Ailey O’Toole
  Staff Writer

Mental illness, such as depression, anxiety and suicide, among children, adolescents and young adults is a problem in America — one we need to start talking about.

How many of you have friends who suffer from depression or anxiety? How many of you yourselves struggle with these disorders?

Mood disorders, personality disorders and anxiety disorders are more prevalent than ever, and it is past time that we do something about it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, national suicide rates increased 19.9 percent between 1999 and 2013.

More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza and chronic lung disease combined.

In 2002 alone, 4,300 people ages 10 to 24 died by suicide. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., the third leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 24 and the second leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 24. To be blunt, there is a mental illness and suicide crisis happening right now in America, and we cannot continue to turn a blind eye to it.

I believe the best way to combat this epidemic is to eliminate the stigma that mental health is something private, something that should only be discussed with doctors and family and something that people should be embarrassed about.

Dr. Mark Pollack, president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, explains that, “effectively diagnosing and treating both anxiety disorders and depression, especially when they co-occur, are critical pathways to intervening and reducing the suicide crisis.”

I would contend that the reason these disorders are going undiagnosed and untreated is because people are uncomfortable speaking up and expressing their concern for their own well-being.

Recent UNC-Greensboro graduate Amanda Kerns put it well when she said, “We are raised in a society where if you are a little different in terms of mental health or disorders, it is this huge thing, but we all need to be understanding and aware of not only how to address these situations but how to handle them if we find ourselves in them, or if we ourselves are diagnosed.”

Throughout elementary and middle school, all students learn the basics of human biology, anatomy and physiology. However, mental health issues are only briefly touched on; the problem is often presented as only being about depression and anxiety, and even those topics are skirted around.

So, the first step we must take to make everyone more comfortable talking about the suicide epidemic is to make the basics of mental illness a part of school curriculum just as much as other science topics.

After all, 13 percent of children ages 8 to 15 experience a severe mental disorder that goes untreated. If those children were educated on the symptoms of those disorders, they would be more equipped to recognize the problems in themselves and ask for help. But that’s only one step in fighting the problem.

Parents need to create a home environment where their children feel comfortable expressing to them that they are feeling depressed, anxious or even suicidal. Mental illness often goes undiagnosed because parents refuse to acknowledge their child’s problem and subsequently get the child help.

I have heard many stories of teens expressing to their parents that they feel depressed and have been considering suicide, just for the parents to brush it off as the teen being “too dramatic” or “just going through a phase.”

This is unacceptable. Mental illness is not a phase, the same way homosexuality or transitioning in gender is not a phase. Feelings of depression or anxiety are very real, and we need to treat them as such. Adolescents who have the courage to express these feelings they are experiencing need to feel validated.

Discomfort and embarrassment in talking about mental health and suicide start at home, between child and parent, and this needs to change.

I am sure many of you remember the four Appalachian State University students who died by their own hands during the 2014-2015 academic year in what Dr. Allen O’Barr, director of counseling and psychological services at UNC-Chapel Hill, described as a suicide “cluster” or  “contagion.”

In an interview with High Country Press, Dr. O’Barr explained that the reason one student suicide is often followed by several more is because others in crisis think, “oh, I hadn’t thought that was an option before.”

And why do you think that happens? It’s because we, as a nation and as a society, are not talking about suicide. Half of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14; due to this, we need to begin having discussions about mental illness at a younger age so that we can properly and immediately combat underlying problems.

We, as a society, need to work together in order to create an environment where children, adolescents and young adults feel comfortable talking about mental illnesses and suicide so that they can get the appropriate help they so desperately need.

This means that parents need to create a relationship with their children where there is complete and open communication about these issues.

Also, the basics of mental illness, on a biological level, must become a part of the core curriculum for elementary and middle school students.

Most importantly, however, we need to ask ourselves a simple question: how many more lives have to be lost before we start taking this issue seriously?