State Trooper

I don't like running, I am. I am running on a treadmill, trying to outrun my own doubts and insecurities. Trying to outrun uncertainty and my future. I am running. I run as fast as I can, but I never move. With distractions in front of me and music in my ears, I try to fool myself into thinking I am winning the hopeless race I am on.
I've never been good at running. I tire to quickly and I am not fast. Fear keeps me running but, when I know it's hopeless to keep going, my legs give up. I stop running and fall to the ground. And I wait. I wait for what I've been running from to catch up to me. And it always does. I sometimes think that stopping would be easier but distractions keep me going. As long as I don't face what I fear and I keep a steady pace, the insecurities and uncertainty will disappear, right? That's how it works, right? Because I'm so tired. This much running is not good for my legs or my body.

Comfirmatio

Throughout research for my paper, I've discovered that my first two points for why Pennsylvania should incorporate a unit on Mental Health education in their heath classes relate heavily on the idea of decreasing stigma of teens with mental illness and the stigma of mental illness in general.

My main points for why mental illness should be taught in public schools are:

• Lessen the Stigma of mental illness in teens
• Create a safer environment for students who are affected mentally ill
• Help students identify symptoms of mental illness for themselves and others and how to help them

In my research, I've found that

• Students who have limited or inaccurate information about mental health have more stigmatizing attitudes about individuals with mental health.
• Common stereotypes include the ideas that individuals with mental illness are incompetent, weak, or dangerous.
• The consequences of stigma can be very serious, including affecting an individual's self-esteem, decreasing opportunities for social interactions, and reducing the likelihood of care seeking for one's mental health.
• Also, teenagers are less likely to seek out help for mental health because of social stigma against mental illness.
• Teenage males are found to have more mental illnesses but reach out for help significantly less than teenage girls.
• Teenage males are also found to be more heavily stigmatized against.

From this research, I've found that teaching about mental health to teenagers can reduce the stigma of mental illness, by providing correct and age appropriate information. This, in turn, will decrease the stigmatizing attitude in the teenagers, which will decrease the amount of bullying or social isolation on the mentally ill teens. Without the social isolation and bullying, teenagers with mental illness (who have not gotten help) are far more likely to ask for and receive help.

Exordium

I have many people in my life who suffer from mental illnesses, my sister and mother included.  I remember hearing about mental illness for the first time and realizing that a lot more people were affected by it than I first thought.  Almost every one of my friends has some form of mental illness, most commonly depression or an anxiety disorder.  All of these people are between the ages of 15 and 18.  I knew what mental illness was, but I didn't know how it showed or manifested itself in individuals or how to interact with them effectively.  I am still struggling with this on a day to day.  Mental illness is a tricky thing to deal with, because it can be different in everyone and there is no proper way to measure if a person has a chemical imbalance or they have emotional issues behind the illness.  I remember my one close friend asked me why our other friend was depressed.  What was the reason behind it.  I had to explain to her that depression isn't always caused by an experience.  Most times, it's either an experience that manifests itself in a harmful way in the brain or it's a chemical imbalance inside the brain.  There's no real way of measuring what chemical it is or how much the brain has, or why it manifest in this way.  That's just how it is.  She still didn't understand.  Her younger sister told my sister, when she was having a severe downward spiral due to her depression and her medication not working, that "sometimes your mood is what you make it."  She did not mean to suggest that the reason that my sister was feeling down was her own fault, but that is what she did.  There have been other time where friends that are close to me make insensitive comments towards other people about their mental illness, because they don't understand the problem.  A lack of education about mental illness has broken ties and hurt friendships.

Narratio

Mental illness is an issue that is very present in many teenagers' lives.  The time surrounding puberty is often when mental illness can manifest in young teens.  There is a harmful stigma tied with teens and mental illness.  Mental illness is sometimes considered a taboo topic among people.  People don't know how to help or interact with mentally ill people, so they just shove it to the side.  Many young teens are told that they don't even have a real problem and they just need to "grow up" or "think positive."  This denial of an issue can manifest itself into bigger problems later in the teen's life.  I think that this stigma comes from people not understanding mental illness, how it manifests in the person and how to understand and interact with them.  Having a mental illness, like depression and anxiety, can lead to problems with motivation and connecting with people.  Isolation is a very common problem for people with mental illness and having peers and adults not know what to do or how to interact with people facing these issues can make self-isolation much easier to do and maintain.  Teenagers can often wrongly self-diagnose themselves or believe that they don't have a problem, because they don't fully understand what's happening to them.  While teaching about mental illness could have a placebo affect on some students, the students who are suffering from the mental illness (whether they know it or not) would gain new knowledge about themselves and be able to communicate the problem to an adult or medical professional.  As someone who has many loved ones who suffer from various mental illnesses, it has been hard for me to learn how to communicate and interact with these people.  Mental illness is not easy for the person going through it or their loved ones.  Teaching about mental illness to people who have loved ones will help them understand and be able to communicate effectively with the mentally ill person.