Finally breaking the ice on mental illness
By Defne Alpay ‘20
Ever since sophomore year, I’ve walked onto campus with a smile plastered on my face even though I know that I’m faking it three-quarters of the time. I’ve sat in the student lounge with my friends and felt upset that I couldn’t find the energy within me to join them in their easy conversation. I’ve wondered why it hurts to laugh and why smiling has become just something that tenses up the muscles in my cheeks and nothing more. I’ve often snoozed my alarm more than three times, not because getting up early is a struggle, but because making the decision to combat the ongoing feeling of emptiness for a day is genuinely exhausting. I’ve overheard my parents say to one another, “She smiles less than she used to,” and I’ve felt guilty.
Graphic by Defne Alpay. Statistic from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
I’ve heard the statistic “one in five teens suffer from a mental illness” more times that I can remember throughout high school and never once did I ever think that I would be the one in that statistic.
The statistic I’ve heard since ninth grade is still as real as ever. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one in five adolescents currently has or will have a serious mental health disorder at some point in their lives, and 50% of all mental health disorders manifest before age 14.
Take a look around you. Chances are that you’ve met someone dealing with mental illness whether you knew it or not.
With such a common issue, it seems reasonable that there would be open conversations regarding the subject. However, despite the commonality of mental illness among adolescents and adults, addressing the topic is challenging and often ignored both within the CGS community and in high schools in the greater Portland area.
Challenges in Facilitating Conversations about Mental Illness
Lene Stockton is a CGS alum from the Class of 2019 who co-founded the former Mental Health Awareness/Psychology Club (2017-2019) with Lily Vollum. Stockton commented on the challenges of addressing mental health openly within the CGS community.
“A lot of pushback [to discuss mental illness] came from the administration. For the first assembly we had, Lily and I wanted to acknowledge the fact that both of us have had struggles with mental illness and specifically name the mental illness,” said Stockton. “We thought that a big step in acknowledging that mental illness is a thing on Catlin’s campus would be to acknowledge our own issues. However, they didn’t want us to do that because they were worried about triggering audience members.”
While the assembly conflict was a one-time occurrence, Stocken’s goal to create an official policy surrounding trigger warnings was met with similar apprehensiveness.
“I would say that the main pushback I got was an unwillingness to budge and an unwillingness to work on [the school’s approach to mental illness]. There are solutions to the issues that Catlin has, but it’s just really a question of how willing they are to change,” Stockton stated.
The silence around mental illness is not limited to CGS. Sofia Braun, a sophomore at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, described how Lincoln handles conversations about mental illness.
“At Lincoln, there are definitely negative connotations around people who do have mental illnesses,” Braun said. “I think a lot of people often times just like to make fun of. It can be very awkward to talk about.”
As a result of the silencing culture around mental health in her own high school, Braun joined the Mental Health Youth Advocates group (MHYA) and is a leader for the 2019-2020 year. MHYA works to destigmatize mental illness in schools around the Portland metro area through comprehensive mental health curriculum and teen-to-teen support. MHYA actually attended CGS’s annual Diversity Summit last year (2018-2019) to present to students, which is where I first learned about the group.
“I felt like I wanted to make a difference. Everything surrounding mental health in Portland seems very stigmatized to me,” Braun explained. “I wanted to develop a curriculum with MHYA that would make [the curriculum] super inclusive and comprehensive and educate people on the stigmas [surrounding mental illness] and how mental health and illness works for different people.”
Unlike many other groups, MHYA is completely teen-led and teen-taught. However, teachers and administrators have sometimes been apprehensive about MHYA coming into classrooms and presenting their curriculum due to the teen-to-teen teaching element.
“Obviously, we don’t have certificates and we’re not actual therapists or licensed psychologists,” Braun stated. “But we do know how teens are affected by mental health and mental illness, so we do have a unique perspective. Odds are that if you’re learning about mental illness or mental health from an adult, they were raised differently. Maybe when they raised, there were different stigmas and standards around mental health which can interfere with the way [the adults] teach.”
Addressing the Stigmas and Misconceptions
Solving the issues surrounding mental health is not limited to starting effective conversations. Adequately discussing mental health requires that individuals understand the stigmas and misconceptions associated with mental health and make an effort to change their behavior to destigmatize the topic.
According to Loretta J. Bradley and Kaylene Brown’s journal article “Reducing the Stigma of Mental Illness,” “Stigma is not simply the use of negative labels or wrong words; it is disrespectful to the individual who has mental illness. It further discourages the individual from seeking the help needed for fear of discrimination.”
In Emillie Poteat-Fisher’s paper “Perceptions of Mental Illness and Learning Disorders in Public Schools: A Review of Services, Perception and Popular Culture,” she explains how, whether the intent is harmful or not, stigmas about mental illness are problematic.
“When a disabled or mentally ill person is portrayed this way in popular culture, the perception that others have of him or her is altered just as it is when the stigmatized person is portrayed as evil or bad. Any extreme distortion, whether the distortion itself is harmless or not, can be damaging,” Fisher wrote.
To address the issue, a key facet of MHYA’s curriculum educates students on common mental health stigmas and misconceptions.
“I think that the most common misconception is that there is something wrong with people, or that they are diseased, or like something went wrong in their lives that prompted them to have a mental illness,” Braun stated.
Stockton’s response also solidified the notion that the existence of mental illness does not discriminate.
“It’s not your path in life or your privilege or where you’re from or who you are that determines whether or not you are suffering from mental illness. It’s the chemicals in your brain. It's not an option,” Stockton explained.
