5 Jul 2013

Teenage depression: ‘There was no way out’

Social Affairs Editor and Presenter

As a new charity is launched to help young people feeling suicidal, a teenager who suffered from depression for years tells Channel 4 News how an online community could have helped in “dark” times.

The happiest days of your life: that’s what they say about childhood and school.

Try telling that to April Plater.

Seventeen-year-old April is a bright, articulate young woman who regularly peppers her conversations with bursts of laughter. She appears confident and extremely capable and is lovely company.

But for six years from the age of 11, she describes a life trapped in darkness.

Every day, I would not be okay. It was dark – it was really dark. At times it felt there was no way out. April Plater, 17

Struggling with being bullied and feeling the pressure of secondary school life, she retreated into herself. But she insists it was very much more than, as she puts it, the usual teenage strop.

April says she lost interest in everything she’d always loved – music, singing and art. She didn’t talk to friends or family and often found it difficult to get out of bed.

“If you’re a teenager having a bad day, it happens every now and again,” she said. “If you’re a young person with depression it takes over your life. Every day, I would not be okay. It was dark – it was really dark. At times it felt there was no way out.”

Go to the MindFull charity’s website for advice on dealing with feeling down>

Depression in under-16s

April’s experience is surprisingly common, according to a new YouGov poll published today.

It reveals that a third of the 2,000 children polled have thought about or attempted suicide before reaching the age of 16. The poll also found that 29 per cent have self harmed because of feeling down and 40 per cent of young people have found it hard to leave the house at some point because they feel so depressed or anxious.

The poll was commissioned by a new mental health charity, MindFull. It’s targeted at children between the ages of 11 and 17 and aims to plug both the gap in understanding mental health problems in the young and equally stark deficit in the services to help them.

Crucially it will operate online. Children will be able to talk to a qualified counsellor or access self-help. It will also create a community of young mentors; children who have been through similar problems who can offer support and advice.

April is convinced it will be the key. “A lot of young people are quite ashamed of what they are going through. Online they don’t have to be upfront and confident themselves to talk about their issues. They can do it online to someone who they don’t have to meet and they don’t know. and I think that’s really helpful.”

At the moment the service is reliant on charitable donations though MindFull is hoping to receive local authority funding in the future.