What’s something that every teenager says? There are probably many different things that popped in your head. However, the one I’m going to be talking about is the phrase, “I’m stressed out”, a phrase that has become common our generation. Most of the time stress is normal, healthy even, but sometimes it’s a warning for something bigger. How can you tell the difference? How do you know if your stress is normal? That can be a difficult question to answer. According to the National Alliance for Mental Disorders, excessive worry or anxiety, feeling excessively sad or low, feeling excessively angry or frustrated, not having consistent sleeping and eating habits, and excessive difficulty concentrating or staying still are all warning signs for mental disorders (NAMI). One word that stands out here is “excessive”. This can be difficult to determine and we can’t expect teens to figure it out on their own. Teens should go through mental health screenings once they enter high school and should be required to have check-ups throughout high school. …show more content…
Some of these are things such as all people with mental illnesses are violent and unpredictable or that people with mental illnesses can’t hold jobs, or even that mental illnesses are just an excuse for weakness (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services). These are all examples of stigma. The definition of stigma according to Merriam-Webster dictionary is “a mark of disgrace or dishonor”. We are isolating people with mental disorders because they are different, because we can’t understand them so there must be something wrong with them. And it’s such a small portion of the population right? Wrong. 10-20% of children and adolescents have some type of mental disorder