Does your teenage child spend a good portion of their days lolling around doing very little constructive? Do they suffer from innumerable minor ailments - maybe headaches, stomach aches, feeling sick? Do they stay up way into the wee-small- hours of the morning watching late night (or should that be early morning) TV, or maybe playing video games, or endlessly chatting via the Internet with person or persons unknown? Do they seem to resent being asked almost anything about their lives, and do they usually react with an odd grunt, and rarely as much as two syllables?

If you can see a likeness to your own teenage child or children in some of these descriptions, perhaps you are thinking: "Yes, but so what?" Perhaps you have assumed - as many parents might - "Thats just being a teenager! Theyre all like that arent they?"

Well, to be honest the answer is "No". Not all teens are like that. It may be true that at some time or other all teenagers wrestle with the challenges of things like hormones, spots, first love, social acceptance, and all the other stuff that suddenly seems so important during those transitional years between childhood and becoming an adult. It may also be true that these issues could lead many teens to become surly, sullen and uncommunicative from time to time for short spells. But, you do need to take stock, for if your teen is like this nearly all the time...then you should take a little time out to do some discreet deeper investigation.

Why? Because your teenage offspring might be suffering from depression. It is a sad fact that the combination of common stressors that can arise in todays society can compound themselves in a way that sends some youngsters spiralling down into a first major period of depression, which they almost certainly find difficult to cope with. Some such teenagers can turn to trying to alleviate their plight by abusing drugs or alcohol. Admittedly rare, but in extreme cases depression can lead to unpleasant self-harming activities, or possibly attempted suicide. Every year there are devastated families whose teenage child made the ultimate cry for help that a suicide attempt is judged to be - and sometimes that cry does indeed have fatal consequences.

It is unlikely that most teenagers, themselves, will actually recognize that they are depressed. They may well feel isolated, cut-off from being able to talk to you or their friends, lacking in any feeling of motivation or enjoyment of life. They may drift away from long-term friendships - sudden spats and arguments might occur and this could all be part of a downward spiral. You may even become aware that they are increasingly finding excuses to miss a day of school here or there. All these are possible symptoms of depression and should be seen as amber lights warning you to beware that all may not be well.

We, none of us, want to be an over-concerned parent over-reacting every time we have the slightest inkling that something may not be right. But equally we dont want to plough-on regardless, ignoring what may be happening to our children, blissfully unaware that they could have a real, major problem brewing.

Common wisdom and media influence, even including TV comedies, have led us to expect that teens will be difficult to deal with. They may seem to inhabit a world of their own into which an adult parent dare not stray - without the risk of being strafed by some carping comments, accusations of never leaving them alone, or maybe even greater tantrums. Nonetheless todays parents should have enough understanding of basic psychology to be able to pick-up on whether there is really something going on in their teenagers life that requires them to be there for their growing child, even if the going gets a little rough.

Both teenage, and even childhood depression have been shown to be on the increase, particularly in developed Western societies like the US, UK and Northern Europe. It is important that as a responsible and caring parent you put some homework in to familiarizing yourself with those signs and sypmtoms that could indicate that your almost-adult- child is suffering from more that just the occasional ups-and-downs of normal teenage angst!

A Graham Smith - 15 years lecturing, tutoring and acting as a student counsellor and mentor, plus 30 years experience of depression as both a carer and sufferer, now publishes a web-based guide to dealing with depression a resource that looks at the positive side of depression and how it can help you change your life for the better. http://www.depressionisok.com contains useful articles, information and links plus much more about spotting the signs and symptoms of Teenage Depression.