Mental health issues are becoming more common as the years pass, especially among the younger generation, who are feeling more pressure. Especially with kids in high school, they would also need to prepare to go into the real world without much help, causing problems like depression, anxiety, and much more.
Mental health issues are a negative thing most of the time, though. What is mental health? According to cdc.gov, mental health is the component of behavioral health that includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental health is a state of well-being that enables us to cope with the stress of life and realize our ability to learn and work well.
Though mentalhealth.gov.uk says it is also something that affects the body, causing low motivation, difficulty with concentration and planning, lack of support to change unhealthy behavior, and less likelihood to get medical help. Ali Mansour, a highschooler, describes it as something that piles up and up, “Some days, it feels like there is no breaks, and it just keeps piling up.” and “It feels like there’s always pressure- from school from parents, from parents, and even from myself.” The pressure from such amount of pressure will harm them.
Teenagers are the ones known as the age group who have the most mental health issues. According to opa.hhs.gov, many adolescents experience positive mental health, but an estimated 49.5% of adolescents have had a mental health disorder at some point in their lives. Another trusted source who says that globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds experience a mental health disorder.
Accounting for 15% of the global burden of disease in this age group. There is also a one in five chance that teens (ages 12 to 18) suffer at least one mental health disorder. Most teens who have it seem to be in high school, where many feel overwhelmed and mentally exhausted. One of my interviewees, Ali Mansour, a high schooler, says an important thing about mental health: “High school has been one of the most draining and exhausting experiences ever.”
Ali has also shown us the harmful effect of how social standards can affect the teenager: “The combination of academic pressure, social expectations, and constant stress makes it mentally overwhelming.” His experience speaks a lot about how mental health can be affected by more than just one thing, how even when things seem to be small to you, they are much larger to the teenager who is struggling.
Amy Tran, a school counselor in Unis Middle School, says, “It is important due to how it affects the person’s way of thinking, how we react to day to day matters, and how they cope. When a person’s mental health is positive, they would be able to see the world more positively, while when there is someone with bad mental health, they could see the world more negatively.” As she told us about how it affects the person, she showed how it can also impact the way the person might see something or feel about something.
Mental health is an important part of a teen’s life, but we need to make sure the teen knows how much their mental health matters. According to CDC.GOV, some ways to help teenagers are communicating with them, being honest, and speaking about their values. Supervising adolescents to facilitate healthy decision-making and spending time with them might be very good for them. According to mentalhealthfirstaid.org, encouraging physical self-care, disguising the usage of social media, healthy boundaries, and talking openly to them about mental health.
Others can encourage them to share how they feel mentally. Dalal Abel, a young adult who is in college now, tells us a way to help a person with mental health problems is, “If a person can deal with this on their own, they can help themselves get through it. However, if the situation is out of control, they should speak up. Talking is extremely important to express their problem to someone, whether it’s a friend, a parent, or even a therapist.” Her words allow us to understand how sometimes you need to help the person who seems to have it because it’s not always something that can be controlled.
In conclusion, mental health is an important aspect to many people in their teenage years. It’s a thing that can’t be controlled but is important to a person’s life. Taking care of yourself and others who have mental health issues can help them heal and get better in time. Talking care and supporting a person who has these problems can be from talking to them to putting them into therapy.
By: Fatima Alhasnawi
