor. Alternatively, if your child is already under the care of a mental health crisis team, you should contact them straight away. If you remain unsure about who to contact, immediate support and advice is available by texting HELP to 50015.

Listening to your child when they are in crisis is important. Try to engage in active listening, without interrupting, so that they truly feel you are listening to them and are available to support them.

Are there any teen-specific warning signs?

There are some teen-specific warning signs that a mental health crisis might be imminent. The signs include:

Talk of suicide – if a teen mentions suicide, it must be taken seriously. If they have access to medication or another means of suicide, you must stay with them and call for help. Do not leave them alone at this time.
A fixation on death, which could include research on celebrity or other reported deaths, as well as drawing pictures, reading or writing about death.
Feeling that there is no hope for the future, or that they will never achieve anything.
Becoming withdrawn from their friends or family, school avoidance, or no longer attending extra-curricular clubs. They may stay in their bedroom or refuse to leave the house.

Describing voices or experiences that other people can’t hear or see – this could be a sign of psychosis.
Becoming self-destructive. This might include excessive alcohol consumption, recreational drug use, reckless behaviour, or unsafe sex. They may appear to be out of control or ‘spiralling’ into unusual or worrying behaviours.
Complaints about physical symptoms including stomach pains, headaches, or feeling generally unwell.
A dangerous calm period, which may indicate that a child has made a decision about acting on thoughts of self-harm or suicide.

Responding to these warning signs may help to avoid a crisis from occurring. However, you should not feel guilty if, despite your efforts, a mental health crisis later occurs.

What should I do in an emergency?

In an emergency, do not leave your child alone but instead call 112 or 999 for urgent assistance.

If your child does not require immediate assistance, but the situation remains urgent due to the risk of a mental health crisis, specialist help is available. Consider getting a same-day appointment with a community doctor, get an emergency assessment at A&E, or contact your mental health crisis team for advice.

Caring for a child who is struggling with their mental health can be incredibly worrying and upsetting. If your child is unwell or in crisis, it is important that your own health and emotional wellbeing is taken care of. If you notice that you are becoming anxious, have low mood, or feel that you need some additional support, you may find it helpful to reach out to a counsellor or your own doctor.

Coping with Anxiety

It is common to feel anxious in your teenage years. In fact, anxiety is thought to affect up to 1 in 3 people before they reach the age of 18. Although it is a common condition, living with anxiety can start to spoil your enjoyment of everyday life, and even stop you from the doing the things you used to love.

If you feel like anxiety is starting to rule your life, or you have noticed that a friend seems anxious, we have plenty of tips to help you get anxiety back under control.

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a type of fear, and it can feel a lot like stress. Common situations that might make you feel anxious include:

Worrying about speaking in front of the class
Falling out with your friends
Feeling like you won’t do very well in an exam at school.

But being anxious is not always a bad thing. Here we will use the example of feeling anxious before an exam to explain the difference.

Feeling anxious before an exam is normal, and it may even encourage you to get your revision done.

However, if you feel so anxious about the exam that you start to feel overwhelmed or unwell, then this level of worrying could be unhealthy. Some teenagers even find that they continue to feel worried or panicky after the exam has passed. In these situations, the anxiety is not serving a healthy or useful purpose, and can feel extremely unpleasant.

How do I know if I’m Anxious?

Anxiety can cause both physical and emotional symptoms, all of which can feel horrible. The list below may help you to recognise the characteristics of anxiety.

Physical Symptoms

Feeling dizzy
Feeling sick or getting butterflies in your stomach
Headaches
Feeling your heart racing or pounding
Shallow or rapid breathing
Shaking or noticing a tremor in your hands
Aches or pains in your muscles or joints
Being unable to get to sleep or waking up in the night feeling worried.

Emotional Symptoms

Feeling stressed, nervous, or panicky
Being grumpy, irritable, or lashing out at friends or family
Feeling tired or exhausted
Difficulty concentrating at school
Constantly thinking about the situation or event you are nervous about
A sense of dread, or feeling sure that something awful is going to happen
Feeling like you can’t cope.

