tried to kill her
on the night of her suicide attempt we
were texting back and forth just like
any other night until I soon realized
she needed more help than I could offer
she was texting me about details of a
plan she had set for herself which
involved a mix of drugs from her mom’s
medicine cabinet I couldn’t believe she
was going through all this alone
I just wanted to be there with her but
had no way of getting to her her
scariest text to me read it’ll all be
over tomorrow I called 911 it– even
though she didn’t want me to and the
rest is a complete blur of terror and
worry as I waited for a response from
the police officer who was sent to check
on her thankfully she made it through
and is now seeing a therapist at first
she was really angry that I called 911
and brought so much attention to her but
when I saw her the week after she
thanked me this experience opened my
eyes to the power of peer support if my
friend hadn’t reached out and let me
know she was feeling desperately unhappy
and if I hadn’t gone against her will to
call 911 OS she would have received the
help she needed and be alive today I
realized then that it’s vital to have at
least one person to confide in when life
becomes too hard to face alone it’s
equally important to feel confident
talking about how her feeling seeking
help and using the resources around us
my friend felt like she had to keep the
difficult emotions who is experiencing
to herself and she kept it all locked up
inside her until she no longer knew how
to hold on she’s not the only one who’s
felt this way many of us teenagers feel
humiliated about wanting to see a
counselor are looking for help through
anonymous referral boxes at school
the stigma and negative perceptions of
going to therapy keeps many of us from
receiving the help we may need now we’ve
heard this word stigma has thrown around
a lot three out of four people with
mental illness report experiencing
stigma stigma is basically a mark of
disgrace or negative attribution that
sets a person apart for example when
someone is labeled by their mental
illness they’re seen as part of a
certain stereotyped group
stigma can also cause humiliation in
seeking help or treatment it’s important
to remember that shame or stigma they
don’t discriminate and meaning any or
all of us can experience this and
actually over half of all teens with
mental health difficulties try to cope
alone because asking for help around
these issues is so stigmatized
now although stigma doesn’t discriminate
and we can all experience stigma the
levels of stigma can actually vary
between certain demographics and social
groups for example African Americans and
Hispanic Americans used mental health
services at about half the rate of
Caucasian Americans in the past year and
Asian Americans at about one-third the
rate this shows that certain minority
groups in certain stereotype groups face
dual stigma or double stigma and this
causes them to seek out help even less
another example is seen with the LGBTQ
community who faced stigma and Prejudice
based on their sexual orientation or
gender identity while also grappling
with a societal bias against mental
health conditions now it’s important to
remember that mental health conditions
are so common that one in five teens
will experience a mental illness and
within this population over seventy
percent will not seek help this is a big
problem now we can put this stigma in
perspective by taking a look at how we
as a community generally think of mental
health conditions so if a student at the
school were to call in sick for having
the flu that’s fine that’s normal no
problem meaning we all get the flu and
there’s really no reason to think much
of it but on the other hand if a student
were to call in sick for having a panic
attack due to anxiety we may start to
question whether the student is
emotionally fit to be in a school
environment and we may unconsciously
start to treat this person differently
as if they’re weak or fragile or can’t
handle things and we may even start to
think to ourselves we’ll just get it
together this is wrong mental health is
just as important as physical health and
thus should be treated as such there’s
no reason to discriminate against mental
this like anxiety or bipolar disorder
while being more accepting a physical
illness like asthma or diabetes these
are just a few examples this
discrimination all only adds to the
shame of those living with mental health
conditions I truly believe we have to
fight the mental health stigma in order
to make any sort of progress in the
field of teen mental health and this
involves a change in mindset on our part
so rather than thinking of of seeking
help as a weakness we should seek help
because we want to remain strong
physically mentally emotionally strong
one way to chip away at the stigma of
counseling or seeking help is to form
more student-led support groups within
schools the basic solution to ending the
stigma is talk about it this can be done
by holding regular open meetings for
students to come together and share
coping strategies or simply have a
discussion about how life is going this
encourages us to support each other and
advocate for each other which may make
it easier for us to get vulnerable and
ask for help when we need it a teen run
peer support network would not be the
be-all end-all of mental health support
but it would be a big step forward
especially when combined with mental
health education and a list of readily
available professional resources this
three pronged approach could start a
revolution in adolescent mental
healthcare however unfortunately most
schools don’t have peer support groups
available for students and are also
lacking in mental health education the
media the school’s the parents teachers
students we’re all shouting that teen
mental health is an issue and we see
these types of depictions all over the
place yet there’s still so much to be
done and we have so much progress to
make to make in the area of breaking
down the stigma our progress can start
here with us as a high school talking
about it and practicing empathy my
friend suicide attempt made me realize
how important it is to simply start the
discussion about mental health and
spread the message to those who are
hurting you are not alone dr. Adil Shyam
a Stanford psychiatry
says quote reaching out to people early
and sharing how we’re feeling not only
helps you but it helps those around you
feel more comfortable talking about how
they feel too now you don’t have to be a
psychiatrist to understand or share this
advice the idea is that sharing our
feelings is contagious the more we get
vulnerable and we share how we’re we
share how we’re feeling the more
comfortable others around us feel
talking about how they feel too and it’s
sort of the cycle that just continues
erasing the stigma so basically thinking
about this one way to talk about these
difficult topics is to do it with your
classmates your teammates your friends
people who you feel you are similar to
and that would understand and support
you I want to go back to this concept of
peer support since it’s incredibly
significant for us as teenagers who are
more likely to confide in relate to and
listen to other teenagers rather than
our parents or adults peer support can
be defined as the process of giving and
receiving encouragement and assistance
in order to achieve long term well-being
as apear what you can do is offer
emotional support share knowledge teach
skills and connect people with resources
communities of support and other people
peer support has been proven to improve
the quality of life and also reduce the
cost of mental health services peer
support all begins with a conversation a
story shared an experience highlighted
or an emotion conveyed with each emotion
thought story experience that we share
we spread the message that it’s really
okay to talk about mental health and how
we’re feeling a revolution in teen
mental healthcare can start with us
sharing and talking about it so that
others can get information comfort and
feel like part of a community the
biggest thing we forget is that we’re
not alone we all experience times of
difficulty disappointment and
discouragement high school is a hard
time and life naturally has its ups and
downs we need to support each other and
learn from difficult times as they shape
so it’s important to the more we talk
about our mental health experiences the
more we realize that we’re really not
alone and the easier it will be for us
to ask for help when we need it a good
question to start asking in order to
open this discussion around mental
health is not how are you because we all
know the answer is fine but ask how are
you really I encourage all of you to
find a person a classmate teacher friend
someone you feel you can understand
trust and confide in sometimes all we
really need is the trusted ear that’s
willing to listen in order for us to
voice our thoughts the more we talk
about our mental health again the more
we realize we’re not alone and we’re
really all normal and that asking for
help should not be humiliating so don’t
be afraid of sharing your story and your
emotions it will inspire others to share
to speak up about theirs and share out
too
thank you [Applause]