'I was disconnected from everyone'

Ella Ingram, one of the BBC 100 Women 2015, had to be hospitalised with her depression while she was still at school.

"I feel really suicidal, I feel like I want to do something," Ella told her teachers, when they found her sobbing in a dark and empty drama room.

Ingram, now aged 21 and from Melbourne, had started to feel unwell over the summer holidays before the start of Year 12 when she was aged 17.

"I just remember feeling really disconnected from everyone," she recalls.

Her teachers called her mother that day at the beginning of a new school year and Ella asked to be admitted to hospital.

"I was there for two weeks and I found it really, really helpful on how to deal with how I was feeling," she says.

Not alone

An Australian national survey in 2014 found that one in five girls in the country aged between 16 and 17 were suffering from a major depressive disorder, one in six had self-harmed and one in 20 had attempted suicide.

But Ella's experience with youth depression represents a global story, particularly for females.

Depression is the top cause of youth disability and suicide is the third largest cause of death in 10 to 19-year-olds according to the World Health Organisation's (WHO)report on the health of adolescents.

Image copyrightElla Ingram

Image captionElla Ingram was hospitalised with depression

Suicide has now overtaken childbirth and pregnancy as the leading cause of death globally for adolescent girls.

Improvements in maternal health and sex education worldwide can be attributed to the decline in maternal mortality, says Dr Suzanne Petroni, the senior director for gender, population and development at the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW).

But the rise of depression and suicide cannot be pinned down to a single cause.

However, globally, social and economic disadvantage have long been established as contributing factors in high incidences of youth suicide and depression.

Even in affluent countries like the United States, depression and suicide fall disproportionally on youth who are socially or economically marginalised.

A 2013 study published in Death Studies found that from Grades Seven to 12 - students aged 12 to 18, African-Americans and American Asians reported higher rates of suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts than European Americans.

In South-East Asia one in every six adolescent female deaths is due to suicide.

'Strong urge to harm'

Shruti (not her real name), a 23-year-old sociology student from Pondicherry in southern India, says she first started feeling suicidal after a fall-out with her family while she was living alone in Delhi.

She says: "I would often go to the roof of my apartment and stare at the emptiness below. One day when I had a strong urge to harm myself, I realised something is seriously wrong with my mind."

Shruti says she feels that in Indian society, mental health is taken for granted.

Image copyrightThinkstock

Image captionYoung people should be encouraged to share their stories and feelings

"There is a taboo associated with an unhealthy state of mind. I needed time to come to terms with the fact I had to seek professional help," she says.

Shruti believes this is because India is still largely a collectivist society and people are embarrassed to seek help for emotional issues outside the family.

Maullika Sharma, a counsellor working with adolescents in Bangalore says there is a taboo about mental illness all over the world, but she believes it is stronger in India than in the West.

"A lot of it has to do with arranged marriages and the facade of family honour and family pride. If youngsters have any kind of mental illness the family tries to hide it so the person can get married off and find a partner.

"Also, family image is important and any kind of mental illness is seen to be a black mark," she says.

Reducing the stigma

Gargi Sandilya, a psychologist and life coach from New Delhi agrees there is a stigma surrounding mental illness in India but awareness and treatment are on the increase.

She says: "While depression is on the rise, the awareness of mental illnesses is also increasing, especially in the larger cities in India.

"More and more NGOs and social workers are working towards reducing the stigma attached to mental illness as well as to the seeking of help for psychological issues."

On the other side of the world, Jamaica launched its inaugural Child and Adolescent Mental Health Awareness Day earlier this year.

The high number of youths suffering from depression is affecting the small island nation.

The suicide of three teenage girls from the same region within a two-week period triggered a Ministry of Health study into the issue.

Twenty per cent of Jamaican high school students were found to be at risk of suicide, according to the 2012 survey.

More females expressed suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide, but more males actually completed suicide.

Talk it up

Emprezz Golding is a television personality and youth worker in Jamaica.

"Depression is something we don't speak openly enough about in Jamaica as it relates to youth," says Ms Emprezz.

Through her programme, TalkUpYout, Jamaican youth share their stories of pain and healing.

"Many young people are dealing with parental abandonment issues leading to cutting, depression and suicidal thoughts," she says.

Terry is a 20-year-old woman from Trelawny in Jamaica. She told her story on TalkUpYout.

"I just wanted to end my life. I first decided to cut my wrists but it never cut deep enough. I heard about the next girl down the lane who had hung herself… I figured that is probably the best way out," she said.

Back in Australia, Ella hopes other people with depression will see her story and she can help play a role to increase awareness.

She adds: "I want to stop the stigma as well, that's another aim for me".

Ella says she no longer feels like "there is a grey cloud always hanging over me." But millions of other young women and girls do, and face a risk to their lives through suicide.