Why is it that children are not educated on mental illness? As a 4th grader I remember promising myself I would never do drugs. It was nailed into our head that we would be pressured into things like drugs, alcohol, and sex. We were taught we were at risk of giving into peer pressure, we were always taught to say no, but why weren’t we also taught that the chances of having a mental illness is extremely high before we even get out of high school? Why didn’t someone explain that when everything seems so out of control, it’s not okay to starve, it’s not okay to cut? Maybe if someone had educated me on mental illness, I would have known what was happening before I was already knee deep. I have absolutely no recollection of anyone ever explaining mental illness to me. In fact, I definitely associated mental illness with crazy people because I didn’t know any better! I’m sure it would be a hard talk to have with kids, but extremely beneficial as well. Just for someone to let the kids out there know the facts, to give them tools on what to do if they ever feel like they might have a mental illness. Why are people so reluctant to speak about mental illness? I’m only 17, but it took me months of starving, throwing up, dreaming of suicide, cutting, and hating myself before I took the time to educate myself on what I was doing. I know it’s kind of cheesy, but knowledge honestly is power! We need to educate kids on more than just saying no to drugs and alcohol.
share your suicide story
Report Post
Please log in to report posts
4 comments
Hi. I agree with what you’re saying. Teachers try to protect their students from the difficult things in life like mental illness, especially in elementary school. I’m a high school level teacher. However, now that mental illness is receiving attention in the media, schools are trying to educate students about bullying, mental illness and depression. It still is a difficult subject for people to talk about. I guess they’re afraid that talking about it might make some people a little sad? I hope you’re doing better. 🙂
I wish they would have taught me about it sooner. There is such a stigma around it but thankfully that is starting to go away as of late. I know one reason they might want to discuss certain things in too much detail though. I didn’t start cutting myself until I read about it in a teen magazine. Mental illness needs to e discussed at a younger age. And make it easier for those who need it to be able to get help.
I’m glad to hear they are trying a little more now! I’m doing much better, I’ve been recovering for 7 months, educating myself on it really helped! To fix a problem you have to understand it first so that’s what I did. It’s unfortunate that people are so afraid of the subject, but I also understand it is difficult to talk about .
School is useless… my childhood was utterly ruined by my mother’s schizophrenia and I could have done something about it if I had any concept at all of mental illness.