HealthTree Blog

The Canadian Press reported that a new study revealed that more teens are having mental health issues in this generation than in previous ones. Specifically, five times more high school and college students are being diagnosed with mental illness than they were in the Great Depression era. Since this is a pretty big jump – it may be useful to look at the reasons why.

The Great Depression and Mental Health

Mental health has been around since the dawn of time; however, people have not started to accept it until the last few years. Even still, there is a stigma surrounding it and many people continue to believe that it doesn’t exist. So, if people during this age still have doubts of the validity of mental illness, what do you think they thought back in the Great Depression? I’m willing to bet that people were just as mentally ill back then as they are now, it’s just that no one talked about it and no one did anything about it. People just lived in their misery and were ridiculed for acting out. If people were uncontrollable they were sent to a hospital and that was it for them.

Stress Then and Now

People will tell you that it was hard back then and I am not discounting that at all. I am sure that it was harder than we all could imagine. However, teens in this age are accustomed to a different way of life compared to the Great Depression days. When you’re used to one way of life and then are thrown into  another bombarded with stress, you go into shock and this can bring out a mental illness.

What to Do with the Information

Instead of alarming people of the high statistics of teen mental health problems, it may be more useful to discuss how we will help the youth of today. They are reaching out for help more than ever because they know there is help out there…somewhere. People need to be supportive of teens and not only encourage them to succeed but also show that failure comes with its lessons. Not only that, they need to know that a mental health issue is not the end of the road but rather a speed bump in life.

Photo Courtesy of: Made Underground on Flickr