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Alex Kistler

Mrs. Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 1010, Section 4

4 December 2018

Mental Health Crisis among Adolescents and Young Adults

I used to live in the town over and my family decided to move out of a bad neighborhood

into a better one. I lost all of my friends and had to make a fresh start. My parents put me the

little league football team and I made a few friends during those times, but I quit football because

it wasn't for me, but the friends remained. A few years later when I was in the ninth grade I was

at a very low point in my life. I felt like I had nobody to relate and be with, school was bringing

me down, and there were no highs in my every day, just lows. I was on the basketball team

which was my favorite part of my day, and I felt left out. The majority of my friends that I made

during football spent time with their other friends that they had known for longer than me and I

did not get invited to the activities. It sent me into a state of depression.

I spoke to my parents about it and how I felt and they sent me to a therapist. But it took

me several months to grow the courage to talk to her about it. I felt nervous. I met with her for

about four sessions, and it changed my life. She gave me great advice on how to talk to my

friends about how I felt and what to do when I start feeling down. I followed her advice and

spoke with my friends about my situation and it made them realize what I’ve been going

through. I started being included more and it made me happy. I also learned that I don’t have to

be friends with everybody and I should keep a close core of friends with me who I trust.
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These few years taught me that mental illness is a very important issue in young persons.

According to studies done on mental health stigma, “Approximately 20% of youths suffer from a

mental illness” (Bulanda, Bruhn et al. 73). During such a developmental period, it may be

difficult for a young person to deal with. There is a stigma around mental health, causing youth

to not want to seek out treatment or care for their illness. Stigma is defined as a mark of disgrace

associated with a particular circumstance, quality or person. According to The U.S. Surgeon

General, “twenty percent of youths suffer from a mental disorder that produces at least mild

functional impairment,” (Bulanda, Bruhn et al. 73). Certain studies, such as the one stated above

and the ones following, provide information alluding to the fact that exercise and sleep patterns

directly affect mental health. Those two factors alone are very prominently lacking features

among students. Mental Health in youth is an important subject that should be treated more

severely. More types of treatment should be provided for mental health in schools and

households to provide easier access for young persons to receive aid.

Figure 1. A brief chart about the statistics about mental health.

(Nelson, Angela. “Teen Mental Health Problems: The Statistics Are Eye-Opening.” ​SafeBee,​
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Web, 16 Oct. 2015, )

The Mental Health crisis proposes many solutions to one large problem. But before a

solution is proposed, a stigma must be addressed. ¨Mental health stigma (MHS) is understood as

the result of four social-cognitive processes: cues, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.¨

(Bulanda et al. 74). These four processes follow a specific path leading to the MHS. Cues tell

how the public identifies a person with a form of illness, in this case mental health. The

stereotypes deal with the public associating bad things with mental health, making them fear,

dislike or discriminate against said person. Those assumptions lead to prejudice, often leading to

other discriminatory action. Those things are leading mental health patients to believe that their

illness is wrong causing low self-esteem and a lack of seeking further treatment.

A majority of time in the life of an adolescent person is at school. College students have

been considered a breed of people who tend to get less sleep due to schoolwork. A study done on

depression and sleep patterns proves that, “43.5% of participants have experienced depression

for more then two weeks at some point in their lifetime and 38% consistently reported trouble

going to sleep or remaining asleep.” (Brooks, Peggy R et al 1 ) This is proving that there may be

a link between sleep patterns and depression. As well as sleep is important to mental health,

physical activity also plays a large part in the mental health. It is common knowledge that a

majority of college student's physical activity decreases after high school, and a study done by

Amir Bhochhibhoya MBA, and Paul Branscum PHD (et al), connects ones mental health and

physical activity. From this study, it states that “34% of college students have been reported as

overweight or obese.” (Bhochhibhoya, Branscum et al 191). It is also known that obesity leads to

cardiovascular diseases. If you make the tie between mental illness and physical health, you will
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realize that, “Individuals with major depression had a 4.5 times higher risk of a cardiovascular

disease.” (Bhochhibhoya, Branscum et al 192). A test was done by individuals cited above

attempting to prove the link between mental health and physical health. The test was done on

college students and the people who were overseeing the test had the students take a mental

health survey and a physical activity. The results showed that students with lower physical

activity had a lower mental health score.

Mental health can be related to several factors in our lives, especially in adolescents. It

may be hard for a young adult to talk about their feelings and mental health due to a known

stigma relating to mental health. Sleep patterns, especially lack of sleep, have been proven to

lead to depression and other forms of mental illnesses. Lack of exercise also has been proven to

affect mental health. These are very serious circumstances that may be hard for a college student

to maintain. However, some solutions for maintaining one's mental health and accepting the

stigma related to it.

In order to be rid of the MHS, society needs to be more accepting of mental health. There

are many youth led projects happening around the world that promote mental health as a normal

thing for people that age to be struggling with. A study done by Jeffrey Bulanda, Christine Bruhn

et al written in 2014 titled, “The S.P.E.A.K. Program,” tests on middle schoolers and their

awareness to mental health. S.P.E.A.K. stands for share, peace, equality, awareness, and

knowledge, and the goal of this project was to develop innovative ways to lower the amount of

MHS, also to encourage that asking for help is okay and there is help. This project was run and

overlooked by university students. This experiment was directed to sixth through eighth graders.

There were after school sessions that the students would go to and watch videos and have
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discussions about their feeling and solutions. The after school activities tested for two things,

how the subjects would respond to factual statements about mental illness, and responses to

social distance statements. The results proved that as little as speaking about mental illness with

the youth can further someone’ acceptance for mental health. This study proves that if mental

health awareness and acceptance is promoted at a young age, children will be more accepting of

themselves and others. (Bulanda, Bruh et al 73.)

