Kill the Stigma!

Photo by Donna Permell

Many of our youth are not getting help with their mental health needs because of the powerful stigma towards mental health therapy in school organizations. Teenagers' suicide rates, eating disorders, cutting, bully, teen violence, substance abuse, and exclusion of others that are different have increased drastically around the world. We need parents, teachers, media or leaders to encourage our youth to talk about their feelings and give them a safe place to express how they feel. Most try to change our teen’s behaviors without understanding why they have the behaviors in the first place. This approach is not healthy for anyone emotionally or mentally, even for adults or seniors.  Causing anyone to feel less valuable about his or her mental state is not the best approach if we desire change or better outcomes. There should be no form of shame for having mental illnesses, but compassion and positive tools to help those in need to cope and gain recovery.

Hopefully, President Obama for the United State of America  decision to put in action more mental health services in the school organizations and placing an emphasis on prevention, early identification and treatment of mental health conditions help remove this stigma. It is crucial that trained, qualified mental health providers are ready to assist with this directive from President Obama. Plus all people understand the importance of having strong mental health programs in public/private school systems or colleges and how this will impact the students in prevailing ways mentally. It’s going to take everyone to work together to erase the stigma towards mental health, especially if we really want to change and impact our future or world. The mental state of most our youth is not healthy for various reasons, so we need to take action rapidly.

Written by Nancia Leath, MA, LPC, NCC 

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