Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft are the medicines many physicians consider to be the cure for what is described as "the common cold" of mental illness.

Nineteen million Americans suffer from depression. An estimated three million of those are teens. Dr. Meg Meeker says that is no surprise because teens are targets of a loose culture promoting promiscuity and excess.

"Depression and teenagers is all about loss. It's not very complicated," Meeker said. Combine cultural pressures with existing rifts between parents and teens to create a recipe that can spell disaster. Meeker says much of it fueled by premarital sex.

"When you look at sexual activity and teens and you add up the losses that they endure, they have lost their virginity, they have loss of self-respect, they have loss of a sense of control over their body, they have a sense of shame. All these things settle into their little hearts and they don't go anywhere," she said.

As a physician for adolescents, Dr. Meeker treats teenagers who have become statistics of depression. She recently authored Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing Our Kids. In it, Meeker gives evidence to support a link between premarital sex and depression.

Some teens do not agree with that assessment. One teen-aged boy said, "Drugs, yeah, I see how you can get depressed off that. Premarital sex, no. I think pre-marital sex builds character."

But Meeker said, "They are told and brainwashed that sex is wonderful and sex is great, and so they go and they have these expectations, 'I'm gonna have all these great, wonderful feelings when I have sex.' They have sex. They have all these negative feelings and they think, 'What's wrong with me? What is wrong with me?'"

Compounding the problem, teenagers are contracting STD's in record numbers. New research reveals that 8,000 teens become infected with an STD everyday.

One reason is that only one in three teens consistently use condoms. That fact has led more than 46 percent of teenage girls to contract an STD on their first sexual encounter, according to Meeker’s book.

Of those STD's, some force significant lifestyle changes or even death. Teens held hostage by these illnesses often cut already fragile connections with parents in favor of going it alone, making them likely candidates for serious depression and potentially even suicide.

Statistics reveal the explosion of teen suicide. Among adolescents, suicide has almost tripled since the 1960's. The National Mental Health Association says, just in the past decade the rate of teenage suicides has risen 200 percent, making suicide the third leading cause of death among adolescents.

Despite those disturbing figures, there is hope. Teenagers rate their parents as one of the biggest influences in their decision-making process. As a result, parents can play an important role in combating teen depression.

Meeker said, "Every parent needs to realize that they have tremendous power in their kids’ lives. Go after your kids. Don't be afraid of your kids. Your kids want you to come after them, pursue them. If you are afraid that your teenager is out on a date sleeping with a guy, find out where she is and show up."

Meeker believes reclaiming a strong connection is key. Teens battling depression related to premarital sex are often ashamed to talk with their parents, and that increases their chances of diving headfirst into deeper depression.

One girl said, "It would help a lot more if people's parents would pay more attention and not just go, 'Oh well, they're teenagers they want their space.’"

Dr. Meeker agrees. "You realize that your teen is growing up in a culture that is trying to chew them up and spit them out. And unless you intervene hard, that's the path that you're going to take," she said.

A second connection is also hanging in the balance: the church. Hurting teens unable to get spiritual support may try to wade through depression alone, and permanently cut spiritual ties that bind them to the church.

One boy said, "Some of the people, they're all stuck up and all high and mighty and they feel that they're better than everyone else, so there's no point in talking to them."

Youth Pastor Ben Hansen said, "If you asked people across the board, I think there are many, many negative experiences they've had of the church. Are we accepting them for who they are and saying, hey God's got a plan for you? Or is there that mold that they feel like they have to fit into in order to come?"

That question is often echoed by troubled teens. At a time when depression in young adults is soaring, few are seeking refuge at home or in the church. Now it is up to parents and the church to figure out how to reconnect with and rescue America's youth.

Get Tennessee youth pastor Mark DeVries book, Family-Based Youth Ministry: Reaching the Been-There, Done-That Generation.

CBN.com