Holden's Depression in Catcher in the Rye Essay Example

Depression is a state of mental illness. It is known to be characterized by deep, long-lasting feelings of sadness or despair. Depression in teens and mental health issues have always been a huge thing for as long as anybody could remember. There has been a growing realization that teenage depression can be real-life changing, and or even life threatening. Depression can come in all different kinds of causes or ways, there is no age limit for depression to suddenly have an effect on your mental health. 

Depression can be described in many ways. Depression has a main description of being that it is a very serious mental disorder in which a person will suffer long lasting periods of sadness, loneliness, and other negative feelings. Teenagers have always been vulnerable to depression for a variety of reasons. Depression can lead to many horrible things such as eating disorders, anxiety, PTSD, suicide, and much more. All of these examples have been at higher risk more so in our generation which a lot of teens around us deal with today.

Four major causes of depression are family history, illness and health issues, medications, drugs and alcohol, personality. These may be a cause because they are all something that may stick with you for your whole life, something that might make you feel upset, unhappy, or think negative thoughts about why you would be in such a horrible situation with the things you have. Everyone goes through things such like this but there are many places and ways to help. There are therapists and places everywhere you go who are willing to help. Anybody's school now has social workers that are willing to help and be there since there is such a higher percentage in depression today. There are medications that can be prescribed to you such as SSRI’s, Antidepressants, Anxiolytics, and Antipsychotics. The most known effective way to treat your depression is medications and psychotherapy.

As said before depression does come in many different types. Some of these types are Clinical Depression, Clinical Depression is a mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. Another type of depression is labeled as Persistent Depressive Disorder. This is a mild but long-term form of depression. There is also Bipolar Disorder and Bipolar II Disorder. Bipolar Disorder is a disorder associated with episodes of mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs. Bipolar II Disorder is similar but is a different type of bipolar disorder that is characterized by depressive and hypomanic episodes. All of these sorts of depression can be treated with medication that was listed before and or therapy which can be found in many different places. 

All and every type of depression is a very serious matter and should be taken care of correctly. A lot of people deal with depression of any kind at any age. Depression can lead to horrible factors that can be caught with help before done so. Some people tend to not realize that they have depression which is why it is good to visit or have somebody to talk to on days that feel needed. Depression has increased since social media and more things like that have been brought into this world and generation, an increase of bullying has caused depression on a lot of young teens. There are many reasons why depression can be caused and the reasons increase everyday.

In Catcher In The Rye, Holden beings the story having depression which continues to get worse as the novel goes on. Soon as the novel begins, we come to find out that Holden's younger  brother, Allie, had passed away due to leukemia at eleven years old while Holden was just thirteen. As the novel goes on, it comes clear that Holden begins this depression because he never got a sense of goodbye or was able to grieve. Holden's parents did not play a huge role in making sure he was okay or giving him a chance to grieve, he was sent away to school soon after this had happened.

If I were to diagnose Holden with a type of depression after reading this novel I would say that he would have been diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder. The moods for this diagnosis are mood swings, which Holden had very much throughout this whole novel, deep sadness, which was shown when Holden would cry or try to talk to random people about his life to get it out, general disconnect, Holden hated everyone, he would call everybody phonies and wanted to stand out or be labeled as “weird” to other people so they would leave him alone. 

In part of the book Holden's depression led to self harm. Holden punched garage windows with his bare hands and also tried to commit suicide. It is normal for these things to be caused when it comes to having depression. Holden did not realize he was depressed, which is a normal factor for multiple people, Holden did not seek help right away. Towards the end of the novel Holden begins to start trying to speak to people, needing somebody to talk too. One person Holden tried to talk to was a man at a bar. This man told him to seek psychological help and talk to somebody like his father to get help and get him out of this horrible situation he was going through. This made Holden realize a lot.

Holden speaks to Mr. Antolini, Mr. Antolini was Holden's favorite teacher in a previous school he had gone to, Elkton Hills. Holden admired him because he is not only intellectual and perceptive, but he has a good heart. Mr. Antolini begins to tell Holden how worried he is about him because he seems primed for a major fall, Holden begins to become defensive and bored from the lecture. After a while a long conversation is finished between both of them and to sum it up, Mr. Antolini was a therapist to Holden that night and tried his hardest to get to Holden and make him better. After Holden's conversation with Mr. Antolini, Holden slowly came out of this long, depressive state. Holdens last words in this novel were “Don’t tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody”.

This novel is an amazing example of how bad depression can affect somebody and how bad it can get before you open up. For this example, it was about grief, no sense of goodbye, and holding everything in. Depression leads to a huge factor of suicide and so much more self harm which is why it is such an important topic that is talked about constantly in our world today. Holden's depression can be compared to anybody else because Holden led his life to a path of self destruction. Holden wants to live in a World of perfection and was yet almost forced to by his parents and people around him,  yet his depression and anxiety are what is keeping him from doing that. Holden kept all of his feelings inside, he faked his way due to being afraid of being rejected. His loneliness, depression is all based on what had happened throughout his life. Depression is so powerful,  when it hits most people, they may think that it is permanent which affects the way people are towards the world while going through it . I felt that viewing this novel in a psychological way that it could be greatly connected in reading The Catcher in The Rye.