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McKensie Hendrixson

Nathan Hellmers

Online English 1201

22 March 2019

An Academic of Mental Health

My Sophomore year of high school, my family was affected by mental health and

how it is on the rise. My sister who was a Senior at this time had a very close friend who

had graduated the prior year, commit suicide. He suffered from bipolar disorder, anxiety,

and depression. He fought these illnesses for many years, he threatens suicide at a

very young age being only a sixth grader. He had attempted suicide and always had

thoughts of suicide before he was successful. He received help from the doctors, family,

and friends. He was prescribed medicine from doctors, after his threats of suicide. He

felt as if there was no hope and he began to stop taking his medicine. Shortly after he

stopped taking his medicine, he took his own life. He was never the type of person to

show his pain in public, he always had a smile on his face and joked around, just like

any kid. He had a loving family and many friends that loved him, but once you are in

that state of mind,it is hard to get help. He was a very close family friend, and he was

like a brother to me. My family and I were lucky enough to have loving friends to come

and check on us and make sure we were doing good. Thankfully, after this life changing

tragedy nobody fell into a depression. This has not been my only encountering with this

issue,but this was by far the one that has affected my life the most.
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My life has been affected by mental health more in the past year. I have sat down

with my mother and talked about this, she said she didn’t have to deal with this when

she was in high school. In the last year, I have lost 2 friends from suicide and then

another 2 of my friends went into hospital care because they had thoughts of suicide.

Thankfully, the two who were placed into hospital care are on medicine now. The 2

friends that I lost to suicide, one was a Sophomore girl and the other was a Senior boy.

The girl was bullied, and she had a bad home life. Nobody knew that she had a bad

home life because she constantly had a smile on her face. She would always reach out

to others when they were feeling down. She was on medicine but she still felt as if there

was no hope. The boy was a very stubborn teen, he was a great kid but got with the

wrong crowd. He was a caring kid, who did not have a good relationship with his

mother. One night, he got in a bad fight with his parents and took his life. He showed no

signs of depression or mental illness prior. My school had a speaker come in that had

lost their son to depression. The doctors knew the boy was hopeless and told the family

to prepare themselves mentally. This is upsetting because no matter how much

someone could get help, sometimes the illness just takes over. These are a few of the

story I know about, but there are millions upon millions of where people have gone on

medicine because of mental health issues. Since this topic hits home to me, I felt as if

this was a good topic for me to research. In this paper, I will talk about all forms of

mental illness such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and why the

rates have increased.

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This specific topic has been on the rise and publicized more within the past few

years. Everyone has their own beliefs as to why things like this occur, but these are

some of the reasonings I have found from my research. A study done in 2015, states

that mental illness is not on the rise but it is broadcasted more because of social media

and technology. A study done in 2019, states that even though life is easier in jobs and

survival, it is not overall because of social norms changing and it makes it worse on our

physical and mental health. Another study in 2018, states that not everyone who is

prescribed medicine is suffering from a mental illness. It also states, that there is not a

cure to the illness you face but it is that society that doesn’t make it easy for you.

Another reason as to why these rates have increased is because of technology. Other

than research from reliable sources, I asked my peers. One of my peers stated a phrase

that stood out to me, “just always remember a smile can hide a lot.” They said they

believe mental illness is on the rise because of many reasons. Some of the reasons

being, divorced parents, both parents working full-time jobs, bullying, lack of

self-confidence, and also the rise of use in alcohol and drugs.

Is mental illness really on the rise or does it just seem that way? Is the mental

health truly worse, or are we diagnosing new illnesses that were once unknown? With

the technology that we have now, we are finding many different illnesses that have

never been diagnosed before. In 1952 there were only 106 mental illnesses founded,

and in 2013 that number nearly tripled to 297 mental illnesses. Technology has also

broadcasted mental illness. Kids will look up everything and they believe everything

they read. Kids now feel as if they are having a bad day or two, that they have
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depression. If they feel anxious over testing or anything, they have anxiety. If they are

grieving, they have depression. This is not the case, these are normal feelings for kids

and even adult. It is normal to have a few bad days, as some say, “it’s a bad day, not a

bad life.” It is normal to feel anxious over a test or ever just to feel overwhelmed with

stress. It is normal to grieve over a lost loved one. All of these are normal things for

people to go through, but now since we as people can look up everything, we just

believe the worst possible thing.

