In 2008, September was declared as National Suicide Prevention month. In the U.S., suicide is the second leading cause for death among 10-24 year olds. Mental illnesses don’t just affect adults; they have no boundaries and can affect anyone, including students at Chelsea High School.
“When I was in high school, the words mental health were non-existent. So if we look at history, we’ve made a lot of progress in recognizing mental health issues and raising awareness,” counselor Tim Mann said.
Mental health isn’t understood by all. Some people still stigmatize mental health, even though statistics say 16.5% of U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder.
“I see it more with men or young men,” Mann said. “Where they see being vulnerable as a weakness, and so sometimes they would rather not talk about their problems or enter into counseling because of that social stigma.”
Society still has a ways to go with getting people the help they need. Getting support can be difficult, but there are still resources that are readily available and recommended by counselors.
“Have [the person who needs help] speak with a professional, [but] first touch base with their school counselor. From there they could be outsourced to clinical therapy. It’s good to help students be aware of the resources and support systems we offer, such as school counseling services or outside therapy or the suicide hotline – 988,” Mann said.
Fortunately, mental health issues have slowly started to become not as common. Since the lockdown ended teenagers mental health has improved drastically. The COVID pandemic triggered an 25% increase in anxiety and depression worldwide. One of the pillars of mental health is social interaction and COVID took that away, causing an increase in mental health issues.
“[Students] are doing better now because one of the pillars of health is social interaction,” Mann said. “So when we shut down society, people were isolated in their homes. [With] mental health issues, we saw a huge spike, along with domestic violence and substance abuse. Being socially isolated destroys people’s mental health because we’re social creatures. Mental health is a big deal.”
Interaction is very important in the human experience and mental health. Talking about mental health issues is very difficult, but it’s extremely important instead of pretending like it doesn’t exist.
“If you don’t talk about it and you have all these issues, you just keep sweeping them under the rug,” Mann said. “So when you can find somebody to talk to that you trust and air it out, you can get the help and services that you deserve.”
