Name and job title? Judy Colhoun, Director of Quality and Development at Aware Defeat Depression in Derry.
Do you feel young people are fairly portrayed in the media? I’m a great supporter of young people and I don’t think they are fairly treated in the media. I have so many examples of when young people have really come through for their peers and their friends when they’ve needed support or been in distress. I think there’s way too much generalising done regarding young people.
How many young people in Derry suffered from depression in 2008? I probably can’t give you a local statistic. They are not available at that breakdown but generally 1 in 5 young people suffer from depression at any one time in Northern Ireland. That’s 20 per cent of young people and teenagers particularly. In terms of children under 12 it’s two in 100 but people don’t normally think of children under 12 suffering from depression. For teenagers it is a common problem. If you have a class of 20 teenagers four of those could be depressed. It’s very common and very significant, and that’s why we have to work hard in encouraging young people to seek support.
Are the numbers of young people that suffer from depression in Derry higher or lower than those in Belfast? I couldn’t tell you for sure, but we certainly know that in terms of suicide the number of suicides was highest in North and West Belfast and also in Banbridge a few years back. Those figures may be on the increase again and we know that in terms of young people approximately 70 per cent of them have depression as a factor in their suicide. So you can see the link and you can see how common it is.
In your experience what are the most common reasons for young people in the area becoming depressed? Low self esteem plays a big part. Some information from Mental Health Foundation shows that for the 1 in 5 people, for over half of these people the problem started in childhood. It can be hereditary, but that doesn’t mean that if a parent suffers from depression that they will definitely suffer from it too, but there is a higher risk. Also if there is a history of alcoholism in the family it can have a knock-on effect. Life experiences and events play a large part. That can be anything from something as extreme as abuse or from being teased a lot. The big factor is not what happened or how major it was, it’s how you dealt with it and coped with it and how you think about it.
Is there a difference in the amount of girls with the problem than boys? The figures would suggest across the whole age group that women are more likely to have depression than men and there are various reasons for that. Women have all the hormonal changes that they go through and child birth as well. Also we have to bear in mind that sometimes men are reluctant to talk about it and get help so those numbers can be a bit skewed.
Are you concerned that young men in Derry are too embarrassed to come forward and get help? Yes, I am very concerned. What we discovered when we did an evaluation in schools with young people over a period of six months after they did work and learnt about what they would do if they thought they were depressed was that they were more likely to talk to friends or family rather than a doctor or a teacher. These people were actually very low down on the list. When it came to actually talking about it, some of them were very reluctant. So we have had to try to build into a programme a way to persuade young people to talk about it, to think about who they might talk to, to think about what might be stopping them from doing it and to come forward and do it. Luckily, we are beginning to see a change. Someone wrote in feedback after the programme that as a result they are going to talk more to their Dad. When I read that I just thought ‘Yes!’
Have numbers of young people suffering from depression increased over the past few years? Yes, unfortunately, and I think they probably still are increasing. In terms of whether it’s Derry or the rest of Northern Ireland I don’t know, but here in Northern Ireland we do have the highest incidence of depression compared to the rest of the UK. It could be for a variety of reasons, but it is an illness that’s increasing.
Do you think that depression is still a silent illness due to the stigma attached to it? Yes, in a word. Hopefully we are getting there and people are coming out and talking about it a lot more openly. There is a stigma in our own society attached to mental illnesses. Look at some of the words we use to communicate about mental illness; loopers, psychos, nutters. We use it in our everyday language. We use it when we are not even talking about someone who is mentally ill. For someone who thinks they might have a problem they think they might have to go to a mental home or a psychiatric hospital because of the stigma attached. It’s going to put a barrier between them getting help because of these labels. The stigma does stop an awful lot of people from seeking help or talking about it. And we have to change that, big-time. I have found from working with young people that a lot of them come to talk to me. Sometimes that is enough for that young person because they have got their feelings out there and they feel they are validated. That can be enough to help them accept that what is happening to them is normal.
