Holiday Depression And Teenagers
These should be the best days of a teenager’s life.
After all, they live in America. Certainly, the most blessed and free country in the world. And, furthermore, it is Christmas and the holiday season. There is no school, there is a lot of shopping at the mall, secret Santa’s, and Christmas parties every week for a month.
And yet, take a look around us.
The youth of the 21st Century have been born into terror, financial disaster, the break-up of the family, a lack of media censorship and control, an unrealistic comparison culture of social media, a divided government, a sexual revolution, and a global health pandemic.
Finally, the youth of today have lost the moral center of their theological faith that guides their worldview and ultimately their lifestyle through all of this.
Do you remember what former Russian leader Vladimir Lenin said in his prophetic book, “How to Destroy the West?”
“Corrupt the young. Get them away from religion. Encourage their interest in sex. Make them superficial by focusing their attention on sports, sensual entertainments, and trivialities. By arguments cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues: honesty, sobriety, and self-restraint.” -Vladimir Lenin, 1921, How to Destroy the West
If you look at our country right now, we are doing a pretty good job of fulfilling that tragic prophetic statement.
Joy To The World?
How can our present reality line up with this popular Christmas hymn?
You would think that Christmas and the holiday season would be a joyful time of the year. But all of the statistics prove just the opposite. The National Alliance in Mental Illness (NAMI) found that 64% of people agreed the holiday season increases stress and depression.
And yet these should be the best days of a teenager’s life.
Maybe a teenager or young person will not get the present they wanted, or doesn’t want to spend as much time with their broken family, or are comparing their lowlights with the highlights of their friends on the socials, or is separated from their classmates and the structure of the school day.
We must place the focus of the holidays where it belongs. The real meaning of Christmas.
Christmas and the holidays are about the celebration of Christ the Messiah who came to bring salvation to the world from their sin. Christmas and the holidays are about family, giving, and rest. Keeping that in focus and not getting caught up in the commercialization of Christmas and the holidays can be a great step to mental health during this season.
Depression is multifaceted. And there are many solutions to depression:
relationships & community
the identity & purpose of our lives
total wellness (sleep, diet, exercise)
counseling & therapy
But the greatest solution is the spiritual formation of a person.
Let’s take a look at 5 ways we can help young people navigate their total health wellness, and specifically mental health & depression, during the holidays and Christmas in 2022:
1. Recognizing that depression is serious
Our emotions and mindset are critical to our health. Taking care of our mind is one of the most important gifts we can give ourselves. Of course, we need to balance our emotions, but depression goes far beyond our mindset. We will look at that in the following points.
Depression is exhausting and can lead to skin problems, heart disease, high blood pressure, weight gain/loss, sleeplessness, hair loss, organ dysfunction, isolation, and social and relational fear. And when our health fails, everything else in our lives can come crashing down too.
That’s why it is so important to take care of our mind. To do brain training every week.
For example, we must stop running our life by our feelings and focus on the facts. Teenagers and young people (actually adults do this also) have a tendency to place their problem right in front of their eyes and make a ‘mountain out of a mole hill’.
Something like a poor grade on a test or a broken relationship or not getting the right present can seem insurmountable in the moment.
But, if we can change our perspective we can change our feelings and ultimately our mindset. And when our mindset is healthy, our lifestyle follows.
One of the helpful ideas to assist teenagers through difficult times is when parents can create a “Problems List” and a “Solutions List” with their children. This can help us to see and to solve the concerns going on in our life.
2. Depression can be physiological in nature
A person can be overcome by poor total wellness and become physically exhausted from a lack of sleep, a bad diet, and no exercise.
There is a wellness deprivation in our society and it is compounding problems like depression among young people. One of the most overlooked solutions is sleep, diet, and exercise to take care of our bodies.
For example, we must restore the Sabbaoth. The business of the holidays can be become more busyness than anything else. And that is unhealthy. The Sabbaoth is a commandment. And yet as young people, there is a pressure to always be productive and be publishers. Busyness is not production.
I love the wisdom from the scriptures about the importance of our total wellness and especially rest. Rest and the Sabbaoth are actually commands!
Exodus 20.8-11 says, “Remember the Sabbaoth, and keep it holy. For the Lord blesses the rest.“
And Psalm 46.10 says, "Be still.”
Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap!
3. Depression is a spiritual issue that causes a lack of identity and un-fulfillment in our life
Purpose is powerful. And when it is lost, it is devastating to our psyche. The negativity that follows a lack of identity can be fatal.
In a recent Barna research on generational sets and what they identified as value, Gen Z identified ‘personal talents’ as value more than any generational set. What this tells me is that if a teenager loses the importance of their innate or born talents, they can lose their value.
So, we must help teenagers to see the spiritual importance of their creation, and how God has fit them into the design of life! And their role in building the kingdom of God!
Let me say something to parents… the first place, a teenager finds purpose is in the home! Parents must value the personal time with their children to help shape their identity.
The words you speak over your children are life or death. The declarations that you speak to them in everyday life set the course of their life. What are we speaking into the life of our children?
Our children will walk out of our home and be able to handle anything that comes their way if we have set them up with the purpose of God for their life…
When we speak purpose into our children, they will be able to stand against peer pressure, temptation, and a godless culture that contaminates them with comparison.
4. Depression can be influenced by relational issues
Relationships are central to mental health. At Christmas and the holidays, you would think that being with family and friends is a safe place. For many reasons the circle of family and friends we choose creates healthy interaction and stress management.
Depression can be driven by isolation or it can be solved by relationship and community.
When our relationships are not healthy we lose a primary coping mechanism to manage our mental health. The added pressure of having the perfect holiday is unrealistic. But when we have a relational group of family and friends, our stress management is working at its highest level of success.
Teenagers and young people must fight the temptation to escalate a problem and isolate from people by valuing the university of people around us who can keep us communicate during difficult times.
Create meaningful community during the holidays with young people by quality conversation and quality time like family recreation activities such as shopping, decorating together, baking, or sledding or another kind of recreational activity.
5. Depression is curable
I have seen it. In the stories of many young people who have found a greater purpose in life through total wellness… each of these mental, physical, spiritual, and relational commitments.
If your motivation is gone and you are numb to all of the resources around you and you are irrational and hopeless, know this important truth; depression is curable!
Find another person who has conquered depression and speak with them. It may shock you how easy it is to listen to a success story of someone else who has overcome depression and anxiety. Hope is a powerful healing agent.
Simply by putting these practices into place you will see great improvement in the area of depression and anxiety and purpose and joy. Total wellness is revolutionary to our person!
Finally
“Joy to the World” doesn’t have to be a meaningless Christmas hymn or a far-fetched dream. If we do a few simple things, we can make depression amongst our teenagers and young people at Christmas time be an afterthought.
Because these really should be the best days of a teenager’s life.