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.