BOOKS ABOUT DEPRESSION/
DEPRESSION IN ADOLESCENTS 

• Understanding Teenage Depression
• Conquering the Beast Within
• Beating the College Blues
• Wake Up Call: A Mother's Fight to Save Her Troubled Teen

Understanding Teenage Depression, by Maureen Empfield, MD, and Nicholas Bakalar, Henry Holt, 2001, paper.

In their chapter on suicide, the authors of Understanding Teenage Depression note that it is the third leading cause of death among adolescents (after traffic accidents and homicide). 20 percent of suicides by males and 14 percent of suicides by females occur in the 15-24 years old age range. And 86% of all teen suicides occur between the ages of 15 and 19.

Of course not all teenage depression ends in suicide, but it is fair to say that most suicides stem from depression. But even if teenagers' depression doesn't end up killing them, it robs them of their lives. (See The Beast reviewed in these pages.)

Dr. Empfield's book helps parents, teachers, medical and other health care professionals understand what teenage depression looks like and what can be done about it. It helps you sort out normal-range mood changes from clinical depression that needs professional diagnosis and treatment, probably including medication.

The basic differentiation between normal range mood stuff and real depression seems common-sense, as explained in the book: mild depression is hard to diagnose because of the frequency of mood changes during adolescence. More severe depression begins to interfere more or less consistently with daily life, and the most severe (major depression) results in real disability--the teen cannot go to school, maintain friendships, etc.

But here's the kicker: Teens are often very good at hiding their depression. And depressed teens often feel anger instead of sadness.

Reading the book, especially the individual examples of different teens' experiences (often given in their own words) should be helpful to a worried parent, as well as to a counselor or other giver of care to teenagers. (If you're a teen and worried about yourself, this paperback may be quite helplful to you as well.)

Get it at a discount & benefit this site.

Irwin, Cait. Conquering the Beast Within: How I Fought Depression and Won...and How You Can, Too. Times Books, Random House, 1998.

This small (101 pages) paperback book by a very articulate and brave young woman may be little, but it's worth its weight in gold to anyone suffering from depression--and to his/her relatives/friends. Ms. Irwin conceptualizes her depression as a beast--a beast that lives inside of her and "eats up" all her good feelings: self-confidence, trust, pleasure in life. She chronicles her descent to near-suicide, her hospitalization, and her eventual victory. Her line drawings are very evocative of her emotional struggles. First-person accounts of struggles with mental illness are often far more able to reach us, on a human level, than removed, diagnostic accounts. If depression is a factor in any adolescent's (or adult's) life that touches yours... reach for Cait Irwin's book. Highly recommended. 

Paul A. Grayson, PhD, and Philip W. Meilman, PhD, Beating the College Blues. Checkmark Books, 1992, 1999. paper.

The directors of counseling services for students at NYU and at Cornell have gotten together to write a Question- and-Answer book about adjusting to college, but their topic can be considered more broadly as adjustment to young adulthood as well. Their first topic is "Getting Started and Fitting In," the next, "Your Studies," and their third chapter is called "Feeling Down and Getting Back Up," in which they do present an excellent excellent Q&A series on adolescent depression.

The language is plain, the information should be easily understood. At the end of each chapter is a list of suggested Further Reading. Highly recommended. Click to order. 

Wake-Up Call, A Mother's Fight to Save her Troubled Teen, by Judy Martin, MFT (Marital and Family Therapist), is a detailed, day-by-day account of this mother's attempt to reach out to and help her young adolescent daughter, whose behaviors and habits tended toward self-destruction. It is remarkable in at least two ways:

(1) Judy Martin's daughter does not come across as so seriously disturbed as one might expect. She does appear to be experiencing a major depression and a lot of anxiety, but she does not seem to qualify for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, for instance. In other words, this adolescent is in many ways "typical," not an extreme case. This alone makes the book valuable to many parents.

(2) Judy Martin is herself a therapist, in practice at the time her daughter shakes the foundations of her trust in herself as a parent and her marriage as well. If this mother trained as a professional mental health expert cannot manage her own daughter's adolescent difficulties, how difficult must it be for an "ordinary" parent, without special training, to manage their own "troubled teens"?

(3) A third way in which the book is remarkable is that Judy seems completely honest--she is trying to give us the "down and dirty" picture of what it was like for her to live with her daughter, her young adopted child, her husband, and herself, from day to trying day. Many parents will be able to identify.

My concern throughout the book was whether Judy would eventually come to understand that it was not possible to CONTROL her daughter, and counterproductive to try. By the end of the book, I was satisfied that she had learned this lesson, but all through the book, I was bothered by her insistence on "being the boss" in the relationship with her child, and insistence that seemed often to be reinforced by the mental health personnel she dealt with.

I am happy to say that by the end of the book, Judy's daughter is reported to be "finding her feet," while Mom has realized the limits of her power.

A page-turner and satisfying read--a lot to be learned. Get it at amazon.com.