1/8/16

By: Trinity Smith

The life of a teen, messy, complicated, drama filled, and difficult. Here is the question everyone seems to ask as a teen, why is it so difficult? For some it’s harder for others, but everyone goes through something as a teen, no one’s life is perfect. That pretty popular girl you think has the perfect life, for all you know she could have an abusive, alcoholic father. That girl who sits in the corner and everyone just kind of avoids, could be suffering from many different mental illnesses. That girl who everyone thinks is awkward and has no friends, could be suffering from severe anxiety and be terrified to leave her own house, let alone talk to people. So why does everyone assume people have perfect lives?

People are naive. We all tend to just assume things about people without getting to know them. Now think about it like this. A girl has serious depression. Doesn’t want to get out of bed, doesn’t want to talk to anyone. Her grades are slipping, her own mind seems to be giving up on itself. Now think, she is walking through the halls feeling alone, and someone looks at her, with her head down and they laugh to themselves and then trip her. What does this girl think to herself. A girl who her worst enemy is herself, who do you think she will blame. Maybe she has had a horrible day, and that one thing pushes her over the edge. She goes and hides in the bathroom, crying.

Would you want to be that girl? Broken and alone? Would you want to cause someone to feel like that, to hurt even more than they do already. Imagine that popular girl who has those things happening at home is anorexic, and hates her face and her body. Someone looks her in the face and insults her. Tells her that what she is wearing makes her look fat, or her makeup looks ugly. Something they think is harmless, but what if it’s not harmless to her. The girl fakes a smile everyday, how long is it before she finally breaks?  

20% of teens ages 13-18 live with a mental health condition. 11% of youth have a mood disorder. 10% of youth have a behavior or conduct disorder. 8% have an anxiety disorder. Suicide is the main cause of death in people ages 10-24, and 90% of people who have killed themselves had an underlying mental illness. Approximately 50% of ages 14 and up with a mental health disorder dropout of school, that’s half of them. Nearly 80,000 children and young adults suffer from severe depression and nearly 8,000 kids under the age of 10 suffer from it.

There are so many more statistics out there that support all of this. But think about this, they’re are 9 year olds out there with severe depression. And then few more shocking statistics. Between 1 in every 12 and 1 in every 15 children and young adults suffer from some form of self harm. Over the past 10 years the amount of young people being admitted to the hospital because of self harm has jumped 68%. You never know what the person sitting next to you could be struggling with. You never know what the gorgeous popular girl thinks about herself. You never know how much the girl who avoids everyone and keeps to herself is actually dealing with. You also never know what the poor awkward girl who doesn’t talk to people struggles with every day. Is this always the case? No. but should you keep in mind that it should be, well after reading all of this, that’s up to you.

Credits:

http://www.youngminds.org.uk/training_services/policy/mental_health_statistics

https://www.nami.org/getattachment/Learn-More/Mental-Health-by-the-Numbers/childrenmhfacts.pdf