Note to Mentally Ill Teens: You’re On Your Own

[Tobin S.]

1. Those are some sad statistics.

And I think they are indicative of an overall trend in our society or a cultural norm (we talked about those recently, eh?), a tendency, to sweep mental health problems under the rug.

Another reason for those dismal numbers might be that mental illnesses are so misunderstood in our society that people simply don't recognize when an individual is mentally ill and get the afflicted person into treatment. People seem to think that the definition of mental illness is walking down the street with a tin foil hat on and speaking to beings that don't really exist. It's usually not that apparent.

So I think the stigma of being labeled with a mental illness along with ignorance about most mental illnesses and an inability to recognize them cause all those young people, and older people as well, to sort of fly under the radar until something tragic happens. If we lived in a society that was more enlightened on the subject and more accepting of people who are mentally ill, we could save a lot of people a lot of heartache.