Fray Martinez

 

 

In today’s day and age many of our youth are experiencing some sort of mental health problem and whether it be because of their environment or their  school and or both  of those factors this matter needs to be taken way more seriously. These kids, teenagers, young adults could be facing something way bigger than them and will receive little to no help for their mental health. 

Youth in this day and age see mental health as something that is not core to life itself. They feel that if they have a weak mind, feel depressed. It is seen as a weakness and this is because of social stigmas in modern day associated with mental health. It needs to be talked about the importance of why mental health matters and how common it really is. “Around one in six Americans suffer from some type of mental health condition in any given year.” (Jacobs, 2018). The fact that tens of millions of Americans actually suffer from some sort of mental health disorder and estimated only around half of them receive help demonstrates how important and significant mental health really is. A healthy life is not only made up of physical health but also mental health plays a huge role in living that healthy lifestyle. 

 

Many might make the argument that mental health conditions are not “actual” health conditions, and this is because “Mental illnesses are often far more nuanced than physical illnesses—they’re not a perfected science. Perhaps this is why society has a hard time considering mental health conditions “actual” health conditions.” (Tanap, 2018). Tanap in this article goes into very deep detail about the complications with the brain and the studies with it and how mental health is a science that is constantly in development. In other words the mind and brain are always evolving and there will never be a halt to the research because new discoveries are happening and new data is being collected, more hypotheses are being made, more experiments are getting done and new findings are being found . Mental health has been an ongoing topic of importance because many youth are suffering in silence because they feel no need to come forth with these feelings or symptoms they may have because these stigmas associated with mental health are overpowering it as a whole. 

 

Me a 19 year old college student currently going through the change from in person class to remote and dealing with coronavirus quarantine has been a very tough change for me academically and all this stress trying to balance out my work with school and getting good grades took a huge toll on my mental health. I was overdoing everything, overthinking on multiple occasions and ultimately broke down. I had reached my limit but the whole time I was thinking I can handle this, this is  what the “real world” is like. After I broke down I called a really close friend of mine and just let out how I felt and that took a lot of weight from my shoulders and now I am trying to balance school and work but now I can vent to my friend and just having that one person there for me to listen to my problems and give me advice is what I needed to help my mental health. Although I was just overworked trying to balance work and school there are youth out in the world who may suffer from anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, DID, etc. and don’t seek the help they need because a friend may not be enough for the severity of their disorder they may need a therapist and a certified psychiatrist to help treat their disorder. This just comes to show how common mental health problems are and how many people especially the youth can develop different mental disorders especially modern day today because of coronavirus and remote classes which even affected my mental health. The transition from live classes to remote may have cleared my  schedule to work more at my job but the stree never amounted higher in my life. The stress of having online classes made me believe that I can slack on them because I am on my computer at home with a lot of distractions. Remote classes made me slack in my classes and lowered my gpa and the stress of trying to pass my classes while also learning from them is a huge struggle because I feel I have not retained as much as I want from these classes and to balance that with work while being a pandemic one can just imagine the toll its takes on someone’s mental health. 

 

As previously stated, mental disorders affect approximately 20% of American young adults (NIH). Sadly this number consists of millions of American young adults, and with these millions of American young adults there comes with a higher chance of them committing physical harm to themselves and sometimes unfortunately it can be fatal. “Suicide alone was responsible for 42,773 deaths in the United States in 2014 (the last year for which final data are available), making it the 10th leading cause of death.” (Campo, 2017). The fact that suicide is the 10th leading cause fo death in the US comes to prove on just how serious mental health needs to be taken. With these statistics it just shows how “Suicide is responsible for more deaths than the combination of cancer, heart disease, congenital anomalies, respiratory disease, influenza, pneumonia, stroke, meningitis, septicemia, HIV, diabetes, anemia, and kidney and liver disease.”(Campo, 2017). The fact that suicide is responsible formore deaths than a combination of physical illness that are very serious when it comes to health clearly demonstrates how significant a healthy lifestyle is and that it doesnt only consist of physical health, but also mental health. No one knows what kind of  demons these adolescents, teenagers, young adults may be going through. It is not meant to be taken as a joke as mental health is very important and a core factor of living a happy healthy life. 