Stockton’s point about brain chemicals brings up a key point that mental illness is not always visible.
Quote from Lene Stockton. Graphic by Defne Alpay. Image courtesy of Canva.
“Mental illness is an internal thing and it can manifest physically. However, a lot of the times it doesn’t,” said Stockton. “Someone who may seem perfectly neurotypical or mentally fine can be struggling with something really intense.”
While both Braun and Stockton admitted that mental illness may manifest without a root cause, Stockton explained that school culture plays an integral role in dictating the attitudes with which people approach the topic of mental illness. Stockton actually left her previous high school, Phillips Exeter Academy, to come to CGS due to the unhealthy social culture.
That said, Stockton admitted that CGS has work to do in terms of destigmatizing mental health in the student body.
“I also think that a part of Catlin and Exeter and private school culture in general is hypercompetitivity...when mental illness and competition and the factors that lead to those things are not acknowledged, people begin to feel that the way they are feeling is a weakness,” Stockton explained.
This brings up the question, how do we end the stigma?
Conversations Surrounding Mental Illness in the Media
While the only solution to address the stigmas may be to have conversations, deciding how those conversations should be facilitated, what needs to be mentioned, and how to maintain a constructive attitude towards the topic are important considerations.
The prospect of opening up a worldwide conversation on mental illness isn’t new. A prime example of an attempt to do so includes the release of the Netflix teen drama “13 Reasons Why” in March 2017. The fictional series retells the suicide of high schooler Hannah Baker who left a series of tapes explaining why she took her life.
According to a report in the New Yorker examining a comprehensive study on the series, Netflix stated, “Entertainment has always been the ultimate connector and we hope that ‘13 Reasons Why’ can serve as a catalyst for conversation.”
While it’s entirely possible that the show had no relation to the 28.9% increase in teen suicide during April 2017, the study conducted by the National Intitute of Mental Health ruled out any other outside factors contributing to the increase. This percentage solidified the predictions made by members of the National Association of School Psycologists and executive director Dan Reidenberg of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education that the show would have a negative impact.
Graphic created by Defne Alpay. Statistics found from the National Institute of Mental Health. Image courtesy of https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/13-reasons-why-season-3-what-we-know-so-far-08-19/
As for media and mental health, Braun stated that, “Overall, the media gets a lot of things wrong about mental illness.” Despite Braun’s viewpoint, she watched the series when it was released.
“I don’t think that it was a super accurate representation of what it's like to have a friend who’s going through that kind of stuff or to be going through it personally,” Braun remarked. “But what they did do that a lot of other media sources or TV shows don’t do is that they did make it seem like more of a long term thing versus a lot of other shows which make mental illness seem like a mood.”
Past Initiatives and Future Solutions
According to an article written in the Public Health Reports journal, while there is widespread agreement that mental health needs to be addressed, there is currently no concrete approach or perspective dictating specific action.
As stated previously, MHYA works to create a comprehensive curriculum for high schools in the Portland metro area. Much of their curriculum focuses on educating students about available resources, whether that be teen-hotlines, free therapy from licensed professionals for students living in Multnomah County, or nearby support groups.
“Youthline is a super good resource that I always refer people to.... I think a lot of people often interpret crisis lines as when you’re about to harm yourself, you would call them. But it can be for any crisis no matter how big or small,” Braun explained.
MHYA is not alone in their education initiatives. Health 10, a required class for sophomores, serves the basis of mental health education at CGS.
The class description states, “[In Health 10] Students learn that mental and physical health are essential to their future happiness, are not automatic, and must be actively maintained. Information about substance abuse issues, dealing with emotions, stress management skills, and communication with family and friends is introduced.”
CatlinSpeak reached out to US Counselor Casey Mills for comment but did not receive a response before this article’s publication.
CGS has also put forward initiatives beyond the required Health 10 class to open up conversations about mental health. One of these initiatives included the screening of “Angst: Raising Awareness Around Anxiety,” during an October assembly in 2018. Other initiatives include the installment of the mental health resources web page for CGS students which includes a set of key definitions (ex. definition of mental health, mental illness, depression, etc.), a list of resources pertaining to various mental health disorders and various self-care tips.
While providing resources and education to students is helpful, cultural change is necessary to permanently alter public perceptions of mental illness.
“I’d recommend just talking about [mental illness], even if it’s uncomfortable. The more that we talk about things, the less uncomfortable they are going to get,” Braun noted.
Stockton’s viewpoint lies in the same vein. A first-year student at Oberlin College this year, she said that there is an overall different atmosphere at her college compared with CGS.
“Arguably, the vast majority of people here have or are struggling with mental illness, so it’s a super positive place to talk about that,” Stockton explained. “I have friends who are like, ‘I’m going to start seeing a therapist,’ and the response is always like, ‘That’s awesome! Go do that!’”
While it is often difficult to know how to approach the subject, making a meaningful effort to understand those around us is a start.
“I would just say putting yourself in a situation where you can be a support for other people. That doesn’t mean you need to do everything right, but making sure that you are trying your best to support people who might be needing your help [is important],” Braun concluded.
Last year when I was on the verge of tears and nearly stormed out of the CGS Creative Arts Center, someone whose voice I didn’t recognize came up from behind me and asked, “Are you okay?” While the answer was clearly “no,” the act of asking was enough for me to get through the rest of the day. It may be hard to know how to help, but taking notice of those around us is a step in the right direction.