How Can I Reduce my Anxiety?

If you are experiencing some of the symptoms above, you may be going through a period of anxiety. The good news is that there are lots of simple ways you can start to feel better and manage stressful situations that may occur in future.

Recognise the Symptoms

The good news is that if you’re reading this, you have probably already recognised some of the symptoms in yourself or a friend.

Whether you have noticed physical or emotional changes, or a combination of both, the symptoms may have tricked you into thinking that you have a physical illness. Realising that how you feel could be down to anxiety can be reassuring, and will help you to look for help in the right places.

Talk to Someone

Opening up to someone else can make things feel easier. Speaking to friends, siblings, a parent or another trusted adult may help put things in perspective. The person you talk to may be able to offer advice or tips that you hadn’t thought of. Feeling supported can really help when you feel anxious.

If you don’t want to talk to someone close to you, make an appointment with your doctor or find out if your school has a counsellor who you could talk to.

Write it Down

If you have stopped doing your hobbies, no longer want to hang out with your friends, or dread going to school, it may become clear that anxiety is reducing your enjoyment of life. Writing a journal or getting your thoughts down in your phone or on paper can help get things in perspective. Even writing a simple list of the things that are worrying you can help you to see where your anxiety may be arising from.

Writing or repeating affirmations has been proven to help your mental health. Try reading affirmations such as “I am trying my best” or “I can succeed.” It sounds too good to be true, but if you keep repeating it, you will start to believe it.

Take a Social Media Break

Social media is great for keeping up with your friends, but using it too much can start to bring you down. Try to have a break from using your phone and social media, especially in the hour before you go to bed.

Stay Healthy

Keeping physically well will improve your mental health. Try to exercise each day, even if it’s just a walk around your neighbourhood. Choose a healthy mix of foods, try to get enough sleep, and avoid caffeine, alcohol, and drugs.

Get Organised

If you leave studying until the last minute, you are bound to feel stressed. Rather than working through the night to get an assignment in on time, organise your time and start school projects earlier so that you don’t end up putting additional pressure on yourself.

Practice Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises can feel strange at first, but there are many apps and online videos that can guide you through this relaxing process. Before you discount it, try it once to see if it helps you feel less anxious.

Download a Mindfulness App

Mental health apps offer guided meditations to help you with mindfulness. They are often tailored to a specific need such as difficulty falling asleep or feeling panicky. Some are short, lasting just 2 or 3 minutes to help you quickly calm down, whereas others might take half an hour. Simply select the meditation that you think will best suit how you feel at the time.

How Can I Help my Friend Who is Having a Panic Attack?

A panic attack is an intense form of anxiety that might last for around ten minutes. Panic attacks create feelings of intense fear, shaking, difficulty breathing, and even chest pain. But watching a friend having a panic attack can be scary for you, too. Knowing how to help a friend who is having a panic attack can make the experience less stressful for you both.

Keep Calm

Even if you feel scared, try to keep calm. If your friend doesn’t mind you talking to them, remind them that the panic attack won’t last long, and that you will stay with them until it passes. Some people find it helpful to be reminded that they are safe, and that the panic attack can’t hurt them. Others find it soothing to be reminded to breathe slowly.

Learn the Patterns

Most people get a warning sign of a panic attack, so ask your friend how they know that a panic attack is coming. They may feel breathless, have a pounding heart, become dizzy, or experience feelings of terror.
Learning their patterns or triggers may help you to realise what is happening sooner, meaning that you can begin to help them more quickly.

Ask What They Need

Your friend may find it hard to tell you what they need, but it is worth asking if there is anything you can do. If they respond in a rude manner, or don’t respond at all, don’t take it personally. If they want you to go away, give them space but don’t leave them on their own. When an attack occurs in public, ask them if they would like to find somewhere more private. Afterwards, ask your friend what you could do in future to support them if they have another panic attack.

