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Young adolescents, depression and…the Titanic syndrome
3/26/13

When the ‘I’ is depressed dispute-parentsado

Young non-depressed people use the ‘I’ followed by a subjunctive: ‘I say, I think, I find, I like,’ but also the ‘you’ or ‘we’ in which they include other people. They can project themselves into a future conditional (‘I would like’). They insist on the factors which have contributed to the construction of their identity, they evoke groups of people such as parents, family and friends. They broach themes concerning their leisure activities or their membership groups.

It is quite another story for depressives! Their ‘I’ is completed by the imperfect form of ‘be’ and ‘have’. They speak of single people (the father, the mother, the friend). But once again large differences between the hospitalised people and the others are discovered. Even if they speak of the external world (going out, the city, people), the statements made by depressive teenagers in school turn widely around the school. And when they think about their future it is in terms of their professional life.

The young people in hospital for their part contextualise their response in terms of their depressive illness, around which they define themselves. Their discourse is characterised by the significant presence of the expression: ‘I have the impression,’ often followed by a feeling of rejection, abandonment or inferiority. These young people, who recount the most negative life events, are also those who ‘have the most difficulties in decentring themselves from a negative event, to stand back, and to see the positive things in their life. They display difficulties in bringing together their life events into a coherent whole,’ notes Aurore Boulard.

Several points surprised us,’ continues the psychologist. ‘Thus when an teenager is doing fine, he or she says that their hobbies, in other words the things he or she has chosen to do over and beyond parental choices, have enabled him or to become who they are. Young people thus define themselves above all in terms of their own choices.’ This parameter is completely absent from depressed teenagers.

The hospitalised young people, in an environment of isolated people which they bring up their accounts of negative events, often connected to the family sphere, also describe themselves as very alone. As for those who remain in school, they polarise their discourse around the cognitive aspect tied to the school and their difficult life events. In fact, to the extent that they don’t control their family life (divorce, illness, etc.) they bank everything on the school, as would an adult who concentrates on their work if their private life is on the skids. Tomorrow, for them, comes down to their professional future. ‘As a young girl said: ‘I’ve chosen hairdressing so that I can be independent in three years’,’ recounts Aurore Boulard.

But when one is experiencing significant personal and family difficulties it is not enough to focus on the school to solve the problems, quite the contrary. In effect it is not necessarily a lifeline. ‘The life stories confirm that school is stressful,’ stresses the psychologist. ‘School and orientation difficulties can crop up, as can the ability to do higher education studies. School results are moreover correlated negatively with a depressive mood: a fall in concentration capabilities, sleeping problems, loss of interest and few personal initiatives due to depression do not favour good results.

Wellbeing, at school, as well

This thesis opens out onto a great number of reflections or even action plans. That is the case, for example, for the consequences one could draw from the results and the analysis of the life narratives of depressed teenagers who remain in school. ‘School anxiety is clearly present amongst them,’ insists the psychologist-clinician. ‘The teaching system could be attentive in spotting it and raising questions. Does a young person who wants to be the best do so because he or she is going through a bad time? Are they focused solely on their studies? Or do they continue to have friends and get on well with them?

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