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Teen depression ยท Ages 13 to 17

Teen depression treatment in Colorado, for when it does not look like sadness.

Outpatient care for ages 13 to 17 in Boulder and Thornton. In teenagers, depression more often arrives as irritability, exhaustion, and a slow withdrawal than as tears. The first call is an assessment, not a commitment.

Get help for your teen Call (303) 219-0973
A mother and her teenage son either side of a repair bench in a neighborhood bike shop, a bicycle wheel upright in a truing stand between them.

Understanding Teen Depression

Most parents are not looking at sadness. They are looking at anger, or at a closed door.

Depression in a teenager is a medical condition, not a character flaw and not a mood they have chosen. That sentence matters more here than on almost any other page, because the most common response to a depressed adolescent is to treat them as though they could stop if they wanted to. Blaming a teen for it, or waving it off, tends to make it worse rather than shorter.

It also rarely looks the way parents expect. Adolescents often do not appear sad at all. What shows up instead is anger, a short fuse, and a teenager who has gone quiet and stopped coming out of their room. MedlinePlus names it directly in its list of teen depression symptoms: being angry, irritable, or frustrated, even at minor things. Because irritability reads as attitude, the depression underneath it can go unrecognized for months in a house where everyone is already braced for teenage moods.

There is no single cause. It usually comes from a combination of things: genetics and brain chemistry, which is why depression runs in families; stress and loss, including bereavement, family conflict or divorce, abuse or neglect, bullying, and sustained academic pressure; and a way of thinking that runs hard on self-criticism and low self-worth. A teen working out their sexual orientation or identity without support at home or at school carries additional risk. Substance use belongs on the list too, and it runs both ways: some teens drink or use to blunt the low mood, and the substances then deepen it.

If you are weighing whether to call now or wait for something more definite, the guidance points one way. NIMH puts it plainly: for a young person with symptoms of a mental disorder, the earlier treatment is started, the more effective it can be, and early treatment can help prevent more severe and lasting problems later.

  • Ages 13 to 17
  • Boulder and Thornton
  • Individual, group, and family therapy

NIMH, 2021

One in five, and fewer than half of them in treatment.

20.1 %

of U.S. adolescents aged 12 to 17 had a major depressive episode

An estimated 5.0 million young people in 2021 (NIMH)

14.7 %

had an episode with severe impairment

About 3.7 million, where daily life was seriously affected (NIMH)

40.6 %

of those adolescents received any treatment that year

Which leaves close to three in five who did not (NIMH)

Signs and symptoms

What to look for, when the word sad never comes up.

Each of these has an innocent explanation, and your teen will have one ready for every item on this list. What matters is the pattern: several of them together, holding for two weeks or more, and costing sleep, school, or the people your teen used to see. If your teen is talking about suicide or self-harm, or is unsafe right now, call or text 988 before anything else on this page.

Irritability, anger, or frustration over things that would not normally land

Persistent sadness, or a flat and empty mood that does not lift

Loss of interest in the things they used to organize their week around

Withdrawing from friends and family, and more and more time alone

Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, or talking about being a burden

Grades slipping, or work not started rather than not finished

Sleeping far too much or far too little, or seeming sleepy through the day

Appetite changes in either direction, and weight that follows them

Low energy, fatigue, and headaches or stomachaches a doctor cannot find a cause for

Talk of death or suicide, or self-harm such as cutting or burning the skin

Two dark grey tufted armchairs with red velvet cushions in a waiting nook, a chalkboard sign on the side table reading Welcome to the Redpoint Center.

How we treat it

Safety first, then named work rather than open-ended talking.

Nothing gets planned before your teen is assessed, and safety is the first thing we look at rather than the last. The assessment covers the whole picture: how severe the depression is, what else is running alongside it, and whether there are thoughts of suicide or self-harm. If there are, that is addressed immediately in the room rather than filed away for a later session.

The therapy itself is named work rather than open-ended talking. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps teens recognize and change the thought patterns depression installs, and NIMH names it as one of the evidence-based talk therapies for depression, alongside interpersonal therapy. Dialectical behavior therapy teaches distress tolerance and emotion regulation, which is what a teenager needs at eleven at night rather than in a Tuesday session. Acceptance and commitment therapy builds psychological flexibility, internal family systems work addresses the parts of a teen that are at war with each other, and our experiential therapies include psychodrama and art therapy for the stretch when a teen has feelings they have no words for yet.