Validate Their Feelings

It is common to feel embarrassed by a panic attack. The panic response is out of proportion to the situation, but the reaction is not something your friend can control. Reminding them that they have nothing to be ashamed of, and that you are there to support them, can prevent their anxiety from rising further.

Final Thoughts on Coping with Anxiety

Anxiety is very common amongst teenagers, but it can have a significant impact on how much you are able to enjoy your life. Recognising the signs, trying new calming techniques, and asking for help are all wise ways of managing intense periods of anxiety, worrying or stress.

If you notice a prolonged period of time when you feel very sad, low or down, it could be that you are experiencing depression. Depression can make life feel hopeless, but there are lots of ways you can improve the way you feel. In our next article, we will look in detail at what depression is and how it might feel, as well as suggesting lots of ways you can start to manage your mood so that depression starts to ease.

Coping with Depression

Depression is a medical word used to describe low mood that last for more than a few weeks. Around the world, it is estimated that around 1 to 3% of those aged 10 to 19 will experience depression. New feelings of depression can seem to appear out of nowhere, and the rapid change in your mood can feel quite scary. When you feel down, you may not feel like going to school or seeing your friends. But when you stop socialising, it can make you feel even worse.

Luckily, there are lots of ways you can improve the symptoms of depression. If needed, professionals can also help you to understand and work through your feelings. In this article we will look in more detail about what depression is, and how to cope with it.

What is Depression?

If you have depression, feeling low or sad may be a familiar experience. Some people feel that their mood is heavy, dark or black. But depression causes a wide range of feelings in different people.

The Symptoms of Depression

Depression is not only a feeling of sadness. Some people with depression find that they are more tearful than usual, or feel angrier than normal. It can make it harder to fall asleep, or mean that you wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning. At school or college you may struggle to concentrate.

Depression can also be associated with feelings of hopelessness or despair, or feelings that you are not good enough. It is no wonder that some people compare being depressed to living under a big black cloud.

What Causes Depression?

Depression can be related to your personality, as well as genetics or your family history. The rates of depression also increase as you get older or if you develop a physical illness.

Sometimes, depression has a clear cause. It might follow an accident, a traumatic event, the death of a relative, friend or pet, being bullied or falling out with your best friend. Often, it is not one event that leads to depression, but a series of ‘triggers’ or stressful events that occur over time.

Although depression might sometimes follow a stressful or upsetting event, in many cases, there is no clear cause for the illness. You do not need to have been through something that you view as stressful or upsetting to feel depressed. The condition can seem to occur out of the blue.

The symptoms of depression, regardless of whether there is a clear cause or not, have been linked to changes in the natural chemicals found within the brain. The altered levels of hormones such as dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin can all affect the symptoms of depression that a person experiences.

It is common for those with depression to also suffer from anxiety. Anxiety is similar to fear, and it can reduce how confident you feel about going to school or socialising with friends. If you have both anxiety and depression, a vicious cycle of avoiding social situations, becoming isolated, and then feeling that your mood is even lower, can occur. It is important to get help in breaking this cycle, so that you can start to find enjoyment in life again.

How Do I Recognise Depression?

Both adults, teenagers and children can experience depression.
The most well-known symptoms of depression include:

Feeling sad or having a low mood that won’t go away
Feeling irritable or grumpy, often for no reason
Not wanting to do any of the things you used to enjoy, such as clubs, activities, seeing friends, gaming or reading
Feeling tired or exhausted no matter how much sleep you get.

Some teenagers might have additional symptoms of depression including:

Not being able to concentrate on activities including school work, TV programmes or conversations
Finding it hard to make decisions
Not being able to relax, or the opposite, feeling that you have no energy to do anything
Having trouble sleeping, or sleeping more than usual
Not wanting to spend time with friends or family
Eating more or less than usual
Gaining or losing weight
Feeling guilty
Feeling that you are worthless
Thoughts that there is nothing good in your life
Feeling numb or as if you don’t have any emotions any more
Having thoughts about hurting yourself, or about suicide.

