Mental Health Issues - Essay Example

Just like pollution and climate change, mental health has been a topic of discussion in almost all states in the contemporary world. People are losing their mental health due to circumstances that have been ignored or rather unaddressed. And because the topic is not being addressed, many people are losing themselves into mental illnesses. As such, mental health is defined as a state of well-being whereby an individual makes a realization of his or her potential, is capable of coping with the normal stresses of life, is able to work fruitfully and productively, and is also able to contribute normally o his/her community. The above-stated definition of mental health is the meaning of a normal average mental health of a human being. It is sad to admit that researches from various fields, especially psychology, have concluded that the mental health of individuals today is not something that contemporary society should be proud of because people are losing themselves into mental illnesses. In retrospect, this paper discusses mental health comprehensively, review articles from various scholars regarding mental health, and also tackle the health eight standards.

The articles Celebrities opening up about Mental Health Issues May Especially Help Adolescents and The Kids are not alright arguing many reasons for mental health, and they both bear valid points for the causatives of mental health issues among adolescents. The first article of Celebrities opening up about Mental Health Issues May Especially Help Adolescents, which was authored by a psychologist known as Amitha Kalaichandran, discusses about the way in which celebrities have a chance to stand as well as educate the public about mental illness. The article perceives that the more the public is educated on the topic, there would be a very little stigma towards mental illness. The video that was recorded on Facebook by Sinead O’ Conner supports Amitha’s idea after the video portrayed Sinead in tears due to mental depression. Sinead said in her video, "The stigma doesn't give a shit who you are, I'm one of the millions." The video by Sinead has been so impactful to the adolescent in society today. In Amitha's articles, there is one scenario whereby Amitha had interviewed one of the teenage girls in Canada. The question that the author asked the girl was the person who was the biggest influencer of the girl's life, and she said Jenner Kendall reason being, they have uniform physical attributes as well as the same kind of mental health (Kalaichandran, 2017). The girl admitted that when Kendall announced that she was suffering from mental illness, the girl felt relieved because she got to understand that she was not undergoing the issue all alone. According to the research that was carried out by the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 12 percent of the teenagers from the age of 12 to 17 had at least one major episode of depression in the year 2015. The article also suggests that the National Institute of mental health also recorded that 25% of kids from the age of 13 to 18 have once in their lifetime experienced long term anxiety or rather a disorder related to anxiety. Out of the 25 % of the kids, the condition of the 5% of them has been considered severe. The article further has it that the reason as to why more children are encountering depression episodes is because of how the media portray the adolescents. The article further argues that, even though there is a lot of stigmatization surrounding mental health issues in the media, some of the experts argue that with time, the stigma will lessen, although it will never end.

In the second article, The Kids are not Right by Mona Charen, mental health was and has been addressed as one of the rising pandemics. As per Mona, the children that are living in single-parent families undergo a lot of depressive states while growing up. They are also the leading group of individuals to experience severe anxiety, including other mental health illnesses. Mona's article discusses research that was done by Bureau Economic Analysis, and it concluded that between the years 1950-1990, the rate of suicide among the children from single parent families tripled (Charen, 2017). Yet the suicide rate during the Second World War, great depression, among other toughest times was lower.

Furthermore, the article, “Mental Health Issues Can be misinterpreted on Films” is an article by Donley Megan that discusses how people misinterpreted the media when it comes to mental illness. The article poses a question on whether people should really believe whatever they see on TV, internet, books, etc. as per the article, stereotyping and creating jokes about mental health issues is much harmful than it is cool or funny. This is because they create misconceptions and distance individuals from the fact that we are all humans; it is just that we cannot be the same (Donley, 2015). The minority, who feel affected by such acts, get stigmatized. Besides, there are higher chances that every human on earth has at least one family member with mental illness. Thus there is no need to make jokes about the issue. Mental illness comes as a result of how parents bring up their children. Too much exposure to social media will definitely result in depression because of what is there in the media.

In my opinion, mental health is an issue that needs to be addressed now. A lot of people are losing themselves into mental disorders. I think that social media is the leading cause of mental illnesses, especially among teenagers. Whatever they see on the television or other media sites makes them want to live in such a manner. In the future, there are higher chances that people will be striving to live a life that is not theirs, a copied life. Thus it is predictable that if the issue is not addressed now, many people will lose themselves into depression and suicide.

Consequently, there are eight standards that discuss various health concepts that are useful in handling health issues, including mental health. The first standard rationalizes that the acquisition of the secondary concepts of health as well as functional health know-how gives a base to promoting positive health behaviors among the youth. This standard contains important techniques that are founded on grounded theories and models of health conduct. In addition, the rationale of the second standard is that health is impacted by various positive and negative influences in society. This standard gives focus on the identification of the diverse internal and external factors that affect health practices and behaviors among the youth.

The third standard discusses the ability to access valid information, product and services to enhance health. This standard tries to imply that access to valid information and products that promote health is important in prevention, early detection and also treatment of health issues. This standard primarily focuses on various techniques that can be used to access valid and legitimate health resources to reject unproven sources. To empower students to achieve health literacy, skills analysis application, comparison and evaluation of health resources is vital. Moreover, the rationale of the 4th standard is that effective communication is useful in enhancing personal, family and community health. The standard gives focus on the way in which responsible people apply verbal and nonverbal techniques to improve and uphold healthy individual associations.

Moreover, the rationale of the 5th standard is that in order to sustain health enhancing behaviors decision making skills are required because they help in identification, implementation and sustenance. This standard includes the important steps that are required to make healthy decisions. The importance of decision making in health issues is that it enables a person to cooperate with other to improve life quality. Furthermore, the 6th standards, rationalizes that goal-setting skills are important to assist learners in identifying, adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors. This standards comprises the important steps required to meet both long term and short term health goals. These skills are important because they enable the individuals to aspire and make future plans. As per the 7th standard, the research confirms that, practicing health-enhancing behaviors is useful in that it makes a contribution into positive life quality. A lot of diseases and injuries can be prevented through reduction of damaging conducts. And finally, the 8 standard rationalizes that skills on advocacy are useful to students because they promote healthy norms and codes of conduct. This standard is important to students because it helps them to develop vital skills to target their health-enhancing communications and inspire others to adopt fit behaviors.

Conclusively, it is evident that many people are suffering from mental health issues. Therefore, there is need to tackle the issues as early as possible to avoid future regrets. The eight standards can be used as one of the technique among others to help tackle the problem.