The mental health crisis is a well-known crisis but also commonly misunderstood, in my opinion. Many people I have talked to, such as my parents and other people my age and older, think that the mental health crisis among teens is a far-away problem that does not affect the people around them. The premise many people who claim to support those facing mental health issues is that they should be able to seek help, they should have people to talk to, and that they should be able to feel better. The reality is these good-natured sympathizers are rarely willing to support those with mental health issues. They advocate for increasing therapists’ availability, but when someone close to them or under their care asks to seek help, they refuse. People usually claim to have good intentions, but when faced with a real situation with someone they care about, they turn away from those good intentions and revert to behavior that perpetuates the crisis. In this post, I will try to tackle some misconceptions about the teen mental health crisis and some ways to help.
Let’s start with some misconceptions.
The biggest misconception I have encountered is that the mental health crisis affects an ambiguous group of people far away from us, presumably teens who dye their hair. It should be pretty clear why this isn’t true, but I’ll spell it out anyway. Anyone can be affected by mental health, whether that be depression, social anxiety, panic attacks, dysphoria, and a slew of others.
I know that especially adults think that the mental health crisis would never affect their child. This misconception is harmful for many reasons, but primarily it can cause people to be oblivious to those around them who might be struggling. This obliviousness can manifest itself when they say something off about a mental health issue near a friend who may be struggling. It can also mean that if someone struggling does come to them, they may either react poorly or stay in denial because they never considered they would ever have to face this crisis outside of the news. The mental health crisis is real, and it could affect anybody no matter how they may seem on the outside.
The next misconception is that one is depressed, anxious, panicking, and suicidal all the time or are fine in every way. This misconception is problematic because it invalidates those that are not struggling as much as cliché stories portray, but still need help with their mental health. Having mental health issues is not an on and off switch, or even a spectrum between struggling a lot and fine but is instead a combination of many different sections and issues. For example, someone might be very depressed, but not anxious at all, or someone might be dysphoric and have panic attacks but not depressed at all, or someone could be mildly depressed. All of these different combinations deserve validation and attention and treating mental health as one question avoids giving people the help they need.
Now let’s talk about some ways to help. There are many different ways to help those struggling with mental health issues, and you have to pander to the specific needs of the people seeking help. There is no one way to help everyone, not everyone will be cured by therapy, drugs won’t solve everything, but there are a couple of guidelines to follow when helping those struggling with our mental health. The most important mantra to remember is that is someone reaches out for help, do your best to understand and help them. If your previous understanding of how to deal with mental health isn’t helping them, change it. If you thought this person was terrific yesterday and are just having a bad day, realize that what they have been showing you isn’t what they truly feel. People tend to deny the feelings of those that reach out, and doing this can make them feel invalid and make their fight even harder. The most important thing to remember is that you care about this person and should help them in any way they want you to. Another guideline to follow is to refrain from saying things like “just be happy” or “just power through it; tomorrow will be better.” Phrases or sayings like these don’t help at all; they sidestep the actual issue. They seem optimistic but invalidate the arduous struggle these people are facing. Remember that the solutions that work for you may be entirely useless for those of us struggling. The most important guideline to remember is empathy. Try to imagine what the other person is feeling, and act based on how you think they would best want to be treated.
Mental health isn’t a simple issue and doesn’t have a simple solution, but I hope I helped some people correct some misconceptions, and maybe even proposed some useful guidelines. I am in no way an expert and this should definitely not be the last thing you read or digest when learning about the mental health crisis, but these are just my thoughts. Thanks for reading.
