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Tag: teen mental health

  • Did "13 Reasons Why" Really Cause Teen Suicide Rates To Rise?

    Did "13 Reasons Why" Really Cause Teen Suicide Rates To Rise?

    The results of a new study involving the show has sparked a heated debate about its complicated subject matter.

    Ever since the debut of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why—about a high school girl who left behind audio tapes listing the 13 reasons why she ended her life—controversy has swirled over the graphic nature of the show.

    Critics of the show accuse it of romanticizing suicide. Some school officials voiced concern around the show’s debut that it would produce a “contagion effect” among students already at risk of depression or self-harm.

    The debate has reignited with the release of a new study in April that claimed the show “was associated with a 28.9% increase in suicide rates” among U.S. youth ages 10-17 in the month that followed the show’s March 2017 debut.

    “The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media,” said study author Lisa Horowitz, PhD, in a statement. “All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises.”

    However, as BuzzFeed News reported, the study determined correlation, not causation. Therefore, as some mental health experts say, it is not only unfair but also inaccurate to blame 13 Reasons Why for rising youth suicide rates.

    “People tend to sort of read the headline and jump to some kind of conclusion, when these things are really complicated,” said Victor Schwartz, medical director at the Jed Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting youth mental health and suicide prevention.

    “This is sort of the culmination of a series of reports that seem to corroborate some of the concerns that many of us expressed when the show came out,” Schwartz added. “But again, obviously, with any of these things, it’s always difficult to prove causation.”

    The show, which will continue with the release of Season 3 sometime this year, has been dealing with this kind of backlash since the beginning.

    Since then, Netflix has updated the trigger warnings that appear before episodes and created Beyond the Reasons, a behind-the-scenes documentary discussing the thought behind the show and why they chose not to shy away from difficult scenes.

    Jay Asher, the author of the novel that the series is based on, said the difficult subject matter depicted on the show is worth talking about. “The whole issue of suicide is an uncomfortable thing to talk about, but it happens. And so we have to talk about it. It’s dangerous not to talk about it.”

    Netflix also created the website 13reasonswhy.info where you’ll find suicide prevention resources.

    Helen Hsu, a California-based clinical psychologist who served as a “mental health consultant of sorts” on the show, was not convinced by the findings of the new study. “Everybody wants a simple answer for a very complex social problem,” she told BuzzFeed News.

    “Nobody’s randomly doing this show for shock value. I think we all feel really strongly that stigma has to be broken and these things have to be talked about,” said Hsu.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Parkland Students Find Ways to Cope with Trauma of School Shooting

    Parkland Students Find Ways to Cope with Trauma of School Shooting

    The survivors of last year’s horrific school shooting are creating their own channels of healing.

    In the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting, some survivors have created unique outlets to channel their pain.

    Many are still haunted by what happened on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

    The impact of the horrific event lives in each survivor, many of whom are struggling to cope with the trauma of what they witnessed. This year, two Parkland survivors died by suicide—16-year-old Calvin Desir and 19-year-old Sydney Aiello, who graduated last year. 

    To bring awareness to the mental health challenges of trauma survivors, People magazine recently caught up with six Parkland students. While they are each battling the trauma within, some have transformed their pain to help others.

    Carlos Rodriguez, 18, created Stories Untold, a Twitter-based platform for victims of gun violence to share their stories. The platform has created a community of support and activism for not only Parkland survivors, but anyone affected by gun violence.

    Eden Hebron, 16, is processing the trauma with a therapist. It has helped her, but unfortunately, she says, not everyone is open to therapy. “Some families still consider it, like, ‘Oh, it’s a shrink. Are you going to talk your feelings out?’”

    Hebron has created a mobile app to help people find ways to cope with stress, anxiety and depression. With her app, people can learn ways to address these symptoms.

    “So many kids have anxiety,” Hebron told People. “This shooting impacted people all over the country. This app is a way to give them the tools to help themselves.”

    Kai Koerber, 18, launched Societal Reform Corp, a non-profit organization working to establish mental health programs in schools. “We need to put mental health on equal standing with gun control,” said Koerber.

    Today, the need for mental, emotional, and trauma support is greater than ever. These young people are leading the charge and doing the work to provide themselves and others with effective coping strategies.

    “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget what I saw in that classroom,” said Hebron. “You can try to imagine, you can try to sympathize… but nobody understands how it feels to be in a room and literally feel, ‘These are the last moments of life.’”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Communication Affects Teen Mental Health

    How Communication Affects Teen Mental Health

    The more removed teens feel during adolescence, the less likely they are to trust their parents, a new study suggests.

    A number of environmental factors can lead to anxiety and depression in teens, and a recent study has added another to the list: a fragmented parent-child bond.

    According to WSB-TV Atlanta, researchers worked with a group of teens and monitored them through stages of adolescence. More specifically, the researchers followed 335 children from affluent white-collar communities from the 6th grade in 1998 until they turned 18.

    Each year, they were given an annual assessment in which they rated their attachment levels to each parent, as well as their levels of depression and anxiety.

    As the teens progressed in adolescence, their relationships with their parents saw significant changes, especially at the middle school level.

    Researchers found that preteens felt more than one-and-a-half times as alienated at the middle school level as they did earlier on. As a result, they trusted their parents less and researchers say communication dropped about four times as much.

    Such teens who felt alienated were also found to have lost more trust in their mothers than fathers and as a result, were more likely to have higher levels of anxiety and depression by 12th grade.

    According to researchers, most relationships stabilized again toward the end of high school. However, the more removed a teen felt during their adolescence, the less likely they were to communicate well with their parents or trust them.

    Study co-author Dr. Suniya Luthar, a foundation professor of psychology at Arizona State University, told ABC News that parents can play a role in curbing these feelings by creating strong connections with their children and overlooking attitudes.

    “It would be helpful if, during this time of adolescence, parents would look past all the moodiness, distance and irritability, and express feelings of love and affirmation,” Luthar said.

    Luthar also says that parents have to take care of themselves in order to take care of and connect with their children.

    “Parents, particularly moms, hurt emotionally as well,” Luthar said. She added that when in crisis, mothers “act as first responders, meaning they do their best to diffuse a stressful situation.”

    As such, mothers can be risking their own mental wellbeing, Luthar says. “Don’t pour from an empty or leaking cup,” she said. “Fill it first.”

    According to Psych Central, researchers chose to collect responses only from children rather than children and parents.

    “We wanted the child’s perspective on the relationship with their parents because ultimately it doesn’t matter much how parents think they are doing,” Luthar told Psych Central. “It’s what the children experience that is far more important in terms of effects on their mental health.”

    View the original article at thefix.com