While girls typically show sadness through emotions, boys’ symptoms of depression may be swept aside as “typical” teenage behavior.
Teenage boys are drowning in just as much of the depression and anxiety that’s been well documented in girls. Experts warn that many young men struggling with their mental health are left undetected and without the help they need.
“We are right to be concerned about girls,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But I don’t ever want us to lose sight of the fact that boys aren’t doing well, either.”
Depression in boys may go unnoticed, Ethier and other experts said, because boys usually don’t show it through signs of melancholy typically found in girls.
“We have this very classic understanding of depression as being sad, being tearful, crying more, not eating as much and losing weight,” said Dr. Lauren Teverbaugh, pediatrician and child psychiatrist at Tulane University in New Orleans. “That’s just not how it looks for a lot of young boys.”
Dr. Kao-Ping Chua, a pediatrician at the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center at the University of Michigan, led the study. He said that his finding that boys weren’t accessing antidepressant medications once the pandemic hit has been “perplexing.”
“In males, it’s theoretically possible that this reflects improved mental health, but I’m struggling with that explanation,” Chua said. “Given that everybody’s mental health got worse, I would have expected that boys’ antidepressant dispensing would have at least remained stable, not decrease.”
The more likely explanation in Chua’s experience as a pediatrician, he said, was that boys stopped engaging with the health care system overall during the pandemic, leading to an underdetection and, consequently, an undertreatment of mental health problems in young men.
“There was something happening to make male adolescents not come in for mental health,” Chua said. “They didn’t go to their doctors. They skipped physicals.”
“Boys are disappearing,” he said.
“A lot of times, parents who have boys with depression say that they’re walking on eggshells around them because they don’t know what would set them off,” said Dr. Mai Uchida, a pediatric psychiatrist and director of the Child Depression Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Parents, pediatricians and even psychiatrists may not pick up on mental health problems in boys, Uchida said, because “they don’t fit the stereotypical image of depression.”
Women have long been much more likely to be diagnosed with depression than men. But a 2013 study found that when “irritability” is considered a main symptom, the rate of depression actually equalized between the sexes: 30.6% of men and 33.3% of women.
In addition to irritability, depression symptoms in boys can include impulsivity, risk-taking behavior and being more argumentative than usual.
Dr. Willough Jenkins, a psychiatrist and the medical director of emergency and consultation liaison psychiatry at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, blamed, in part, a societal normalization of teenage angst and irritability.
“There’s a myth that teenagers are supposed to be irritable, that they’re supposed to be cranky,” she said. “I think too many parents have heard that and think it’s normal behavior, when it’s really indicating that there could be a struggle.”
Evidence of mental health distress among teens — especially young girls — has been mounting for years. Covid-19 lockdowns worsened the situation.
In 2023, a sobering report from the CDC revealed that girls experienced unprecedented levels of sadness and hopelessness early in the pandemic.
The research might indicate that boys don’t require the same level of mental health care as girls. That’s not true, experts insist.
“Both boys and girls are struggling,” Jenkins said. “None of our young people are doing well in terms of their mental health.”
His mental health symptoms first took the form of headaches and crushing pressure in his chest. Over time, those symptoms developed into a “rush of anger that I couldn’t explain,” he said. “It was like anger caused by sadness.”
Power said that expressing himself through anger and irritability felt like a natural, healthy outlet.
www.nbcnews.com
Teenage boys are drowning in just as much of the depression and anxiety that’s been well documented in girls. Experts warn that many young men struggling with their mental health are left undetected and without the help they need.
“We are right to be concerned about girls,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But I don’t ever want us to lose sight of the fact that boys aren’t doing well, either.”
Depression in boys may go unnoticed, Ethier and other experts said, because boys usually don’t show it through signs of melancholy typically found in girls.
“We have this very classic understanding of depression as being sad, being tearful, crying more, not eating as much and losing weight,” said Dr. Lauren Teverbaugh, pediatrician and child psychiatrist at Tulane University in New Orleans. “That’s just not how it looks for a lot of young boys.”
‘Boys are disappearing’
A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics found that while antidepressant prescriptions have risen dramatically for teenage girls and women in their 20s, the rate of such prescriptions for young men “declined abruptly during March 2020 and did not recover.”Dr. Kao-Ping Chua, a pediatrician at the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center at the University of Michigan, led the study. He said that his finding that boys weren’t accessing antidepressant medications once the pandemic hit has been “perplexing.”
“In males, it’s theoretically possible that this reflects improved mental health, but I’m struggling with that explanation,” Chua said. “Given that everybody’s mental health got worse, I would have expected that boys’ antidepressant dispensing would have at least remained stable, not decrease.”
The more likely explanation in Chua’s experience as a pediatrician, he said, was that boys stopped engaging with the health care system overall during the pandemic, leading to an underdetection and, consequently, an undertreatment of mental health problems in young men.
“There was something happening to make male adolescents not come in for mental health,” Chua said. “They didn’t go to their doctors. They skipped physicals.”
“Boys are disappearing,” he said.
What does depression look like in boys?
Boys struggling with their mental health tend to show it with a shorter fuse: They’re easily irritated, frustrated or aggressive.“A lot of times, parents who have boys with depression say that they’re walking on eggshells around them because they don’t know what would set them off,” said Dr. Mai Uchida, a pediatric psychiatrist and director of the Child Depression Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Parents, pediatricians and even psychiatrists may not pick up on mental health problems in boys, Uchida said, because “they don’t fit the stereotypical image of depression.”
Women have long been much more likely to be diagnosed with depression than men. But a 2013 study found that when “irritability” is considered a main symptom, the rate of depression actually equalized between the sexes: 30.6% of men and 33.3% of women.
In addition to irritability, depression symptoms in boys can include impulsivity, risk-taking behavior and being more argumentative than usual.
Dr. Willough Jenkins, a psychiatrist and the medical director of emergency and consultation liaison psychiatry at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, blamed, in part, a societal normalization of teenage angst and irritability.
“There’s a myth that teenagers are supposed to be irritable, that they’re supposed to be cranky,” she said. “I think too many parents have heard that and think it’s normal behavior, when it’s really indicating that there could be a struggle.”
Evidence of mental health distress among teens — especially young girls — has been mounting for years. Covid-19 lockdowns worsened the situation.
In 2023, a sobering report from the CDC revealed that girls experienced unprecedented levels of sadness and hopelessness early in the pandemic.
The research might indicate that boys don’t require the same level of mental health care as girls. That’s not true, experts insist.
“Both boys and girls are struggling,” Jenkins said. “None of our young people are doing well in terms of their mental health.”
‘Anger caused by sadness’
Eighteen-year-old Noah Power, who lives in Yukon, Canada, said his struggles with anxiety and depression began when he was about 12 years old.His mental health symptoms first took the form of headaches and crushing pressure in his chest. Over time, those symptoms developed into a “rush of anger that I couldn’t explain,” he said. “It was like anger caused by sadness.”
Power said that expressing himself through anger and irritability felt like a natural, healthy outlet.
'Boys are disappearing' from mental health care, as signs of depression and anxiety go undetected
While girls typically show sadness through emotions, boys’ symptoms of depression may be swept aside as “typical” teenage behavior.
www.nbcnews.com
they won't say it but you're a failure if you are 
