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Depression: feelings of hopeless, worthless and even helpless, irritability, sadness, and thoughts of suicide.

These are just some of the symptoms the National Institute for Mental Health lists for depression, an unfortunately common mental illness in many teenager's lives.

The most important thing for everyone to understand is there is hope, and help. Countless local organizations, such as Kinark Child and Family Services, are designed to aid students, while schools are doing their part to help out.

At Innisdale Secondary School, the guidance department is doing their best to find solutions for students suffering with depression or thoughts of suicide. While they give students a chance to voice their thoughts confidentially, they also direct them to other helpful organizations.

Lisa Swain, guidance counsellor at Innisdale, says that over the years, the number of students suffering with depression and the general causes has remained the same.

She believes the most common culprits are social circumstances, pressure with friends and family, fitting in, drugs, and feeling loved.

“It’s never as bad as it is in your head," Swain said, discussing thoughts of suicide. "There is hope, and there are people who want to help.”

In addition to the regular guidance councillors, Innisdale welcomes Sharron Carson, youth case manager from the Canadian Mental Health Association, bi-weekly. Instead of school, Carson focuses on student lives, while giving them the freedom to talk to someone who is not directly related to the school. She also offers assessments for depression and is simply there for students, regardless of what they require. Her recommendation to students who are feeling down, or possibly suffering with depression, is to tell someone of their struggles.

“There is no going back (for students feeling suicidal),” Carson says. “The devastation it leaves behind is unimaginable. The other important thing; there is help. You have to tell someone.”

Depression will affect 11 per cent of men, and 16 per cent of women in Canada over the course of their lives, according to Health Canada. While many people experience ups and downs in their lives, such as job dissatisfaction, Health Canada says major depression is a clinical term used by psychiatrists to define a time period that lasts more than two months, in which a person feels worthless and hopeless.

Due to these high numbers, many organizations and associations have formed to provide aid. To Write Love On Her Arms is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to presenting hope, and finding help for those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. The organization originated in February 2006, to help a friend and have her story heard.

“A little over three years ago, a young woman named Renee was struggling with all these issues,” said Chad Moses, a TWLOHA staff member. “One of (her) friends was a young man named Jamie Tworkowski, and he wrote a story about those days and remembering her scars. He called it, ‘To write love on her arms.’”

Just a story wasn’t enough for Tworkowski, so he printed a few hundred t-shirts to help fund Renee’s medical costs. He also put the story on the website MySpace, where people began to share their own struggles.

“Seeing that this conversation of pain and hope was much bigger than just Renee’s experience, he decided to start the organization so that others may find hope and help,” Moses said.

To this day, the organization has donated $600,000 to mental health organizations, to make sure that their work can continue.

It has touched many people’s lives through fundraisers and speaking events. All money raised, either through donations or the purchase of merchandise, goes towards advancing their mission statement, according to Moses.

You may have hit rock bottom, and you can’t get any lower, but there’s no reason why you can’t get any higher. There’s always help available to help anyone rise above the pain.

If you or someone you know is feeling depressed, or having thoughts of suicide, talk to someone.

Kids Help Phone at 1- 800-668-6868, and the Mental Health Crisis Line at 728-5044 are some of the many phone numbers available 24 hours per day, for over-the-phone confidential counselling.