The Lion's Pride , Vol. 5 (Feb. 2016) | Page 69

Depression left untreated Children and adolescents that are depressed often do not show noticeable signs and rarely talk to someone about their depression, leading it to be harder to indicate. In the worst scenario not treating a teen or child for depression can lead to death. In Washington suicide is now ranked second on most leading cause of death amongst children and teens. The 2010 Washington Healthy Youth Survey showed that 15,000 tenth graders seriously thought about attempting suicide, while about 6,000 students reported making a suicide attempt. Responses from sixth graders showed 14 percent seriously considered killing themselves, while five percent had tried to kill themselves. In the same year, it was recorded that there were nearly twice as many suicides as homicides of youth between the age of 10-24 (Washington State Department of Health, 2010).