Newspaper headlines abound on a teenage mental health crisis. India Grills, 17, from Stafford Grammar School, says it is time for schools to act.
Being a teenager is a rollercoaster that even Alton Towers’ Smiler would struggle to compete with.
We’ve all had that talk about what will happen as we grow up. Teachers tell us about body odour, periods, and all the other physical changes we’ll experience as we become adults. But does this really prepare us for what we’re about to go through?
No matter how well-informed most people will be about the physical changes experienced in adolescence, for some reason we’re rarely told much about the mental and emotional sides of things.
Let’s look at mood swings. Sure, your teacher will mention how you might go from feeling happy one minute to depressed the next. They cover mood swings in theory. But what they don’t tell you is how that can really affect a person, and the distress and confusion it can cause.
Feeling a certain way for no apparent reason can be really frustrating, and then you become frustrated at this frustration, leading to a vicious cycle, trapping you in a net of negative emotions that you’re not sure how you started weaving in the first place.
Most importantly, we aren’t told how to deal with or lessen these feelings. If all teens knew techniques for enduring and calming their negative emotions, then the negative knock-on effects of arguments and anxiety would surely decrease.
Insecurity is also a massive issue. Especially as a girl, whether it’s physical or social, insecurity is a demon that so many of us have to face. It can cause social isolation. It can cause anorexiaAn eating disorder and serious mental health condition. It causes sufferers to attempt to keep their weight as low as possible.. Even though we’ve seen a radical change in awareness of how social media affects young people, many adolescents still compare themselves to what they see on their screens. The brief warnings we get that not everything we see online is real are not enough.
In today’s age of “mental health awareness”, it’s shocking that young teens are still written off as being “moody and hormonal”, and the potentially deeper causes aren’t considered.
According to a 2023 YoungMinds survey, one in five young people aged eight to 25 in the UK will experience a mental health issue. This should not be the case. People are made aware of symptoms for cancer and other diseases, so why not for mental health problems? Making teenagers aware of the causes and warning signs of mental illness would definitely help in reducing the number that will have to experience them.
Our teenage years are supposed to be the best of our lives, but how can that be so when so many of us spend them feeling confused and isolated? There needs to be a change to the PSHE curriculumThe subjects studied at school or during a course. . Young people aren’t being properly informed about the potential emotional rollercoaster they are about to ride. We should be given the necessary tools readily so we can make the most of our opportunities, not have to scramble around for them at the last minute when it’s potentially too late.
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Keywords
Anorexia – An eating disorder and serious mental health condition. It causes sufferers to attempt to keep their weight as low as possible.
Curriculum – The subjects studied at school or during a course.
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