Depression In Looking For Alaska By John Green And Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

Depression is a major issue in young adults and teenagers. Depression is feelings of severe despondency and dejection. Depression is different for many people, most people explain it as feeling alone, sad, or thing just feel “off” or “wrong”. Depression is very common in people, mostly teens. They show in it many forms of media and books, an example is Looking for Alaska by John Green and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

The book Looking for Alaska is a book about a boy named Miles Halter, mainly called Pudge. He goes to a boarding school in seek of his own “Great Perhaps” which means he is searching for the answers and meaning to life and death. A lot happens at Culver Creek boarding school, including a girl named Alaska Young.

Speak by

She has the blame of killing her mother put on her and even her father believes she was part of the reason. She shows how she is depressed by her words and saying how deeply unhappy she was. Alaska also shows she is unhappy by her constant drinking and smoking habits even though she un underage. Alaska Young ends up passing away in the book and no one really knows if it is an accident or it is suicide.

In the novel speak Melinda Sordino is deeply unhappy. She has cut herself off from everyone in the novel including her once best friend. She was raped at a party and has never told anyone about it, she is holding all of it inside. Melinda use to have a group of friends she always hung out with but none of them hung out with her anymore because she busted the party during summer.

3 million teens ages 12-17 have had at least one major depressive episode in the last year. Also more than 2 million report on having daily depression that impairs their daily function, 6.3 million teens have depression and experts express that those statistics are on the low end of what's really happening. (Schrobsdorff 4) A lot of teenagers and young adults are extremely depressed and feeling hopeless. Depression is an

Symptoms of normal teenage moodiness and defiance that last longer than two weeks are considered a depressed state(Cash 3). Some more symptoms of depression are difficulty concentrating, difficulty making decisions, excessive or inappropriate guilt, Irresponsible behavior -- for example, forgetting obligations, being late for classes, skipping school and, loss of interest in food or compulsive overeating that results in rapid weight loss or gain (Teen depression 1). Depression is a serious illness, it is not all just in the head of the person who has it. Some people don't believe that depression is an illness, they believe it is just a state of mind that people will put themselves in. They think that you can just make yourself not think negatively or change your mindset. The symptoms show that it is a real medical problem are there are treatments for