According to Everyday Health “about nine percent of American adults from all walks of life suffer from some form of depression.” Psych Central points out “It is estimated that about 10 to 15 percent of children/teens are depressed at any given time. Research indicates that one of every four adolescents will have an episode of major depression during high school with the average age of onset being 14 years.” Junior Jenna Rola said she has experienced depression, she said it is something that comes and goes depending on her stress, and her symptoms tie a lot into the amount of motivation she has day-to-day. “I think a lot of times for me and for a lot of people you have lack of motivation, not willing to wake up in the morning, go anywhere, you don’t really feel that level of confidence or desire to do anything,” Rola said. Senior Kenzie Burch said her depression has been a problem for a long time and said her symptoms can cause a large lack of motivation. “It started when I was 13 and I still have it currently,” Burch said. “Some recurring symptoms for me are exhaustion, forgetting things because my mind is elsewhere, and the inability to care.” Rola said she believes bullying and depression is a problem in schools today. “People have become very good at masking it, but it’s still that underlying problem and you see suicide rates have gone up, and the bullying can put people in that place,” Rola said. “It can be brought out of some experiences that happen in schools, which is when I think it becomes the schools problem.” Burch said she thinks depression is a large problem in teens and people often overlook it. “My view is it’s a much bigger deal than society views it as.” Burch said Rola said she thinks sometimes antidepressants can help people with depression “I feel like if you have a depression from a chemical imbalance, I know for some people it is medical depression, and depression brought on by your circumstance. It kind of depends on the person,” Rola said “I have friends who have been medicated for so long, and they say it helps and you don’t want to be like no, but you don’t see any sort of change. So I don’t know, I’m sure it does help some people, and I’m sure to a degree it helps. But I don’t think medication will ever fully fix the problem.” Burch said she has tried medications before and believes they helped her “Antidepressants and anxiety meds helped me a lot,” Burch said “I’m glad I decided to take them.” Rola said her grandma and her great grandma experience depression and that it had a lot to do with different tragic events in their lives and their lifestyles in general. “I know for my loved ones, my grandma had it off and on, she got in a divorce, she lost a kid [Rola’s aunt] and we lost my grandpa a few years ago. It was hard [for her] to take care of him, and put her in a very stressful situation,” Rola said. “The sadness of it and the stress of it combines. My friend is sick [with epilepsy], and that brought it [the depression] on for her. Then with my grandmas mom [great grandma], because she lived in England during WWII, the war itself and hostile living during the war brought it [the depression] on.” Rola said she believes the reasons people self harm are all different. “In a way I think, it’s one of those things with where you don’t feel good about yourself, but I feel like it’s different for every person and so much more than you get crazy or you want attention. I think that it’s an internal thing for everyone,” Rola said. Rola said she thinks it’s not just medication you have to take. “Even vitamin D, that’s what someone was saying that just being out in the sun and being active eating healthy and not doing anything bad.. so a lot of it’s a feelings game. That changes with the days.” Rola said Rola said she thinks people got through depression in different ways. “I kinda think it’s something a lot of people go through and you go through it in your own way, theres no specific way. And its actually a lot more common than people realize and I think you sometimes have it and don’t even necessarily always know,” Rola said. “And then it’s something that you have to work with people on and I also think it’s hard for other people to understand, like when you’re the person who has it, the people on the outside can’t relate.”