Alongside the therapy hours, we work on the ordinary machinery depression dismantles: a bedtime and a wake time, meals that happen, movement, something creative, and contact with people again. This is deliberate rather than incidental, and NIMH lists the same things among what actually helps, noting that just 30 minutes a day of walking can boost your mood alongside regular sleep and regular meals. Expect it to feel backwards to your teen. In depression the action comes first and the motivation arrives afterward, which is exactly the opposite of how a teenager will tell you it should work.

Care here is medically informed and led by a board-certified psychiatrist, so if medication belongs in your teen's plan it can be evaluated and managed alongside therapy by a clinician who sees the whole picture. It is never a condition of starting, and plenty of teens are treated with therapy alone. Our teen programs serve ages 13 to 17; for 18 and over, our adult programs run out of the same offices.

One more thing, because it is the part of this work families remember. Depression tells a young person that nothing matters and nothing will help. Our job in the early weeks is to hold the hope while your teen cannot, and to keep holding it until they can pick it up themselves.

  • A full assessment before any program
  • Individual and group therapy
  • CBT and DBT skills work
  • Art therapy and psychodrama
  • Family sessions on the calendar
  • Medication support when it fits
Verify your coverage Start with an assessment

Two levels of care

Where a teen with depression usually starts.

A teenager sitting on the front steps of a house with a skateboard beside her.
Full day

Teen PHP

A full clinical day on weekdays, for depression that has already taken the school day and the sleep with it. Your teen still comes home at night.

See the program
Two teenagers walking home along a tree-lined sidewalk with backpacks, foothills in the distance.
Three afternoons

Teen IOP

Three afternoons a week, 4 to 7pm, after the last bell. Enough structure to change the shape of the week without emptying it. Most families start here.

See the program

The first weeks

What changes, and roughly in what order.

Nothing here is a timeline we can promise, and any program that gives you one is guessing. This is the sequence the work tends to follow.

  1. 1

    Safety gets settled before anything is planned.

    First appointment

    The assessment establishes how severe this is, what else is running alongside it, and whether there are thoughts of suicide or self-harm. If there are, that is handled in the room immediately rather than added to a treatment plan for later.

  2. 2

    The days get a shape again.

    A bedtime and a wake time, meals that actually happen, some movement, and contact with people. It is unglamorous and it is where the early gains come from, because in depression the action reliably arrives before the motivation does.

  3. 3

    The thinking gets examined.

    Cognitive behavioral therapy work on the patterns depression installs: that this is permanent, that it is their fault, and that nobody would want them there anyway. Teens learn to catch those as claims worth testing rather than facts.

  4. 4

    Skills arrive for the worst hours.

    Dialectical behavior therapy skills for distress tolerance and emotion regulation, practiced in group and taken home, because the hardest part of a depressed teenager's week is rarely during a session. Where words are not available yet, art therapy and psychodrama do the same job sideways.

  5. 5

    School gets handled rather than worked around.

    With your permission our team works directly with your teen's school on expectations, absences and coursework, so a stretch of treatment does not quietly become a lost semester. Depression has usually already cost them grades by this point; the aim is that it costs a term instead of a year.

  6. 6

    Something to aim at.

    Toward the end, the work turns to strengths, values, and goals near enough to be believable. Depression takes the future away first; getting some version of it back is what makes the rest hold.

For parents

What families work on, alongside their teen.

Family therapy and parent guidance are scheduled work in both programs rather than an optional evening. Your teen goes home to the same house every night of treatment, so the house is part of the plan.

Depression as an illness

The single most useful shift for most families. It is not laziness, not manipulation, and not a verdict on your parenting. Treating it as an illness changes what you say at 7am on a school morning.

Support that actually lands

What empathetic support sounds like to a depressed teenager, which is often quieter and less solution-shaped than parents expect. Sitting with it beats fixing it more often than feels right.

Expectations set where your teen is

Not the standards of six months ago, and not none at all. We help families find the level that is genuinely reachable this week and move it as the weeks change.

Less criticism, and less taking over

The two most common responses, and both cost. Criticism confirms what depression is already telling your teen. Doing everything for them confirms it too, more gently.

Talking without it turning into a fight

Communication work for a house where the same conversation has gone the same way for months. Irritability is a symptom, so it helps to have somewhere for it to go that is not the kitchen at midnight.

Watching the hard stretches together

What close monitoring looks like at home, what to do when things dip, and how to raise safety with your teen without it becoming an interrogation. You will not be doing this part alone.

Parent questions

What parents ask about teen depression.