A school based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) workshop has proven direct

influences on adolescent mental health. A program meant to test mental health using CBT used

this experiment ;

“aimed to develop an age-appropriate community-based programme for older adolescents

experiencing emotional problems. This involved adapting a 1-day CBT workshop format

that has been used successfully in community settings with adults, and producing a novel

open-access intervention for 16-18 year olds.” (Sclare, Michelson et al 102)

Their method was to advertise the workshop sessions in local schools, and to hold the workshops

at local community centers hosted by clinical psychologists. The workshops lasted for 6 hours

and ran within a 4-month period. The workshops were intervention based, CBT model of their

emotions and how they feel during certain situations. They also talked about personal goals, and

how it can be achievable. The participants received a phone call one week later to check on their

progress towards said goals and to review some problem solving techniques. After five

workshops, significant improvement was recorded by the psychologists. 15% improved with

anxiety, 35% improved with overall mood, with no serious deterioration on either measure
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(Sclare, Michelson et al 102). This model of therapy and intervention shows promising results

for mental health in young persons.

Telemental therapy is therapy done through the internet, telemental therapy is a growing

source of help for children and adolescents. A large majority of time for youth is spent on the

internet, so having a type of platform to provide help for people who don't have time or resources

to visit a therapist in person. This type of therapy may be the answer for mental health in

adolescents and young adults. The majority of telemental therapy is done through and outpatient

setting, allowing for more therapy to be done for more patients in a shorter amount of time. Most

younger children do not have the resources to receive aid for their mental health. So telemental

therapy can be easily accessed for anybody to speak with an online therapist. Telemental therapy

can be a revolutionary treatment for mental health for the young persons around the world.

Mental health is one of the largest problems among the youth. There are many problems

revolving around mental health and illnesses like stigma, physical activity and sleep patterns. A

significant portion of the youth are affected by one or more of those factors, and the solutions are

extremely simple, but need more implementation in the daily lives of young people. We are at an

all time low in young generation’s mental health. However, due to modern medicine and further

research, there is treatment for mental health that is proven to be successful, as long as it is

implemented correctly.

Addressing MHS is the first step in treating mental health. Finding a way to implement

education on mental health in classes at school, parents at home, extra curricular activities,

anything that a young person may do, will alleviate some stigma surrounding mental health. That

will make the topic easier for people to speak and discuss and seek further treatment for
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themselves and others. Correcting one's sleep and exercise patterns has also proven to be helpful

for treating an individual's mental health. Getting at least 8 hours of sleep and 1 hour of exercise

is recommended to keep your mental health in pristine condition. A form of therapy called

telemental therapy is designed to be accessed through the internet making its services easily

accessible for everyone. Having a source of treatment online may be revolutionary for young

persons with limited resources, and allow them to seek treatment if they so wish.

With all of this information, society should be more aware of mental health and illnesses

and be more accepting to alleviate stigma . Treatment should be easily accessible and helpful for

anyone participating. A certain level of sleep and exercise should be required daily to insure that

a person is healthy and keeping up on good habits. If someone you know has a mental illness or

has mental health issues, give them the care they need and help them find treatment.
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Works Cited

ACMH. (2018). ​Children's Mental Health Treatment and Support | Association for Children's
Mental Health.​ [online] Available at:

http://www.acmh-mi.org/get-information/childrens-mental-health-101/treatments-support

s/ [Accessed 15 Nov. 2018].

Bhochhibhoya, Amir, et al. “Exploring the Relationships of Physical Activity, Emotional

Intelligence, and Mental Health among College Students.” ​American Journal of Health

Studies,​ vol. 29, no. 2, June 2014, pp. 191–198. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=97505667&site=ehost-live.

Brenner, Sharon L., et al. “Mental Health Service Use Among Adolescents Following

Participation in a Randomized Clinical Trial for Depression.” ​Journal of Clinical Child &

Adolescent Psychology​, vol. 44, no. 4, July 2015, pp. 551–558. ​EBSCOhost​,

doi:10.1080/15374416.2014.881291.

Brooks, Peggy R., et al. “Sleep Patterns and Symptoms of Depression in College Students.”

College Student Journal,​ vol. 43, no. 2, June 2009, pp. 464–472. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=42517495&site=ehost-live.

Bulanda, Jeffrey J., et al. “Addressing Mental Health Stigma among Young Adolescents:

Evaluation of a Youth-Led Approach.” ​Health & Social Work​, vol. 39, no. 2, May 2014,

pp. 73–80. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=96390684&site=ehost-live.
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Gloff, Nicole E., et al. “Telemental Health for Children and Adolescents.” ​International Review

of

Psychiatry,​ vol. 27, no. 6, Dec. 2015, pp. 513–524. ​EBSCOhost​,

doi:10.3109/09540261.2015.1086322.

Nelson, Angela. “Teen Mental Health Problems: The Statistics Are Eye-Opening.” ​SafeBee,​

Web, 16 Oct. 2015,

Sclare, Irene, et al. “Innovations in Practice: DISCOVER CBT Workshops for 16-18-Year-Olds:

Development of an Open-Access Intervention for Anxiety and Depression in Inner-City

Youth.” ​Child & Adolescent Mental Health,​ vol. 20, no. 2, May 2015, pp. 102–106.

EBSCOhost​, doi:10.1111/camh.12060.

Wunsch, K., Kasten, N. and Fuchs, R. (2018). The effect of physical activity on sleep quality,

well-being, and affect in academic stress periods. [online] NCBI. Available at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5414656/ [Accessed 15 Nov. 2018].