Overcoming Teen Depression The Power of Being Yourself

Overcoming Teen Depression The Power of Being Yourself

There are a lot of social pressures on us when young. For about the first one third of our lives, we are in the development stage, where there is much taking in and growing in knowledge and experience. We are learning and needful.

Teen Depression Comparing Ourselves to Others

In the world of the young, beautiful and athletic, we may feel obvious and out of place. It is understandable to question our importance in the overall scheme of things if we are backward, insecure, and lacking in social graces.

Such questions about our selves can be very damaging. One of the first reactions is to change our behaviors to compensate. We may act more outgoing than normal, speak louder, and with more authority when socializing with our friends, or assume a strong posture around others if we feel defensive. Other ways of compensating might be to associate with others who are not in our best interest, like bullies, gang members, or drug dealers. This is a way of 'borrowing toughness,' when we feel that toughness is required, and we are lacking.

Another method of adjusting is to act like a leader or a rebel when we are not. We might experiment with cigarettes, drugs, sex, or alcohol or another damaging activity, in the mistaken belief that this demonstrates maturity and adulthood. The truth is none of those responses work for very long, and all of those choices carry heavy consequences if things go bad. Luck can 'go south' when we least expect it, and with tragic permanent life changing costs.

Teen Depression Parental Need

As young people: both teenagers and young adults, we depend heavily on the security of our parents. Tragically, from the changes in our previous generation in the sixties, many young today have not had nurturing families. Some are growing up in single parent situations, and where both parents are present, oftentimes it is very dysfunctional, hostile and abusive.

Teen Depression and Wondering, ‘Am I Okay?’

If any of this sound familiar, be encouraged, for there is an answer. What you are looking for is what we call 'your personal significance.' That means without knowing it, subconsciously even, you have been asking the question, 'How important am I?' That question can take many forms, such as ' When is it time to pay attention to me?' and 'Where does the world stop, and I begin?' also, 'When do I begin to matter?' and, 'When is it my turn for recognition?'

Nobody wants to feel like a shadow, and be an audience to others or to life all the time. At some point, we all need to be in the spotlight and recognized for the unique person we are. We all need to know we are important.

Teen Depression Finding Our Difference

And that is where we are going next. Just because you may feel ignored and outclassed, and perhaps out shined in your social setting does not mean you need to change. You cannot defeat your social setting by changing and being phony. All you are doing is adding to it. There is nothing a hostile environment (Satan) loves more than for us to respond with self-defeating tactics like all those listed above.

Teen Depression That Which Makes Us Special

Look inside into the deepest part of you, into your ‘individuality’ and focus on your ‘inner beauty.’ Individuality means 'I am in division from you and all else.' I am divided from you and all else. I-in-divide-u-all-else. Individual! If you think about what it is that makes you unique from every other person that has ever lived, you will find that it is something good and something extremely beautiful; that ‘difference’ is what makes you 'you.' Nobody else has it!

Teen Depression Pushing Our Magic Button

That is your magic button. When you focus on it, and can feel inside what that 'difference' is, then you can start changing things around for the better. That special something is what God put inside for you to find, and Jesus died on the cross for you to use. The more you feel the talents God put there and act upon them, the more you are pushing that magic button.

Try it and see how fast God's answers come. Young people need to be with other young people and do whatever it is that teens do. Twenty somethings need to meet with others after college or work and stay abreast of what is going on in their worlds: It is a group bonding thing. That is as it should be and as God wants it.

Okay, we may ask what sorts of things are there that make us different, like what? How about our interest in collecting stamps, or wanting to become a missionary? Would interest in cheeses and studying about beer making qualify? You bet! Similar things might be a fascination with photographing old buildings in small towns, kite flying, snow boarding or making sculptures out of tin foil.

Every one of us was born with some talent, dream, curiosity or desire. When we first saw a horse, we knew instantly that working with horses was what we were meant to do. That is the kind of connection we can all find to something, which completes us.

Teen Depression Focus Our Attention Inward

The more we dwell in our original fascination we had with something, and reconnect with the passion we felt the first time we felt it, the more power will be released in our lives. Passion over any thing we love to do will organize our lives, and bring similar passionate people to us.

Being our true selves means switching our attention from needing love from others, to focusing on those special things which only we love. When we do that, we will be led to others who will give us the love and the attention that we so desperately need.

Teen Depression Do Not Look At the Waves

Instead of looking where the problem is, out in the world, and acting out of response to what we feel out there, we must try looking inside, and act in response to what we feel inside. Get out of your boat and walk towards Jesus on the water, and do not look at the waves, but to him.

In this case Jesus represents what talents and passions He put inside you. The waves are our abusive family, cruel friends, the dangerous school scene, or hostile workplace, and what we do in response to them. The more we act in response to our environment, the more we become our environment.

The best way to rise above our circumstances is to be somebody important, be ourselves!

There is more to being ‘you’ than just this, but it is a strong start. Work on focusing inward, listening to your heart and hearing what it has to say.

Teen Depression Quotes:

If I cannot find myself, how can anyone else find me?

And Now The Bible Verse of The Day

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