Mental health is a person’s emotional, psychological mindset. Being in middle school can come with stress and anxiety because of work or your surroundings too. Bad mental health can be prevented by making healthy choices, finding good ways to cope with stress and making good friends.
Mental Health Awareness month is during May, but that doesn’t mean we should only pay attention to mental health in May. We should always be aware. Some ways you can find out if you have poor mental health are changes in mood, changes in eating, sleeping and hallucinations.
People struggle with poor mental health sometimes. Eighth grader, Khloe Corley said, “I feel like the environment can affect it or play a big role in it.”
Mental Health May consists of more than public education about good and bad mental health.It also includes a light up green campaign which is where buildings across the country light up green. Green is the mental health awareness color. Another way to honor mental health awareness month is checking up on your friends or loved ones with a simple “How are you doing.”
Being a child in this generation and growing up with social media this can “affect us because growing up with […] thinking filters and editing is real and it can set unrealistic expectations for yourself at such a young age which can affect your self image and your mindset,” said Corley.
Some ways we can reach out about our poor mental health is reaching out to someone you trust or a professional, or a help line. The national crisis lifeline is a 24 hour, 7 days a week help line that you can call or text whenever you need important help. The number is 988. You could also even reach out to your teachers if you need to open up to someone.
When it comes to the importance of mental health, Corley said, “poor mental health is very important because it can turn from just bad mental health into something way worse.”-
The reason why younger people struggle with mental health so much is because of social pressure and their peers. At such a young age, kids can pressure other kids into changing themselves to fit the standard and comparing themselves. Also, since they’re so young they probably don’t know it’s not healthy to be comparing yourself to your peers.
Overall, it is important for everyone to learn more about good and bad mental health because when you know more about the topic you can do more things to help other people or find good ways to cope with certain things that challenge us.