 

Furthermore, one must take into consideration why these young adults may feel the way they feel and why they may want to cause physical harm to themselves. One key factor being school and one’s  environment  in which they grow up. It is a simple fact that for a person that goes to school that is where they will be at for the majority of their lives until  they become young adults and graduate college. Moreover, the fact that social stigmas exist, these children and teenagers who may develop mental disorders end up dropping out of school because they haven’t sought out the help that they need and end up suffering because of it. This is because  the new generation is taught to hold in their emotions or they are portrayed as weak individuals. They are taught that depression, anxiety etc. are all temporary emotions and if you tuck them away they will just leave. This old way of thinking, the social stigmas associated with mental health lead to the decline of overall health in this generation.  “In addition, of growing concern nationally, is the apparent rapid escalation of school dropouts with comorbid mental illness who end up referred to the juvenile justice system” (Koller, Bertel, 2017). This is a very serious topic because our youth who in modern day may develop a mental disorder and not receive treatment may hurt their education, and on top of that give them a criminal record because their mental health is in ruins. This is sad because our youth is making up our new generation and I am trying to make it the new norm to seek help and see whether or not you may have symptoms of anxiety, depression since society today takes those very serious mental health disorders very lightly when it should be the other way around.

Mental health is more than feeling down at any given moment, it is used everyday in our lives and when that gets corrupted it ruins the whole cycle of what used to be. Makes everything go out of  wock. Many factors can contribute to mental health problems such as physical health, parenting, work, childbearing, finances, caregiving, and common daily activities.” (Galson, 2017). This comes to prove just how common and easy mental health disorders can develop in one’s life and with the situations that people in our generation can go through growing up and being exposed to the real world, stuff can get real really fast and take a turn for the worse. People don’t seem to realize just how fast one’s mental health can change and turn unhealthy, and many just turn a blind eye because of stigmas thinking it is nothing and won’t affect them whatsoever. 

 

Let’s start with the older adults that may be successful business owners, or stock brokers etc. For example, they grew up in a different time and made it pretty far with a degree of success that they rightfully earned. But, since they felt that they experienced a certain set of growing pains in order to gain the wisdom necessary to succeed in the real world, they feel that today’s generation needs to go through those same growing pains. Yet, they don’t realize that college students go through their own respective growing issues that may seem nonsensical to the older generations but very much relevant to us. In addition to this, the circumstances are very different from how they used to be. “Older adults are less likely to seek out and adhere to treatments for depression than are younger adults…Older adults with higher hopelessness tended to exhibit higher stigma, although this was a non-significant trend. ” (Factors, 2016). Social stigmas associated with mental health are actually very scary to think about and the fact that is a reality is even  more scary. I say this because now our new generation is  being taught to not be weak, and depression, anxiety, etc. is just a phase in one’s life and is nothing to be taken seriously because it will go away. This is not what our new generation should be taught, that old way of thinking is hurting more than it is “building” a character in one person. As said before but will be repeated and emphasised mental health is key to living a healthy and happy life.

There are millionaires, successful business owners, celebrities who have it all  materialistic wise, and can do procedures for physical illness they may have but can still go home to no one, and feel empty and depressed. Possibly suffer anxiety, or develop other mental disorders but wont go public about it because of what their fanbase may think. Oh “he/she is soft”, “he/she is so  sensitive”. This is the social stigma we are hit with today in this day and age. Many influencers, Juice Wrld, Mac Miller, Lil peep, Avicii all these celebrities were broken souls  but never seeked help and dealt with their mental battle alone and no one came to their rescue until it was too late. 

 

If you or a loved one may be going through something emotionally and feel your mental health draining seek help. Call a friend for starters, if you feel you need more help and your parents or guardian won’t help you find it go to a  school counselor. Nobody is perfect, and seeking help is in no way shape or form a sign of weakness but a sign of strength because you want to do better for yourself instead of watching  your whole world turn upside down. For starters if you feel alone and  think nobody can help you call 111. They will listen and try to help you to seek help near you and better yourself. There are suicide prevention hotline (800-273-8255) you can call when you feel the need to physically harm yourself. Gen Z you are not alone and you are not the only one that may be going through something. Seek help if you need it, it is never too late to better yourself and mental health because there are people  who actually care such as myself. 

Reference 

Galson, S. (2009). MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS. Public Health Reports (1974-), 124(2), 189-191. Retrieved May 12, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25682191

 

Heather Clark. (2017). “Imbalance:”: Mental Health in Higher Education. Humboldt        Journal of Social Relations, 39, 346-348. Retrieved May 12, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/90007891

 

Koller, J., & Bertel, J. (2006). Responding to Today’s Mental Health Needs of    Children, Familes and Schools: Revisiting the Preservice Training and Preparation of School-Based Personnel. Education and Treatment of Children, 29(2), 197-217. Retrieved May 12, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42899882

 

Tanap, R. (2018, March 28). Mental Health Conditions are Legitimate Health Conditions. NAMI. https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/March-2018/Mental-Health-Conditions-are-Legitimate-Health-Con. 

31, J. C. M., Campo, J., Campo (2017, May 30). It’s time to recognize mental health as essential to physical health. STAT. https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/31/mental-health-medicine/

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