Is this depression, or is my teen just being a teenager?
The test is duration and cost, not how dramatic it looks. Ordinary adolescent lows move: a bad week ends, a breakup fades, the mood tracks events. Depression holds for two weeks or more and keeps taking things without giving them back, which is why the most reliable signal is not sadness but subtraction. Look at what your teen has stopped doing over the last few months, and whether the low mood or irritability is now costing them sleep, school, and the people they used to see. NIMH sets the threshold for an evaluation at behavior or emotions that last weeks or longer, cause distress, or interfere with school, home, or friendships. If you are reading this page at all, an assessment is how you find out either way.

My teen is angry all the time rather than sad. Can that still be depression?
Yes, and in adolescents it is closer to the rule than the exception. MedlinePlus lists being angry, irritable, or frustrated, even at minor things among the symptoms of teen depression, and for many families it is the only symptom they can see. The trouble is that irritability reads as attitude, so it gets met with consequences rather than concern, and the household spends months in a discipline conversation about something that is not primarily a discipline problem. If the anger arrived alongside a loss of interest, a change in sleep, and a teenager who has stopped coming out of their room, it is worth having assessed.

What if my teen has talked about suicide?
Treat it as real and act today rather than watching to see whether it repeats. Call or text 988, which reaches 988 Colorado, the state mental health line, free and confidential, 24 hours a day, and they will talk it through with you as a parent, not just with your teen. If your teen is in immediate physical danger, call 911. The Redpoint Center is an outpatient center rather than a crisis line, so once the immediate danger has passed we can take care from there. Safety is the first thing our assessment covers, and if there are thoughts of suicide or self-harm we address them in that appointment rather than working around them.

Does my teen need medication for depression?
No. Medication is a conversation rather than a requirement, and plenty of teens are treated with therapy alone. Care at The Redpoint Center is medically informed and led by a board-certified psychiatrist, so if medication is worth considering it gets evaluated by a clinician who can see your teen's whole picture rather than decided from a website. Whatever is decided, it sits alongside therapy rather than in place of it, because the skills are the part your teen keeps.

How long before we see a change?
Honestly, longer than you want and sooner than your teen expects, and nobody can put a date on it. NIMH says that most people with depression benefit from mental health treatment and that once treatment begins you should gradually start to feel better. It is worth knowing that the pieces do not move together. Sleep, appetite, and energy commonly shift before mood does, and NIMH notes the same pattern with antidepressants specifically, which usually take four to eight weeks to work. So the early evidence that this is working is often practical rather than emotional: your teen ate something, or got up, or answered a text. Count those.

My teen will not get out of bed, let alone come to an appointment.
Call anyway. It is one of the most common opening positions we hear and it is a starting point rather than a disqualification. Refusal is usually the depression talking rather than a considered decision, since the belief that nothing will help is a symptom of the illness we are treating, not a fair assessment of the options. A good part of that first call is working out how to make the first appointment small enough for your teen to say yes to. Nothing about an assessment commits your family to a program, and if a program is not what your teen needs we would rather say so at that stage than after enrollment.

Will treatment mean my teen falls behind at school?
That depends on the level of care, and it is worth deciding with the school conversation on the table rather than after. Teen IOP runs three afternoons a week from 4 to 7pm, after the last bell, so the school day is untouched by design. Teen PHP is a full clinical day and does take the school day with it, which is a real trade and one we would rather name plainly. In both cases, and with your permission, our team coordinates with your teen's school on expectations, absences and coursework, so the plan we build and what your teen is held to on Monday are not two different things.

My teen has been drinking or using. Does that change the plan?
It changes the plan, and it does not change whether we can help. The two arrive together often enough to be ordinary: some teens drink or use to blunt a low mood, and the substances then deepen it, so the two feed each other in a loop. NIDA is clear that integrated treatment leads to better health outcomes for people with substance use and other mental disorders, which is the case for treating both here rather than sending your family to two places. Our teen substance use and teen dual diagnosis pages go further into it. Anxiety turns up alongside depression just as often, and our teen anxiety page covers that side.

Does insurance cover teen depression treatment?
In most cases, yes. We accept Aetna, Anthem, Carelon Behavioral Health, Cigna, First Health Network, Kaiser Permanente, Rocky Mountain Health Plans, Select Health, TRICARE, and United Healthcare, and we will still check a plan that is not on that list. We can also accept some Colorado Medicaid policies; call us or submit an insurance verification form to find out about your specific coverage.
Not sure this has got bad enough to make the call? Call (303) 219-0973

You do not have to be sure it is depression to call.

Tell us what the last few months have looked like in your house, in whatever words you have. We will help you work out what is going on and whether this is the right place, including when it is not.

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