Prevention can only occur with the ability to view mental health as an importance rather than a nuisance.
For this month of September, which is Suicide Prevention Month, instead of getting into the same statistics presented year after year, we will take a different approach. We will try to nip the source of this ongoing issue within the butt.
Our mentality on what mental health is, causes, and leads to, needs to change.
What is a mentality? Simply, this is how we view things and with what emotion we feel towards them. A common consensus I can pull from our society with our general mentality on mental health comes down to a few things.
Mental health is something easily overcame.
There has to be a direct cause for a mental upset.
Mental health should not be a priority.
Let me clear a few of these things up. Mental health is not an obstacle to overcome. It is not something in which can be swayed by one direct cause, and mental health should be a main priority to yourself.
Mental health, just like one’s physical health, needs to be cared for. The more effort you put into preventing sickness and treating your temple with care; the more that effort will reflect within your brain.
It is the environment without our communities that stunt any growth within mental maturity. This does not mean mental maturity is simply the age you act. This can be how well you understand the importance and maturity it takes to examine your mental being and fix it accordingly. Our communities tell kids growing up that we should put ourselves out there. Well, with every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The parents we have and educators do not prepare kids for the repercussion that comes with simply getting a bad test score or losing a football game.
Kids learn at a young age that loading themselves with a million things to do is healthy. They learn that at a young age that unless they are seriously depressed then they are okay. We have to clear this up because children, teens, and even adults grow up thinking that there is no support system built around them. They think that their mental health is normal even when it is deteriorating. Then, competition starts. They start to compare themselves with others. If they are not equivalent or better than their counterpart, then, they are indeed a failure. That is what is taught: anything but perfection is a failure.
Do we see the fault in this? Perfectly good children go through life having this idea that being in a constant state of worry, being angry at the world, not wanting to socialize, being afraid of change, and overall avoiding the changes life throws at them because they are taught they are not good enough. Their minds start to take that idea and run with it.
Then, we teach kids to get help if they need it. The problem is most children do not know that they need help. The problem is that most children think that they are perfectly fine as long as they are breathing. When someone tells them to take a break, they see it as a weakness. When someone tells them to cut down on their workload, they ignore that thinking they could probably do even more.
This is where one starts to think they are not good enough for the world because when they hit that breaking point (which they will) they have no idea how to continue further.
Speaking from experience, growing up, I learned that I should always equate my happiness according to my well-being in academics and athletics. Other people find that from music, skateboarding, drawing, working out, and a lot more. I was taught that these tangible objects equate to this intangible thing called happiness. That mentality that took me forever to get out of started just because kids are taught to not just go with what feels right. They are taught to do things that make them look good to other people.
We can change this mentality that these kids have. The sooner we do. The more kids we can save. The sooner we tell kids that it is okay to not be this walking unrealistic expectation is the day that kids will no longer look to death as their only option. If we work with communities to lessen the stigma around asking for help, then, we can help others understand that weakness does not come from being vulnerable.
Once kids are taught to put their mental health first, before the wants and expectations of others, they will then succeed. That is all I want. That is all our parents want. Our guardians. Educators. And even random people. We all want there to be life. We all want there to be life filled with quality. This starts from helping those at a young age change their mentality on mental health. We need them to be taught that if they are not doing well mentally, then, they have this community built around them made to help, not hurt.
A month dedicated to the demise of many, shall have never been created if we just learned to teach everyone how important it is to take care of our temples, bodies, and mostly our souls.
Picture credit: https://chicagotherapist.com/blog/suicide_prevention_awareness/
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