Almost 50 percent of Americans, have or will meet the criteria of at least one

mental illness within their lifetime. This is causing us to over treat the people with minor

mental illness and leaving the serious cases untreated. In the U.S there are more than

350,000 people in prison who could have been prevented by the correct medication.

Prescribing the correct medicine to patients could solve small problems but could have

huge impacts. Rising prescription rates for treatment of depression, not that people are

showing or experiencing signs of depression. This is also true for illness, bipolar

disorder. These rates will continue to increase, as the population increases and as

people start to live longer lives.

In America, depression is the most common, affecting more than 26 percent of

adults. Antidepressant use went up nearly 400 percent from 1988 to 2011. This does

not mean that depression has necessarily increased. It is now as if doctors are just

giving antidepressants to make sure the people do not fall into a depression. Them

being on the medicine, creates a wall for them and makes them feel secure.
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Antidepressants have now been prescribed to people to treat other illnesses other than

depression. Around only 1 out of 5 prescriptions actually, go to treat anxiety and pain.

It is said that life is much easier in today’s world, but that is not always the case if

you put mental health into consideration. Today, more than 8.3 million people suffer

from SPD, Serious Psychological Distress. SPD combines feelings of sadness,

worthlessness, and restlessness that are strong enough to affect a person's physical

well-being. Nearly 20 percent of the adult population suffers from some type of mental

illness. This rate had gone up from 18.1 percent, just a few years prior.

This chart above shows that suicide rates are growing as medical problems

decrease. The only thing that has increased more than suicide rates is accidents with

cars, and that is because there are more cars on the road in today's world. Roughly 1

out of every 5 youth have been affected by at least 1 type of mental illness. The

percentage of youth suffering from mental illness is even higher than frequent major

physical conditions in adolescent, such as asthma and diabetes. Around one-fifth of

Canadian post-secondary students have reported feeling anxious and depressed or

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battling other mental illnesses. Around 8 percentage of students felt there mental health

was lacking from prior years. A study found that nearly 13 percent of students have

considered suicide. Which this rate had gone up to 3.5 since 2013.

Why is there such a dramatic change in these rates? There are many alarming

factors. Such as increased pressure from parents, increased technology usage, an

increase of exposure to violent tactics. Many also believe that gender confusion, sexual

orientation, reduced parent contact, and many many more reasons. These are the ones

that stood out to me the most. While life has become easier, society has changed

tremendously. This has created it to be more difficult on our health, psychologically and

emotionally. There has been a shortage of mental health resources, but the rising rates

of mental illnesses.

Major depression is on the rise among all age groups in America but is

increasing the fastest within teens and young adults. The depression rates vary from

state to state. 41 million health records through Blue Cross Blue Shield, show that

people were diagnosed with major depression. Many people who report having

symptoms of depression say that they have no been diagnosed or reached out for

treatment.

Many of the people are worried about how busy they are, and how there is a lack

of community. If there is no community to reach out to, then the people begin to feel

hopeless. Kids and young adults feel rushed and under pressure constantly. The time

spent on in front of screens and not in front of other people, effects our health

tremendously. While social media connects us to people, it can also cause us to feel
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pressure or even isolated. For some kids, video games play a huge role in their life.

Video games can be addicting and lead to social isolation, poor school performance,

and even lack of sleep. It is highly possible that the rates in depression increasing is

because of technology.

A report from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, from 41 million insurance holders.

They found that 4.4 percent had been diagnosed with major depression in 2016. This

rate had increased by 33 percent since 2013. In 2016 2.6 percent were ages 12 to 17,

and then was a 1.6 percent increase since 2013. In 2016, the age of 18 to 34 had a

percent at 4.4, which had increased 47 percent since 2013. This leaves the age 35 to

49 with the highest depression rate. STarting at 4.6 percent in 2013 and increasing to

5.8 percent.

