Am I depressed or just really sad?

[jMac32]

I am a 16 year old girl, and in recent weeks I have been feeling very sad a lot of the time. Sometimes when I am alone, I start crying, and then I feel down for a long time afterwards. I have been struggling to get to sleep at night since late November - originally I just thought that was due to my boyfriend and I breaking up at the time, but now I still can't get to sleep for sometimes hours. I am scared of just lying in bed before I go to sleep, because I am afraid I will start to think about things that will make me sad. I am exhausted most of the time, and in the past week I have been getting bad headaches. I have also been getting more and more stressed. Mum and Dad often ask if I'm ok (that's not new though) but now I always say that I'm just tired. Sometimes I just want to cry, when I'm not alone, but I will smile as if I'm fine. And sometimes I do feel perfectly fine - this sadness isn't around all the time. But I would like to know if these are indications of depression, or if I'm just complaining about something normal? Please help.

[Chris_B]

Hi jMac32,

Thanks for joining the forums.  A month is quite a long time to be having trouble sleeping, the less sleep we have the worse it will make us feel: depressed, anxious, angry, upset.  It's difficult sometimes to know what the cause is, but the most important thing is to seek help, which you've done by coming here.  The next best step would be to tell your mum and dad what's really going on the next time they ask if you're ok - they will want to know the answer and help you.  The longer your sleep issues go on, the more difficult it will be to control your moods, so the sooner you speak up the better.  Take care and let us know how you go.

[geoff]

dear jMac32, this is beginning to become a worry, as I can see depression has already set in, and at such a young age, this is something that will need to be attended to before the rot sets in.

Breaking up from a boyfriend at any age is stressful and very upsetting, and because of this depression sets in, so please be upfront with your parents who seem to be very caring.

Please get some professional help now, because once depression has taken over it's much harder to fix, rather than at the early stages. Geoff. x