Self-Reflection And Its Connection to Depression

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Although many people do not see it, depression is everywhere. Depression is a mental condition characterized by feelings of severe despondency and dejection, typically also with feelings of inadequacy and guilt, often accompanied by lack of energy and disturbance of appetite and sleep. About 3.3% of adolescents experience depression each year, and women are 70% more likely to experience it than men (National Institute of Mental Health). This does not account for the number of people who suffer from depression, but are too scared to ask for help.

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This number may seem small, but depression is not a small thing; no one should have to suffer through this mental condition. Therefore, everyone should know how self-reflection and social life relate to depression in adolescents.

Self-Reflection as it Relates to Depression in Adolescents

Generally speaking, there are many teenagers who are unhappy with their body image. Whether they feel like they are too fat, skinny, tall, or short, it seems as though nothing will give them satisfaction when it comes to their build.

That is not a big deal though; everyone is unhappy so it does not matter, right? Wrong. Body dissatisfaction is one of the leading causes of depression in adolescents. Around the age of fourteen, adolescents usually start to experience appearance discomfort. Body Mass Index has not been proven to be related to the cause of depressive symptoms, researchers feel that body or weight perception is the bigger factor of depression. Body Mass Index actually plays a very limited role in depression, it has an indirect effect on depressive symptoms (Morgan and Rawana, 2013, Pg.

597). Thus, a teenager’s body image impacts them more than most believe and can cause depression.

Obviously, body image plays a huge role in depression, but what about someone’s self-esteem? Believe it or not, self-esteem is a predictor of depression in adolescents. A cross sectional study found that low self-esteem is associated with depressive symptoms in early and

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late adolescents. Studies done on the interrelationships of self-esteem and body image have shown that self-esteem plays a key role in the relationship between gender and depression. Research that is based on small clinical and community samples suggests that eating and weight related disturbances are related to depression in both male and female adolescence. However, it is not certain that self-esteem issues that cause depression are the same in adolescent males and females. Also, the symptoms are not consistent during this time in his or her life. For girls, the pressure to be thin, elevated body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and bulimic symptoms were the results on the study of depression. Other disturbances include: weight management, vomiting, diet pills, and use of laxatives. Though most studies have been done on young women, there have been a few on boys. Body dissatisfaction in boys can lead to substance abuse, negative affect, and muscle dysmorphic. Disordered eating and lack of social support also enhance depression in boys (Morgan and Rawana, 2013, pg. 599). All in all, self-esteem and body image have a big impact on depression in teens.

Although self-esteem plays an enormous role in depression of adolescence, victimization is a big factor as well. It is thought that victimization increases body mass and the chance for depression. Victimization increases negative views about physical appearance, and later leads to depression. Obese adolescents have been found to experience higher rates of peer victimization and depression than non-obese adolescents. This also impacts girls more than boys. So, it would seem like obesity causes depression when actually, it is just the experiences one may go through while being obese that causes depression. For example, being teased for one’s weight leads to depression whether one is thin, average size, or obese. Victimization reinforces negative feelings about appearance, and these negative feelings soon lead to depression and higher body mass. Even if someone is victimized for reasons other than their obesity, they will eventually make a

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link to their obesity or thinness and feel they are being victimized for their weight. This is important because people soon blame themselves for being victimized, which leads to depression. In addition, people who are obese have a lower self-concept than those who are not obese. Also, being obese during childhood can also lower self-concept as one grows older. Most importantly, weight based teasing has been linked with lower self-concept in the general population. All in all, peer victimization has been shown to enhance negative feelings and low self-esteem in adolescents, which will most likely lead to depression (Bukowski and Adams, 2008, 858-859)

Social Life and how it relates to Depression in Adolescents

Though some want it more than others, all humans feel the need to be socially accepted. Everyone builds relationships with loved ones, friends, or spouses. Through these relationships, humans feel socially accepted by these people, though, when a relationship starts to go downhill, people start to feel a lack of belonging. People who suffer from depression are more sensitive to failing relationships though. The social information processing bias in depressed people make it less likely that they will perceive cues of acceptance and belonging in social interactions. Depressed people pay more attention to the negative social interactions, rather than the positive social interactions. For example, clinically depressed people show more attention to sad faces, adjectives, and emotion words. Evidence does show that people who are suffering from depression fail to satisfy their need for belonging in a relationship. People with depression report fewer intimate relationships and have negative effects on those around them, causing them to experience rejection and loss of socially rewarding opportunities. People with greater depressive symptoms are more likely to create difficult social situations, have worse interactions, and direct their attention to negative emotional social stimuli. Studies have examined the reactions to

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rewards and punishments among clinically depressed people. These studies have shown that depressed people experience dulled, not heightened, reactions to negative punishment cues and positive punishment cues. This type of reaction is a part of major depression. Though there are some exceptions. Some people, who experience reward daily, react happily to positive cues (Kashdan and Steger, 2009)

Social experience is best understood as a dynamic, communication-driven process, with progressive reciprocal influences of actors, partners, and situational demands (Gilbert, 2006). Laboratory studies done on this would often employ singular de-contextualized stimuli. For example, though it is unclear, images of an angry person would hold the same implications for social acceptance and rejection as a real world disagreement with a friend. These studies are able to capture depressed peoples every day experiences and their reactions to them. Researchers have found that people who suffer from depression are more responding to positive social events. Many studies have also shown that getting married is more beneficial to people who suffer from depression than those who do not (Kashdan and Steger, 2009).

Lab studies are usually focused on people who have clinical levels of depression. Though depressive levels may lie on a continuum of increasing impairment. People with subthreshold depression may have a substantial risk of getting major depressive disorder or experiencing suicidal behavior. Knowing how social experiences influence someone with subthreshold depression may help one understand better. People with subthreshold depression have a heightened reaction to positive life events. In one study, humans were placed in survival challenges that were met through participation with reliable others in social groups. Being accepted by the group with increase survival, whereas, not being accepted would decrease ones survival. They also had to find suitable mates, produce offspring, and continue ones genetic lineage. The responses showed that people with greater depressive symptoms react to perceived dominance from others with exacerbated submissiveness and feelings of inferiority compared to people with less depressive symptoms (Kashdan and Steger, 2009).

In sum, depression is an awful thing for anyone to have to go through. The percentage of adolescents who suffer from depression may seem small, but even one person suffering from depression is one too many. Roughly 121 million people suffer from depression worldwide (Fu and Kader, 2008, 102). Depression makes most teens turn to suicide rather than looking for help. This absolutely needs to be put to a stop. Therefore, knowing how self-reflection and social life relate to depression will keep others aware of their surroundings. Hopefully everyone will be more careful with what they say to others and how they treat others. People never know what is happening in the life of the person standing next to them.