hidden beneath

School is a place full of everything from lies, sports, boys, girls, teachers, and grades. In high school, this is our whole identity. We often keep our real identity masked, usually to keep afloat. Beneath all that though, lies a horrible, ghastly truth waiting to unravel: Depression.

There are many barriers to why teens don’t receive help for their depression. The main reason for teens not wanting to help themselves in their depression is the fear of what others think of them, the fear of their reputation & societal factors. Stigma is defined as negative beliefs and behaviors towards a group or people have about something. In the field of mental health, it’s associated with negative behaviors and the thought that mental health isn’t a real thing, and that it’s non existent. When people know about depression, they panic and often don’t know what to do, they often feel that if they get the treatment it’s a sin, and religious factors also lead to this. In various cultures, most notably of Confucianism contains that self-discipline and obedience to social order must be mantained to balance and that they must help others’ instead of helping themselves. Lastly, accessibility is one of the other major barriers leading for the treatment of mental health conditions. In rural parts of the country, mental health is non existent and the closest facility can often be hours & hours away, especially in a state like ours where there are lots of rural areas. This prevents lots of adolscents from receiving major help & the fact of lack of technological advacnements preventing them from joining virtually for therapy sessions. As you can see, barriers make it difficult for adolescents to receive treatment.

As a society, it’s important that we’re able to help our adolescents, especially adults. While it’s difficult to sometimes have children open up and for people suffering from depression to often open up about their condition, it’s important that we pinpoint to what depression exactly is and how we can help people with mental health conditions to feel safe.

From the need for better language for describing and associating with mental health conditions such as depression to the various barriers that prevent treatment, depression is a real issue that needs to eb treated. As a community, we can promote this by using better language to describe depression or stigmas. Advocating that it is okay to not be perfect & implementing better mental health services in schools and virtually are all factors contributing to why depression exists in adolescents and how we can help diminish depression in adolescents.

Sincerely,

Dear Youth Global

Aarav Varma