Guest Speakers: Suicide and Mental Awarness

In the NEW School class, on the date of January 12th 2017, two guest speakers talked about suicide and mental disorders, specifically amongst teens.

Questions were asked like; What is a mental disorder? To this question they replied that a mental  disorder is a disorder that affects a person's emotional state, thinking, and behavior. Mental disorders disrupt a person's ability to:

.Work or attend school

. Do chores and and homework

. Decreases the desire to socially interact

. Disrupts mental and physical behaviors

. Etc.

Mental disorders can be caused by a deluge of different things. Heredity,  traumatic events, loss of loved ones, abuse, chemical imbalances in the brain, a serious physical accident (to the head), etc.

Functions in the brain like anxiety are natural and can be beneficial. However, there are problems with anxiety, also known as anxiety disorder. There are two types of anxiety.

Normal Anxiety: Natural emotional and physical responses.
Problematic Anxiety: Emotional and physical symptoms that are unnatural/out of proportion.

They also mentioned phobias can be a contribute to problematic anxiety.

During the presentation the speakers spoke of mental disorders, like depression and PTSD that have received a lot of media attention. However, there were a few misconceptions the public had of the disorders. For instance, sadness and depression are very different. Sadness is a temporary condition that often doesn't lead to suicidal thoughts or actions. On the other hand, depression is a lot less temporary and often leads to suicidal thoughts or actions.

The guest speakers also gave us a few statistics to ponder. Among the statistics were:

. 20% of teens will experience depression


. The third most seen death in the United States for people 15-20 is suicide

Conclusion:

Mental illness is a pandemic across the United States and the world, and statistics are quite alarming. It is important to address mental illness in a professional manner.