Mental health is a condition that is complex, and research is always critical to help understand more about mental health and how it affects teenagers in the present. Each illness has its own symptoms, but common signs of mental illness in adults and adolescents can include the following:
- Excessive worrying
- Change eating habits, either increased hunger and lack of appetite
- Inability to carry out normal day activities
- Frequent mood changes/swings
Mental health can also be a “quiet killer” as they call it. Not all teenagers show signs of a mental health disorder because they don’t know how or if it is safe to talk about it.
Now, one of the top leads of mental illness, suicide, and what causes it is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that takes place over digital devices like phones, computers, and laptops. Cyber bullying is one of the highest rated things that leads to mental health issues. The article https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it states that “Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation.” There is persistent bullying where it is continuously happening and easy to find, but there is also cyberbullying that is hard to notice because it doesn’t happen much, but could still affect your child. In 2022=[]
The School Crime Supplement indicates that nationwide, among students 12-18 who reported being bullied during school, about 21.6% of those students reported being bullied online or by text, including nearly twice as many females than males. Cyberbullying can lead to many things if it doesn’t get changed. 17.4% of teenagers took their life because of cyberbullying. This type of bullying can lead to self-harm, loss of self-esteem, shame and anxiety, etc. This is what leads to depression.
Depression is a common mental disorder. It involves a depressed mood or loss of pleasure from activities for long periods of time. More than 90% of teens who take their lives are because of depression. Depressive episodes can last from just one day to over two weeks. Depression can cause challenges in all daily aspects of life, whether it comes to school life or social life. From the article https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression it states “A depressive episode can be categorized as mild, moderate, or severe depending on the number and severity of symptoms, as well as the impact on the individual’s functioning”.
The people who are most commonly affected or known to suffer with a mental health illness are people who struggle with:
- Anxiety 19.1%
- Major depressive episode 8.3%
Demographic groups:
- Lesbian, gay or bisexual 50.2%
- Non-hispanic white 23.9%
- Non-hispanic mixed/multiracial 34.9%
Pay attention to the people you love. You never know what they are going through until it is too late. Do not make teenagers’ lives harder than it is. It is so much easier to be nice rather than put in the work to be mean. So being kind can save a life. If you ever need help and are having suicidal thoughts, call 800-950-6264.
