Adolescent depression appears to be more common among girls than boys, according to researchers from San Diego State University. 

Researchers reviewed more than 300 studies conducted between 1980 and 1998. The cumulative research, reported in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, involved more than 16,000 children and adolescents. 

They found that depression scores among girls were lower than among boys between the ages of 8 and 11 and tended to remain stable until the age of 12, when they increased, reaching a peak number of depressive symptoms at 15. 

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Yet many of the college students gathered in a University of South Florida lecture hall came first to see Cara Kahn, then learn about mental health. 

"I've been on stages before, usually acting or singing. I didn't imagine being onstage talking about something so serious," Kahn, 23, said. 

Kahn was at USF for the second stop in a 10-city college tour called "Depression in College: Real World, Real Life, Real Issues." 

Three mental health experts joined Kahn onstage Friday to tell students to get help if sadness stops their engagement in college's classes and social life. Kahn, in a jeans jacket and with her long wavy tresses, made the message, um, real.

"I remember feeling something bad was going to happen. I felt dark and low inside." 

She said she "cried and cried" when she was diagnosed: "I felt like damaged goods." 

Her condition is treated with talk therapy and medication, which was revealed to viewers in the edited versions of conversations taped during the 24-hour-a day, four-month surveillance of Real World's housemates. 

"It's a pretty bizarre project," Kahn said. Afterward, "I watched my edited self, and I felt totally exposed." 

Then the fan letters began to arrive, she said. She did not answer the ones that asked whether her hair is permed or whether she ever hooked up with Kyle. 

She replied to those who wrote to her about their depression, to tell her they felt better because the famous Cara struggles with it as well. 

Their honesty "helped me come to terms that there is no shame in having depression," Kahn said. "With treatment, you can lead an enjoyable life."

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"I don't want to walk around campus and be 'that girl who tried to kill herself,'" said Stork '04 [above], who told her story to an audience of her Harvard College peers for the first time Monday night (April 21 2003).

"It's really hard to say that suicide is irrational. To a person who is suicidal, what they're thinking about doing is completely rational," said Stork. "All of the good things in life become less important than the pain you're going through."

Responding to a recent UHS survey that reported that nearly half of Harvard College students felt depressed in the last academic year and almost 10 percent had considered suicide, several of the mental health professionals said they thought those figures might be low.

But it's students' age and developmental stage, not the high-pressure environment of Harvard or any college, that boosts those statistics, said panel moderator Paul Barreira, associate professor of psychiatry at McLean Hospital.

Sally Weylman, a psychologist at Harvard's Bureau of Study Counsel, proposed that the number of students recognizing their depression has increased as the illness' stigma has decreased. ...

Keynote speaker Andrew Solomon... who wrote "The Noonday Demon" after his own severe depression, titled his lecture "Depression, Too, Is a Thing With Feathers," a reference to a line from an Emily Dickinson poem: "Hope is a thing with feathers that perches on the soul."

Depression and hope, he said, are not mutually exclusive. "Depression is not so different from other mental states in certain ways. 

"If you can achieve hope in other contexts you should be able to achieve hope within the sphere of depression," he said.

"You keep repressing the ugly, the shadow, which in my opinion all suburbs do," she asserts, "and it's going to mutate."

Taylor herself became so depressed in high school that for a time she simply stopped going. She also developed an eating disorder, now past. ... "In high school I thought I was much fatter than I actually was. I figured if no one could see my emotional pain, maybe they'd see my bones sticking out and recognize I'm distraught."

She found her solace in performing, and paid for therapy by doing voice-overs for Buster Brown Shoes and Peter Pan Peanut Butter commercials. Things picked up in her senior year, when she met a theater crowd that included John Cusack.

Although there are some theories about it, no one knows what causes depression in teenagers (or in anyone else, for that matter), but we do know that it is not caused by poor parenting, and that it cannot be cured by good parenting. ... 

A "change in attitude" or a willingness.. to "straighten up and fly right" will not relieve the terrible symptoms of depression. It.. requires the attention of experienced professionals, using both medical and psychological treatments, methods scientifically established as valuable in relieving the symptoms.. and allowing a teenager to lead a normal life.

.from Understanding Teenage Depression: A Guide to Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management - by Maureen Empfield et al

"Or some believe that she was a highly intelligent, sexually experienced, but somewhat confused & naive (until the end) young woman who is actually a stronger character than Hamlet." - from Ophelia site

Dr. Marti Olsen Laney: Good question, your family (mom) sounds concerned about you. Perhaps if you explain to them (your mom) that you appreciate their concern but that you require a lot of peace and quiet to recharge your batteries and that you enjoy it they will feel less anxious.

A way to be more involved without talking is to smile and nod while others are talking, research shows this also increases our "hap hits" (feel good hits in the brain). Innies often keep our faces straight in groups because we are trying to conserve energy but it is read by others as depression, aloofness or being withdrawn.

Forget cleaning up her room; Jasmine isn't even bothering to brush her hair. She's so irritable that when her mother asked at dinner one night if she was going out later, she threw a roll at her and stormed out, screaming, "I can't talk to you! I can't stand being in the same room with you!"

Jasmine's parents wonder: Is she just being an unbearable adolescent? Or is this something else?... they want to see their daughter as a normal teenager - even if it means putting up with all her atrocious behavior. ... Although they love her, they truly do not like their child right now.

from More Than Moody: Recognizing and Treating Adolescent Depression - by Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D.

"I asked, 'What else do you call it?' and he said, 'Unresolved childhood grief.' I thought, 'Okay,' because that gave me something to do, something to expunge. 

"As Rilke said, you sometimes have to live the question."

from article: That Touch of Minx by Johanna Schneller, Premiere, May 2000

The National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that 8 percent of adolescents and 2 percent of children (some as young as 4) have symptoms of depression. 

from article: Young and Depressed  - Ten years ago this disease was for adults only. But as teen depression comes out of the closet, it's getting easier to spot -- and sufferers can hope for a brighter future - by Pat Wingert and Barbara Kantrowitz, Newsweek, Oct 7 2002

Depressed, alone, on the verge of suicide, she turned to her mother in a plea for help.

Six years later, having endured the illness that changed her life, she has written and illustrated her first book... to provide others with the hope they need to pull themselves through their troubled times. ...

She relates her depression to a wolf-like beast that consumes her strength, happiness and self-esteem, leaving her feeling apathetic.

"Hopefully, my perspective of the beast will help you and those around you understand the illness, its emotions, reactions and feelings, which may be hard to explain."

from article: "Writer relates battle with inner beast" by Sharon Hori, Daily Bruin [UCLA], Nov. 11, 1999

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"Upon her recovery, Cait became active again with art, journalism, cross country, theater and graduated from high school. She made the honor roll for three years and received a Scholastic Silver Key award for a collection of her poetry. And now she's off to college to pursue her study of art and nature." - from her site beatdepression.com

....Cait Irwin,  Conquering the Beast Within :  How I Fought Depression and Won.. and How You Can, Too