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Mental Health Issues Research Paper

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In the past few years an issue has risen up to become our biggest social problem: Mental illness amongst youth. There are just too many facets to this issue and it would take more than a few paragraph essay here to dissert. I will thus only attempt to raise awareness about a dire social issue that has been growing in our younger and more vulnerable population. Education is the most ascertainable tool to change the way we address mental illness. For too long, mental illness has been portrayed in the media as a weakness or a mental deficiency. It's been only the recent years that this view has been changed. Most people, thanks to an uneducated media (TV, print and social media), perceive mental illness as a weakness or character flaws. They think that the sufferer can just "snap out of it" if they try hard enough, and that people with mental disorders are just lazy. There are also a lot of stigma surrounding mental illnesses. For example, many perceive schizophrenics to be violent, and people with OCD to be neat-freaks or quirky. The truth is mental health problems have nothing to do with being lazy. Many factors contribute to mental health problems, including: Biological factors, such as genes, physical illness, injury, or brain chemistry, life experiences, such as trauma or a history of …show more content…

We need to look past the sensational stories spread in the media, and get a better understanding of this problem, and parents, educators, social workers, need to be better educated on the subject, in order to better help. Contrary to common belief, prevention is often possible and greatly improve the odds of a person suffering from mental illness. Knowing the many risk factors such as exposure to trauma can help address the problem at an earlier stage. We need better programs in school, at churches, and in organized groups (Boy/girl scouts, YL, etc.) to educate and promote the social and emotional well-being of children and

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