Ramirez 1"Eliminating the Romanticism and enhancing the understanding of Mental Illness"

By: Diego Ramirez

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, there is a very steady increase in the number of people under the age of 18 who are either suffering or have reported suffering from some time of mental disorder, most commonly depression. From a report taken from the National Institute of Health, "Approximately 12 million children under the age of 18 have mental disorders". Although there is no given reason why these numbers may or may not be increasing, I can think of a very unfortunate catalyst: social media. In today's society, kids are almost always on some sort of social media. These social media outlets could be seen as very revolutionary methods of communicating with others, it can also be seen as very dangerous ground for unhealthy influences. Countless photos and web posts of people influencing behavior such as self-mutilation, pro-Anorexia (also known as Ana), depression, and suicidal thought are brought onto websites every second. The worst part about these trends is that a lot of these posts are glorifying and romanticizing mental illnesses and disorders. Anyone can click on the "suicide" tag on websites such as Tumblr, a popular web blog website, and scroll past millions of posts saying that "they should just do it", "it isn't suicide if you are already dead inside", or "you're better off dead". This sort of exhibitionism of self-harm, suicide, depression, or self-loathing under the pretext that it is beautiful, romantic, or deep is hardly unusual. As a teenager, I am just as susceptible to these posts as anyone else, but unlike some teenagers, I am not struggling from mental instability. However, teenagers are in the most vulnerable years of their life and it is being spent getting bombarded by thousands of strangers saying that "it's okay to not be okay". The main purpose of organization, Through the Storm, is to be a safe haven for tenagers who might be confused about mental illnesses and who may fear that they suffer from them. Although there is not an obvious correlation between increasing mental illness rates and influential social media, there is no doubt that exposure to triggering media has negative effects on our youth. Now my main goal is to clear the air about the misconceptions of mental illness and offer teenagers and others of all ages alike the clarification they may need to avoid self-diagnosing. If given a budget to work with, I would want to open up a non-profit organization that would specialize in seeking professionals that would be willing to come into schools and host meetings or one on one conferences with students that may be concerned with their own mental health and clarify any doubts or misconceptions that the students may have. Hopefully, in conclusion, I believe that with my idea of forming an organization that would focus on being an outlet where students who may or may not be actually suffering from mental illness may seeks counseling without a stigma being attached to it.