Depression in Young People: Causes, Symptoms, and Support Services

Depression in Young People,
ages (18-25) in the UK
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ABSTRACT
(It will be done when file is completed)

Table of contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................4
Rationale .........................................................................................................................................6
Dissertation structure ......................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................9
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................16
CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION..........................................................................................................20
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................25
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................26
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Background
In recent times, the major concern after covid 19 in world is depression. It is found that
all people suffer from depression in various stages of life. But it is found that most adults
between age 22- 40 suffers from depression to a great extent (Friedrich, 2017). It is because this
is age where adults have to focus on their career goals, family responsibility, job, etc. and many
other things. So, these all leads to depression which highly impact on their physical as well as
mental health. In addition, it is important to find out causes and symptoms of depression so that
it becomes easy to treat it. Along with it, there is also need to identify issues due to which person
suffers from depression. In a study done in 26 nations it has been found that depression is
primary driver of disability in people. In 2014 in UK there 19.7% of adults of age over 18
showed symptoms of depression as compared to 2013. This means that there is rise of 1.5% in
adults. There are over 1 out of 4 people in UK that suffer from mental health problem in UK.
Basically depression is most common in age of 18- 25 that is around 10.9%. There were around
7.5 million young people aged 16–24 in the UK in 2012, making them about 12% of population.
About 75% of them are satisfied with their health and only 12% report a long term illness or
disability. Depression is highly increasing year by year in adults due to change in their lifestyle,
pressure from family, lack of healthy diet, exercise, etc. Thus, their mental and physical health is
affected in negative way (LeMoult, and Gotlib, 2019). Besides, due to lack of awareness as well
many adults are not able to identify symptoms of depression. So, they do not get treatment on
time which results in leading to severe level of depression. Having a mental illness in young
generation still remain prevalent.
Depression is common mental disorder that results in change in mood, anxiety, low self
worth, feeling of guilt, etc. there are different symptoms of depression which may vary from
person to person. The most common symptoms are mood swings, feeling sad, hopeless, change
in behaviour such as loss of interest, cognitive abilities like inability of concentrate, lack of
sleep, insomnia, etc. Apart from it, there are various causes of depression such as family history,
brain structure, medical conditions, drug use, etc. (Park, and Zarate Jr,2019). It is easy to find
out symptoms of depression in people just by observing their behaviour and asking questions
about mood, sleep pattern, thoughts, etc. Usually, there are two types of depression which are
major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder. The major depressive is severe

form of depression which is identified through felling of sadness, hopefulness, and many more.
In this the symptoms are frequent loss of weight, not able to sleep, fatigue, feeling guilt, etc.
Moreover, there are several sub types as well of this disorder that are anxious distress, atypical
feature, seasonal pattern, etc. the persistent disorder is mild depression and is also known as
dysthymia. Here, symptoms are same but they are not severe (Putnam, Wilcox, and Apter,
2017). Furthermore, there are various ways of treating depression like medications, light
therapy, psychotherapy, and others. Alongside, there are natural ways of treating it as well that is
SAM’e, 5- HTP, Omega-3 fatty acid, and many more. The depression can be treated with help
of providing social support services, communication, exercise, yoga, meditation, etc. But it
depends on stage of depression that what treatment or therapy is required in that.
Depression is a mental health problem that involves low mood and loss of interest in
activities of individuals. Depression can be described in several ways and through several
characteristics and among all feeling of sadness, loss and anger is most common symptoms and
characteristics of depression. Concerned with effect of depression, it affects people from all
walks of life regardless of background, age and gender. There are different types of depression
and these include Major Depressive Disorder, persistent depressive disorder also known as
dysthymia, bipolar depression, perinatal or post-partum depression, premenstrual dysphoric
disorder, seasonal affective disorder, situational depression, and atypical depression (Fajkowska,
Domaradzka and Wytykowska, 2018). Types of depression differentiate on the basis of how
long depression lasts and also what impact does depression have on individuals. This means that
major depressive disorder lasts everyday for more than 2 weeks, persistent depressive disorder
lasts 2 years or longer than that. Bipolar depression alternate lows with high and manic energy
and similarly every type of depression have different impact on individuals. In this Major
depression can result in severe impairment that interfere with or limit ability of individual to
carry out important life events. Young adults are likely to get affected by depression as any other
age group of individuals. The causes of depression for young people involve genes and family
tendency and on the basis of this it can be determined whether individual is susceptible to
disease or not. However, this is not only reason because of which they become susceptible for
disease and get affected by this. Young adults are likely to experience depression because of
several other reasons and in modern society young people are fed information and this is likely
to put pressure on them which is completely unrealistic. In addition to this, those who are in
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school can also experience depression because of change of school or also because of
experiences like bullying. They can create negative forces and lead individual towards
depression. For young adults stressful relationship is also a cause for depression in which their
mental state can get negatively affected because of their relationship. However, early assessment
and treatment of depression can enhance quality of life of individuals as it is not something
untreatable (Qin and et.al., 2018). Signs and symptoms include moodiness and irritability,
changes in sleeping and eating patterns, fatigue and lack of energy, difficulty in having
concentration and feeling unhappiness, miserable and lonely. Following are aim and objectives
of this study that reflect what will be achieved from this study regarding depression in Young
people of age 18-25 in UK.
Aims and objectives
Aim – To analyse how depression is affecting on mental and physical health of young people of
age 18-25 in UK.
Objectives
← To establish the issues that lead to depression amongst young people.
← To explore effects and implications of depression among study group.
← To establish and evaluate the support services available to young people.
Research question
← What are the issues that lead to depression amongst young people?
← What are the effects and implications of depression among study group?
← How support services can be provided to young people?
Rationale
This study aims at establishing issues because of which young people experience
depression and to identify early stages of depression and also to evaluate support services
available for young people when they experience depression. In order to treat and prevent
depression and specifically major depression and persistent depression, it is very important that
firstly issues are identified that causes and lead young people to depression (Park and Zarate Jr,
2019). This is because to solve problem reasons identification and solution of reasons causing
problem is important. Without having adequate knowledge of what causes depression treatment
for depression cannot be done effectively. Along with this, prevention of depression in young
adults can also be done through knowledge of causes of depression. Avoidance and dealing with