User:Xrobledo/sandbox

 Topic Proposal : I have chosen to research how mood swings can be a symptom of depression that is typically overlooked in teens.

 Current content on wikipedia : As I was looking for articles regarding mood swings in teens I was unable to find content that directly discussed the correlation between mood swings and depression in teens. One article that I found was “Bipolar Disorder” where they do they define it as periods of elevated mood and periods of depression. Suicide rates among periods of depression are discussed and statistics are provided. However, upon further searching I was able to find topics that mention mood swings that are related to depression.

 Why it's important to contribute : I feel that there is a need to contribute to this topic because mood swings are displayed by many teens during their teenage years, and it may be normal behavior given their hormone changes, but it is also a warning sign that is usually overlooked especially by parents. From my experience in working with parents they usually minimize mood swings as a “normal” thing that students will “grow out” of.

I would like to possibly create a new page that focuses on mood swings as a symptom of depression so that parents can obtain the information in one single page rather than having to read it on multiple pages. Teens that experience mood swings as a symptom and warning sign are not necessarily bipolar but they may be depressed. It is important for people to know the difference between bipolar disorder and depression because they are treated differently. I also think that word use is extremely important to how parents and people perceive mental health. Mental health is a topic that has so much stigma attached to it and in order to break the stigma it must be discussed but discussed with strength based/positive terms.

 Links to topics that I found: 

When I searched for “mood swings in teens” these articles came up:

i.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_suicide_in_the_United_States

ii. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dating_violence

iii. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_disorder

iv. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_awareness

v.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-awareness

When I searched for “teen mood swings” this is what came up

i.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypomania

ii. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_awareness

iii. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction

iv. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse

v.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorexia_nervosa

I was surprised to see how many articles there are where mood swings and teens correlate. It was difficult for me to find these articles since many of them were listed towards the middle or end of the search pages. I was determined to look through all the pages but people who search Wikipedia with these terms might not be as encouraged to look all the way to the end. There were many pages that listed TV shows, artists, and songs/music albums that did not pertain to what I had searched for. Something else that I noticed was when I typed “mood swings in teens” what first showed up was “did you mean: mood swings in terns.” This might have people questioning how much research there is on the topic. What I really liked was that I found topics such as: dating violence, video game addiction, and anorexia nervosa which are all things that are risk factors for teens which can lead to depression or suicide. Suicide awareness was a result for both searches and self awareness was a topic that is a strength for students to have. I was glad to see that it came up on my search because teens having self awareness as a strength is a positive way to cope with what they are going through.

 What I plan to do:  I would like to create a new page where my sections would consist of:

i.      defining and providing examples of what mood swings in teens might look like.

ii. Discuss normal versus not normal teen behavior

iii. What can lead to abnormal mood swings (video game information, changes in eating habits, dating violence) and how these are all symptoms or warning signs of depression. I would also like to briefly define symptoms and warning signs because although they are related they mean different things.

iv. Tie in outside articles that discuss mood swings and depression

v.     List of symptoms/warning signs that people can look out for

vi. Treatments for depression & interventions

I know that it may seem like a lot but I think it that it can be discussed in short and direct sections.