Essay Sample on Mental Health Stigma

Mental health stigma has been a problem for many years. “In 2019 87% of college students felt overwhelmed by all they had to do, 66% felt overwhelming anxiety, 56% felt things were hopeless and 13% seriously considered suicide.” Mental health needs to be talked about more to get rid of the stigma, help people learn how to talk about it and how people can learn how to treat it.

The first thing we need to do is get rid of the stigma with mental health.

Some ways we can do that are to empower students by increasing self-knowledge, so they can effectively identify problems early and gain access to supportive resources. Another way they could do this is to create a decision tree at schools that will help students know when they should reach out for help.  Also, schools can help motivate and encourage students to make an online portal of some type to show their progress, it could be written as well. Students could as well as share resources they find with other peers or teachers. Schools could also look at things that might stress kids out, this can include homework, figuring out what classes to take, getting help when they need it, and helping them find the major and career they want. One way we can deal with the stigma with mental health is to see that we are not that different, one thing one school did screenings with teens as they were randomly assigned to undergo mental health screenings. Some of these screenings wherewith and without questions probed suicidal feelings and behaviors. The results might sock you the students who were asked these questions were neither more distressed nor more suicidal than those who were not. Among high-risk students with a known history of depression or suicide attempts, the ones that had been asked about suicidal thoughts and feelings felt less depressed and suicidal. 

People do not know how to talk about mental health and it's affecting more than you would think. Male suicides made up 4,590 of the 5,981 suicides of 2012. The main issue is even though women have a higher chance of suffering from depression they are more likely and more willing to seek treatment. Men these days are always told to “just get over stuff.” or “you need to act more like a man. This creates a sense of isolation and they feel like they are all alone. One man had OCD and wore gloves because of the job he had, and he would get made fun of, when he told his dad he said” just get over it.” males can find it hard to talk to other men because the other men get so unconfinable with it. Many men have tried to go to professional but they never got what they were looking for. Also, suicide is not just a “white people thing” all races have suicides they just do not be talked about as much or paid much attention to. In the African-American community to label suicide as “crazy” or that you are not praying enough. People in this community and others like Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian are less likely to acknowledge the possibility of having a health condition or seek treatment. Whites have a suicide rate of 18.5 while African-Americans make up about 12-13% of the population they are not counted in the suicide rate. They also do not seek help mainly African-American boys are more likely to be labeled as“weak” or “not a real man.”

Some people believe that mental health should not be talked about because they think that no one would understand, or they would be made fun of.  Some people questioned the effectiveness of the study argued that they were little evidence that this intervention prevents young people from committing suicide. Of course proof any intervention reduces the suicide rate is a high bar to get past.  However, the rarity would necessitate that a very large group would have to be studied over a long period of time to get demonstrate efficacy. Still, preliminary evidence suggests that screenings have some positive effects. One follow-up survey of parents of children who were identified through TeenScreen as having clinically significant psychiatric symptoms including attempting suicide found that 72% of the parents reported that their child was doing very well or had significantly improved.

People also do not know how to treat mental health and what could work and what could not. Some people think it's the cost that mental health care would cost, but there are examples in the private sector that access to quality mental health care ultimately results in cost savings. we are a false economy if we think limiting coverage for treatment for mental health and therefore limiting our access ultimately saves us money. Many of the problems people nowadays are facing can be preventable with intervention and treatment. Almost 14 million children have a diagnosable mental disorder, but only one-third receive help. Our older citizens are at very high risk as well, this coverage may not allow their problems to be handled effectively.

At the end of the day mental health is getting more attention but not as much, so if you are having issues, or know someone who is having issues with mental health reach out, and help them find help, be there for them like they talk to you and just do not let mental health go unheard about.