Most people had some other type of condition along with depression, and 29

percent had 4 or more health problems. According to the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, medical problems can lead into depression. Depression may be caused

by a combination of genetic, biological, environmental and psychological factors. RIsk

factors include things such as, using alcohol and drugs, having blood relatives with

depression, experiencing traumatic or stressful event, and also having a medical

problem. The CDC says that 1 in 5 children ages 3 to 17, which is about 15 million have

diagnosable mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder. Only 20 percent of the 15 million

will receive care. Children that fall under the area of having depression often feel

irritable, rather than sad or anxious. This makes the signs easy to miss, as they

continue on with their busy lives.

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Depression is not the only mental illness in today's world. There are list upon list

of illnesses, depression is the just the most known. There is mental illness for those who

have a substance use disorder which effects 1.1 billion. Depression and anxiety affect

over 540 million. Bipolar disorder affects around 40 million people. Eating disorders

such as anorexia and bulimia affect nearly 10.5 million. Schizophrenia affects around 21

million people. Alcohol abuse disorder affects around 100 milion. Drug abuse

disorder,excluding alcohol, affects nearly 62 million.

Anxiety is a number of disorders including phobic, social, obsessive compulsive

disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, or just general anxiety disorders. Signs of

depression are reduced concentration, disturbed sleep, lack of appetite, feeling guilt,

reduce self-esteem, and even ideas or acts of self harm. Bipolar disorder is when a

person's mood or behavior levels are significantly disturbed. This could be having high

levels of energy and the in the snap of a finger having low levels of energy. Eating

disorders, 2 of the most common ones are anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia is

exemplified by deliberate weight loss, while bulimia is an illness by repeating behaviors

as overeating and preoccupation with control weight loss. Schizophrenia is when a

thought of an echo and has been clearly present during a period of 1 month.

There are many risk factors for mental health. There is individual attributes and

behaviors,social and economic circumstances, and also environmental factor. Along the

lines of individual attributes. There can be low self-esteem, emotional immaturity,

difficulty communicating, and medical illness or substance abuse. Social Circumstances

have loneliness,feeling of neglect, exposure to violence,low income, and work or school

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stress. Environmental factors could be poor access to basic services, discrimination,

social and gender inequalities, and exposure to war or disaster.

Mental health and suicide have a strong connection. Although, most suicides or

attempts are connected to an underlying mental illness. 90 percentage of suicides occur

as in result of an underlying mental illness. An individual with depression is 20 times

more likely to die from suicide rather than someone without. With anxiety they are 3

times more likely, schizophrenia is around 13 times more likely, bipolar is around 6

times, and anorexia is 8 times as likely.

Do antidepressants work? There are many options for mental health treatment

and recovery. There is not one single way better than all of the others, it depends on the

person. One option is taking an antidepressant. There is also the option of taking

therapy, which helps some and not others. Some people only need therapy and no

other form of treatment. Some people who do not have a severe case, could be helped

by a friend or family member. They might just need someone there and to know that

they are loved and cared for.

Some people believe that mental illness is not a real illness. They believe as if it

is a choice. It is said that they put it upon themselves to carryout a tragedy or to grieve

longer than needed. Also, that they decide to be upset over the littlest things.They

believe that the medicine given to you is to make your brain think you are getting help

but in reality it is not helping. The bible of mental illness states that you have to have 5

of the 9 symptoms for a continuous 2 weeks. It can be no less than 2 weeks,or

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otherwise you do not have the illness. If the symptoms continue for 2 weeks or more,

you can then be diagnosed with depression or even major depression.

Why have mental illness rates increased? There are many reasons, and there

are many stats to back up that the rates have increased. Cell Phones became popular

within the last 5 years and that is when the rates began to incline the most. It makes you

stop and wonder, could this be avoided. Not only are kids affected by this illness, but it

is almost every age group. Adults have the highest incline of their rate, with the children

coming in second. Wouldn’t you think it would be the other way around. Adults are more

difficult to read, a child is simple to read by their attitude towards things. Mental illness

needs more awareness because of how drastically the rates are increasing, in hope that

future generations to come can avoid this problem.

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Works Cited

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yone-new-data-shows-n873146

Godlasky, Anne. “Suicide Rates Up 33% In Less Than 20 Years” USA Today. 21 December

2018

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https://www.health.com/depression/8-million-americans-psychological-distress

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https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health
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March 2017

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Twenge, Jean M. “Are Mental Health Issues On the Rise?” Psychology Today. 12 October 2015

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