Sometimes, depression can cause physical symptoms such as headaches or stomach aches, too.

If anxiety occurs with depression, it may make you feel nervous, stressed or panicky. You may have a sense of dread, or physical symptoms such as dizziness, feeling sick or shaky. The symptoms that occur with depression can make some teenagers think about trying alcohol or drugs to try to cope with how they feel. However, both of these substances are addictive and won’t help you to feel better.

What Can I Do to Cope with Depression?

It can feel like depression is taking over your life. Many teenagers with depression feel like they are alone, but there are places that you can turn to get help with how you are feeling.

Keep Talking

Although you might feel like pulling away from your friends and family, socialising can help you to feel better. Keep in touch with your friends, even if just by text, and try to spend time with family or friends. Something as simple as watching TV with a sibling in the evening can be helpful.

Talk to a friend, sibling, parent, or another trusted adult (like a teacher or sports coach) about how you are feeling. Depression is common and is now better understood than it used to be. Sharing your worries, concerns or feelings with someone else can help to lift some of the heaviness you might be feeling. If it feels too difficult to talk out loud or in person, send a text, email or letter explaining how you feel.

Once you have shared your worries with someone else, you may benefit from their support in starting to manage and improve how you feel.

Stay Active

You might not feel like it, but becoming active can really help your mood. Even if you have never felt sporty, it’s not too late to start. Even people who are retired and have never been active can take up a new form of exercise!

If you’ve always hated PE and the thought of exercise, do something as simple as going for a five minute walk after school. Phone a friend while you’re out, or pay attention to the sights and sounds around you. Research has shown that getting outside can help your mental health. If the walk helps, build on this in the next few days or weeks by going for a short scoot, cycle, jog, or a swim in the local pool.

Maintain Your Routine

It can be tempting to withdraw from your usual activities when your mood is low. But by carrying on with school, clubs and social events, you can keep up with your hobbies, schoolwork and friendships. These activities are not only a good distraction, but they can also help to improve the way you feel overall.

When you feel down, it can make it harder to keep a healthy sleep pattern. Try to keep to your normal bedtime and wake up time, as becoming tired or losing your sleep routine can make you feel worse.

Eat Well

Depression can lead you to eat more or less than usual, and this can cause weight gain or loss. Eating three healthy or balanced meals each day will help to keep your weight steady, as well as giving you the right amount of energy to focus on schoolwork and other activities.

Start a Journal

Keeping a journal is a good way to express your feelings and start to work through them. If you don’t feel like writing much, jot down a few bullet points each day about how you are feeling. If you’re feeling creative, draw a picture to express yourself instead.

Seek Professional Help

Sometimes, despite trying all of the above, a low mood can remain. Some people may feel so low that they don’t feel able to try any of the tips above. In either case, it is very important that you seek help from an expert.

There are several professionals who can listen to how you are feeling and offer advice. You could book an appointment with your GP, or find out if your school has a counsellor who you can see. If neither of these options appeal, phone helplines exist including Childline, Pieta House and The Samaritans.

Consider Medications or Therapies

If you seek professional help, you may be offered anti-depressants, counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help treat the symptoms of depression. Although in the past anti-depressants were sometimes viewed negatively, many people who need them find them to be a helpful way to lift the symptoms of depression.

Know How to Manage an Emergency

Depression can sometimes make you feel so low that you think about hurting yourself or even have thoughts about suicide. If this occurs, or if you have already caused harm to yourself, you must request urgent medical assistance.

If you require urgent or immediate care, or are concerned for your safety (or the safety of someone else), you must visit your GP, hospital or out of hours clinic straight away. In an emergency, call 999 to request an ambulance or Gardaí.

I have a friend who might be depressed.
What can I do to help them?

