Mental Health
“You don’t have to struggle in silence. You can be un-silent. You can live well with a mental health condition, as long as you open up to somebody about it.”
— Demi Lovato
Mental Health is defined as a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.
According to Teen Mental Health, 1 in 5 young people suffer from a mental illness.
So many children in our own generation struggle with mental illness, and many of them deal with it in silence due to the stigma.
Stigma (noun) - a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person
The stigma around mental health deters people, specifically teenagers, from reaching out and getting the help that they need.
According to University of Michigan Health, nearly 7.7 million children and teens in the country have at least one treatable mental health disorder. However, in 2016, half of these young people did not receive needed treatment from a mental health professional.
Mental Health in the LGBT+ Community
Mental Health specifically affects members of the LGBT+ community. According to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline, transgender youth are much more likely to experience depression compared to their peers. In a 2016-2017 survey, 28% of LGBT youth said they felt depressed more or all of the time for 30 days, compared to 12% of non-LGBT youth. Also, according to a 2015 CDC survey, 60% of LGBT youth were so sad or hopeless that they stopped doing activities that they used to do.
Mental Health can divide our country because people may not understand the severity of it or how it affects children in the Gen-Z generation.
If you are interested in learning more about mental health and how to break this stigma, please click here. This is a great resource created by students in Gen-Z that will help you become informed about this pertinent topic.
I decided to talk to Gen-Z about mental health and how important they believe it is to talk about it. The guided questions I asked were:
How does stress affect your daily life? How do your stress levels change based on different activities? School vs. summer? What makes you the most stressed, and why?
Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental health condition, if comfortable sharing? If so, how has this condition affected your life?
How has mental illness held you back? Have you ever been treated differently because of it?
Have you felt the stigma of mental illness? Has the stigma prevented you from getting the help that you needed?
What resources help you the most?
What can others do to become more educated and help those that struggle?
How can Gen-Z be the change and learn about this issue?