Selena Gomez's AMA Speech: Why Does Depression Haunt Young Adults?

The Same Old Love singer took the stage to encourage the "broken" people during her acceptance speech at the American Music Awards. The 24-year-old pop star, who received the Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist award on Sunday night, shared her struggle with depression and anxiety after taking a break from the limelight for treatment.

"I think it's safe to say that most of you know a lot of my life whether I liked it or not, and I had to stop, 'cause I had everything, and I was absolutely broken inside. And I kept it all together to where I never let you down. But I kept it too much together where I let myself down," she said as reported by NBC. "If you are broken, you don't have to stay broken," she added.

According to Dr. Matthew Lorber, acting director of the child and adolescent psychiatry department at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, depression among late teens and young adults is not uncommon.

"As the brain is developing and changing, it's susceptible to something new happening, and sometimes that might mean depression," Dr. Lorber told Live Science.

Dr. Lorber added that a major change in a person's living such as life transitions or any traumatic event could highly trigger depression. This holds true especially for women, who were proven to be almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with this mental disorder as compared to men during post-puberty.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) reported that more than 15 million Americans from age 18 and older are affected by Major Depressive Disorder in one year, while 3.3 American adults are affected by Persistent Depressive Disorder or PDD in the same duration.

ADAA added that almost half of those diagnosed with depression are diagnosed with anxiety disorder as well.