If reading the symptoms of depression makes you wonder if your friend might be depressed, it is reassuring to know that there are plenty of ways that you can help them. Depression is experienced differently by each person, but your friend may find it helpful if you:

Start a conversation about how they are feeling. They may not feel confident enough to begin talking, but if you ask the question, it can make it easier for them to open up. You could start with:
- “You’ve seemed a bit down lately. Is there anything that you want to talk about?”
- “It seems like you’ve been having a hard time, can I help with anything?”
Offer to help them find support, such as a friendly teacher, a counsellor, or help them to book a GP appointment.
Encourage them to keep socialising, to carry on with any therapy, or to keep taking any medicines that a doctor prescribes.
Learn about depression in books or online. The more you understand about it, the more effectively you will be able to understand and support your friend.

It is important that you look after your own health as well. It is not your job to fix or mend your friend, and you are not alone. It can be hard to support a friend with depression, so make sure you reach out to other friends or your parents if it starts to feel too much.

Keep inviting them to events. Even if your friend has started to withdraw from social events, one day they may feel up to joining you again, and this will help to prevent isolation.
Remain patient – it will take time for depression to start to improve.
Text or call every now and again to check how they are. This shows them that you care, and may stop them from feeling so alone.

I think my child might be depressed, what are the signs?

Sometimes it is clear that your child has low mood or depression. In other cases, it might be difficult to work out if the symptoms can be attributed to ‘normal’ teenage behaviour or the start of depression.

Occasional bad moods and irritability are normal during the teenage years, but depression can cause overwhelming sadness, anger or withdrawal from friends and family. Even the activities that they used to love may no longer appeal, and it may seem that their personality has been stripped away.

If you notice persistent sadness, negativity, tearfulness, anger, irritability or hopelessness, depression could be the cause.

What should I do if my child is depressed?

Ignoring depression in the hope that it may resolve on its own is unlikely to be helpful. If you suspect that your child is depressed, take steps to help and support them straight away. Even if depression isn’t the cause, the behavioural signs that you have noticed may need addressing anyway.

Open up a conversation with your teenager in a non-judgmental and loving way. Mention the symptoms that are concerning you, and see if your child can explain how they are feeling. Listen, without interrupting, to what they tell you. Ensure that your child knows that they have your support no matter what they say.

If they refuse to talk, don’t give up. Instead, emphasise your concern in a gentle manner and reopen the conversation again in a few days. If they won’t talk, trust your instinct, and speak to a professional about your concerns. This might involve making an appointment with their teacher, or taking advice from a counsellor or GP.

Continue to encourage attendance at school and social activities, as well as spending time with friends so that isolation is avoided. Support your child in exercising, eating healthily and getting enough sleep, too.

Supporting a child with depression can be a worrying time. Be sure to make time for self-care and seek your own support if needed.

If you have serious concerns about the health of your child, seek medical advice straight away.

A lot is expected of teenagers, and two years on from the start of the pandemic, this has never been truer. Many teens feel over-burdened or stressed by school, caring responsibilities, relationships or worries about the future. In this article, we will help you to recognise the ways that stress can present itself, as well as some effective ways to combat feeling mentally drained or overwhelmed.

Coping with Stress

Stress is a normal part of life. It can affect people of all ages, including teenagers, and often it won’t last for long. However, sometimes stress can last for a long time, and in this case it may start to affect how well you feel physically and mentally.

Luckily, there are plenty of strategies that can help you to both cope with the symptoms of stress, and manage it so that you feel less stressed.

What is Stress?

Stress is a natural response to certain scenarios. In some cases, stress can give you some motivation to get on with a task, such as revising for an exam or doing more training before a sports’ event. This short-term stress can be positive as it drives you to do the best you can.

However, sometimes you might feel disproportionately stressed about something that shouldn’t cause you too much stress, such as speaking in front of an audience. Public speaking can be nerve-wracking, and if it doesn’t go well you may feel frustrated or embarrassed. However, objectively nothing terrible will happen when you give a speech. Everyday events shouldn’t cause you to feel so stressed that your mental health starts to suffer.