What is the youngest age group/individual you have worked with? A few years back I worked with a young boy who was 12 or 13. He was having suicidal thoughts. He wasn’t actually in our talk but he saw the booklet we provided. His father was a teacher in the school we worked in and he went to his father and said, “I have all the signs and I think I might be depressed.” I spoke to him the next time I was in the school. His father was then going to make an appointment with his doctor. He was the youngest I have come across. My children also had depression when they were 17 and 18. My daughter went through a really anxious crying period when she was 10 or 11. At the time I wasn’t working at Aware and didn’t have a lot of information about depression. I thought that if she was an adult, I would say she was depressed. It never crossed my mind that she could be depressed at that age.
Can you share a story with us about a young person who has come through depression and is coping much better with life today? My daughter is coping much better today. I have also suffered from depression so it could be hereditary but there were other factors as well, like she was living with depression in the home. And that’s difficult for a young person. She was about 17 when I was coming through a very difficult depression and although I was talking to her about it and the help I was getting at that stage and how I could see light at the end of the tunnel, she was worrying about me a lot more than I realised and not asking me the questions she wanted to and she wasn’t getting the answers. So about four or five months before final exams at school she was so tearful and anxious and her concentration was dropping I thought I should maybe take her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with depression. Although under 18s generally don’t respond well to anti-depressants she ended up getting them and they worked. She got talking therapy, a couple of months of cognitive therapy and that really helped her.
She did her exams and did as well as she could. It was difficult for her. She was under extreme anxiety and stress. She had to go for a lower college course than she would have initially because she was so unwell. About two weeks before her exams she had got to the stage where she was suicidal. I had only started working here and I was able to ask my colleagues, “what am I going to do?”
They told me I was going to have to go and ask her what she had been thinking. At this point she was given medication, it was added in with the cognitive therapy. Within six weeks of that she definitely improved. She enjoyed a family holiday, went to college. She is now working in County Meath, has her own horse and is an amateur jockey. I’m not saying it was all plain-sailing from there, there were moments of relapse. Sometimes she went off her medication too quickly or times of stress like exams could trigger another episode but there hasn’t been another one for a few years and she is very aware of herself now. I think that is a success story.
What advice would you give to any young person who is suffering in silence and alone? Talk. Pick who you want to talk to. Talk to a trusted adult. I do try to encourage young people to talk to their parents, but if that really is something they can’t do or that is part of the problem I ask them to talk to another trusted adult. That could be a teacher, an aunt, a priest. It could be the caretaker at school. You need to talk about your feelings. Once you have done that you have done the hardest part of it. This is a very common illness and is very relevant to young people. It can be devastating if you are getting to the stage where you are having suicidal thoughts. It interferes with your whole life; your schoolwork, your family, your relationships. It impacts on everything, so the earlier you get help the quicker you will recover. The longer you leave it the more likely you are to sink into depression. Most people will recover from a mild depression after six months, but why suffer if there is treatment and help? It does not need to be tablets, it can be talking, it can be support, and it can be reading up on it to knowing what to look out for.
Could you tell us a little more about the work you do in schools? The schools programme has been running for eight years. I was employed to develop and run it. It always will be a work in progress as we review and evaluate. The feedback that comes back from young people would warm your heart. I remember one girl having heard the talk and being asked how she would treat people with depression she said: ‘I wouldn’t take a hand at them anymore.’ So if that is the kind of change in attitude that’s very positive. A lot of them are coming back and saying they think they know someone who might be depressed and they say they are going to talk to them. A lot of what comes back is about depression in the family and we have a booklet on that. This can make a huge impression if there is depression in the family.
What are the signs and symptoms to look out for if a young person thinks they may be depressed? Signs and symptoms are the most important things to be aware of. Feelings and emotions like; being very sad, guilty, worried, anxious, having low energy levels, sleeping a lot, sleeping too little, thinking negatively and being very critical of yourself, others, the world and your future. Some people lose interest in things they normally enjoy. Physical symptoms include headaches and backaches. Obviously, if you start having suicidal thoughts it is serious.
If you have even half of those symptoms you need to talk about it and seek some help.
About this interview
This was conducted by Caitlin O'Hagan (13) and Jessie Browne (13)
