Until recently, researchers believed that only adults suffered from depression. We now know, however, that teenagers and even children can suffer from it. At any given time, about 5 percent of America's children and teens are struggling with some type of depressive illness, but many of them are not getting the help they need.

The most tragic result is suicide -- the third leading cause of death for children and young people between the ages of 10 and 24, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In this special report, Laurie Udesky talks with three young people who planned to kill themselves as teenagers. They're now trying to reach other adolescents to let them know they too can recover from depression. In this piece, Laurie Udesky stresses that depression or talk of suicide in teens should always be taken seriously -- and that professional help and open communication between parents and their children can help prevent tragedies.

Among those interviewed is John Kevin Hines, 22, who threw himself off a 4,200-foot suspension bridge in September 2000. The moment that he jumped, he realized he wanted desperately to live. Although he shattered several vertebrae and was given only a 50 percent chance of survival, he made a good recovery. Hines has bipolar disorder, a mental illness that can cause extreme mood swings and suicidal depression, and now educates other youth about his illness through a northern California-based organization called Stamp Out Stigma.

Other people interviewed include a young woman treated for depression after a suicide attempt and Samuel Judice, MD, of the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute at the University of California at San Francisco. Also featured is 25-year-old Ross Szabo, the president of his senior high school class, who was treated for suicidal depression at a psychiatric facility at the age of 17. When he returned to school, he says, he was "the psycho, the crazy kid, the loon, the person that people made fun of." Szabo won over his ignorant peers, however, and is now the youth outreach director for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign.

Click to listen to Consumer Health Interactive's in-depth audio report (8:57 min).

If you'd like to read the audio script, click here.

Click here for Part I: Men and Depression

Click here for Part III: Bipolar Disorder

Digital Audio Team

Reporter and writer: Laurie Udesky

Producer: Laurie Udesky

Script Editors: Diana Hembree and Barbara Jamison

Introductory Narration: Michael Johnson

Sound Engineer: Michael Johnson

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First published December 30, 2003
Last updated February 14, 2008
Copyright © 2003 Consumer Health Interactive