If stress lasts for a long time, or you feel stressed about small things, this emotion is no longer healthy. People who have chronic or severe stress may start to notice worrying physical or emotional symptoms, and so it is important to manage this.

How Do I Recognise Stress?

Everyone experiences stress differently, but it commonly makes you feel like you are under pressure, anxious, overwhelmed or exhausted.

There are many causes of stress. If you are going through any of the following, then it is natural that you might be feeling stressed or anxious.

Problems at home such as your parents separating, or difficulties with your siblings
Increased pressure to perform well at school, college, university, or in your job
Worrying about money, or living in poverty due to financial difficulties
Being bullied at school
Having friendship problems or finding it hard to fit in socially
Moving to a new school
Having a physical illness
Feeling under pressure from friends to try alcohol, use drugs, date or have sex.

Stress can be caused by a very wide range of events or situations. If you feel stressed but none of the above factors are relevant, this does not mean that it can’t be stress related. Some people are more susceptible to stress, so an event that wouldn’t worry one person can cause an extreme stress response in another.

Mental Symptoms of Stress

The most common mental symptoms of stress include:

Excessive or frequent worrying
Feeling overwhelmed
Difficulty concentrating
Feeling indecisive or unable to make a decision
Being more irritable than usual
Being more forgetful.

Physical Symptoms of Stress

When you are stressed, you may notice physical symptoms including:

Headaches
Feeling dizzy
Noticing that your muscles feel tense or tight
Feeling your heart racing or beating faster than usual
Getting stomach aches or feeling sick
Your GP may tell you that your blood pressure is higher than usual.

Behavioural Symptoms of Stress

Stress can cause you to behave in a way that is out of character for you. You may notice if you or a friend:

Start withdrawing from social activities such as clubs or parties
Neglect responsibilities including chores or personal hygiene
Are more bad tempered than usual, including being snappy, angry or aggressive
Sleep more or less than usual
Eat more or less than usual.

What Can I Do to Deal with Stress?

It is important not only to take steps to deal with stress when it occurs, but also to take preventative action to help you reduce the impact of future high-stress situations. If you can learn to manage stress, you can avoid becoming overwhelmed and build your resilience levels.

Prioritise Getting Enough Sleep

In your teenage years, you need 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night. Not getting enough sleep can leave you feeling irritable and make it more difficult to concentrate. Being tired can also make it far harder to deal with stressful situations. Furthermore, if you are struggling to concentrate at school because you are tired, you may start to fall behind, and this can make you feel even more stressed!

Furthermore, if you are struggling to concentrate at school because you are tired, you may start to fall behind, and this can make you feel even more stressed!

To get enough sleep, avoid looking at your phone before bed, as this can disrupt natural feelings of sleepiness. Make sure that your bedroom feels like a comfortable, safe space. Set a reasonable bedtime and try to wake up around the same time each day to get into a good sleep routine.

Be Social Media Aware

It can be very difficult to disconnect from tech and digital devices. Try to be aware of the amount of time you spend on your phone. If you are responding to texts while doing your homework, this distraction can consume a significant amount of time and make it feel like your schoolwork is taking forever. Put your phone to one side when working, so that you can get tasks done efficiently.

To avoid becoming overwhelmed by social media, switch your phone off at night. If you have concerns about cyberbullying, harmful content or internet trolls, limit exposure and speak to a responsible adult if you need help.

Keep Active

Physical activity is a great way to reduce stress. Exercise improves your physical health, boosts your mood, increases energy levels and promotes better sleep. Exercise also stimulates the release of endorphins which make you feel good afterwards. You don’t have to be a marathon runner; a brisk walk round the block, a bike ride or an online dance or yoga session are great, too. Doing two to three hours of exercise each week will really help you to start feeling better.