How to Deal With Teenage Depression and Nostalgia

You've now reached the awesome teen years, and your parents are even nicknaming you 'obnoxious'. But suddenly life seems to suck, and you keep wishing you were back in your fun, carefree kiddie past. Here's how to deal with this depressing nostalgia, so you can have great fun being a teen.

Steps

Think about why you are miserable now, and what's making you long to be back in the past. There could be many typical ( or random ) reasons why you may feel this way. Did someone bully you? It may be the whole new workload that high school is giving you, or the fact that you are you missing your old friends. Or it may simply be the major change you're experiencing as a teenager. You must discover the reasons for your sadness. Write the reason(s) down on a list.
If you really don't know what is getting you down then, fill a diary with your current thoughts and feelings every week or so. When looking back upon diary entries, people are usually surprised by what they thought during the time!
Accept your present situation. There's no point wishing that you could be in playgroup or kinder again, when you know it's impossible. Life will always involve some work from now on, because you are on your way to being an adult.
Look through the list you created. Decide upon which complaints are realistic, and which ones are unachievable. For example, if you wrote "I'm sad because I want to be 3 again so I don't have school and can watch 'The Wiggles' all day," -get over it! A whim like that is totally unachievable and will never happen again. However if you wrote "I'm sad because I wish to be 7 again, because then I had friends but now I don't.", that's actually reasonable, because something can be done about it.
Ditch all those impossible whims from the list, it's a total waste of time mourning over it. Attempt to make the possible ones real. So try to make more friends, try to have more fun, play chasey once in while, laugh a lot, watch funny movies, etc.
Get moving! Try to make your teen years the happiest, they can be, because you only get 7 years. Have fun!
If you are sad because you are away from home(for kids studying abroad), it can be really difficult. But read, or study, or socialize, and somehow try to make yourself forget about the situation.
Find out if there is anything you can do. Why are you feeling nostalgic? If you are missing old friends, then contact them by telephone or e-mail and arrange to meet up. If you miss an old school/childhood, it may help to wander around the school once more and maybe say hello to familiar faces if it helps.
Stick with people who are friendly and can help you. If you are still with some people who were with you during the times you now long for, talk it over with them. They might be feeling the same way. Talking it over certainly helps.

Tips

To be honest, most cases of nostalgia result from fallen friendships or relationships. Broken romantic relationships are understandably the most difficult to overcome. If this is your case, then obviously you're wishing it was the past, when you were having fun with your BF/GF. Sorry, the only solution here is to move on .
If you want to retain your past, then make sure you don't lose contact with your old friends or class buddies. Call them to catch up, or arrange friendship 'reunions' every 4 weeks or so.
Just relax. You may be relieved to know that most teens feel depressed whenever they are doing homework. However that is no excuse to let it impede upon your grades. The teacher probably won't be satisfied with your explanation "I get depressed when I do homework, so I couldn't do it last night."
A lot of teenagers experience nostalgia deep down. A lot. Just ask some of your friends (if you're close enough)
Do remember that the choices you make in your teen years WILL affect you the rest of your life. Eat too much junk food now, and you'll be fat by the age of 21. Learn to spend your money unwisely, and you'll spend the rest of your life on government handouts (the sluggard craves and gets nothing!). Buy into every new psychology fad or social theory, and you'll only wind up lost and direction-less.
Take life seriously. The teen years are more a time to prepare for manhood/womanhood than they are to goof off and watch television. Learn this early on, and maybe you won't be so depressed later in life by your foolishness.

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EHF- Mental Health and Well-being.

Sunday, 19 December 2010