Anxiety in a 15 yr old

[Maryanne77]

Do anxious and depressed 15 yr old boys want to spend every waking moment with their friends, smoking and drinking, and avoiding school? My boy says he's anxious and depressed, but we never see him cry.

I'm not sure OP, although alcohol is a depressive so that's probably not helping. DD often mentions that people at school have anxiety. I don't know if they have an actual diagnosis of an anxiety disorder or whether this is a self diagnosis. It certainly seems to be more prevalent than when I was at school.

It is entirely possible - yes. Depression isn't the same as being sad. I went to a wedding at the weekend and acted as if the world is just dandy - but by God it was hard work putting on the happy face. Maybe DS thinks that by spending all of his time with his mates, he is forced to put on the "happy face" rather than having to deal with what the problems are. My DD ended up with severe anxiety problems because she had undiagnosed severe dyslexia and had got to a point where she just couldn't keep compensating any more. Could your DS have undiagnosed special needs? Have you engaged with the school? Have you taken him to the GP to discuss the possibility of depression? The GP could certainly explain to him the issues of drinking alcohol when depressed - and the issues of drinking alcohol at such a young age. Good luck.

Thank you, chocolateworshiper. My son does have dyslexia, but I sometimes can't help thinking he's just terribly lazy, when I comes to schoolwork. Maybe I'm wrong, but his teachers all think he's perfectly capable and we've all known about his dyslexia for years. I've taken him to the doctors a couple of times, he's had counselling at school. I just think he wants to do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it! But I could be wrong! Going to try another counsellor next week... if he'll come!