Healthy Living: Mental Health among Adolescents
A four-day gathering of mental health professionals continued today as part of an effort to finalize a tool that will be used to gather more information on the state of mental health in children ages ten to nineteen across the county. But why is it important to focus on the mental health of children? That’s what we tried to find out in tonight’s Healthy Living.
Marleni Cuellar, Reporting
The period of adolescence between the ages of ten to nineteen is a critical developmental stage. But it’s more than just the physical changes that we see that is taking place. As mental health counselor with the Ministry of Health Juliet Simmons explains the mind is in transition as well.
Juliet Simmons
Juliet Simmons, Mental Health Counselor, Ministry of Health
“We understand the adolescent years is very tough on the adolescent tough on the parent especially. So we tend to overlook a lot of things we tend to look at it as a phase. We pray that they grow out of it. Things like that people say. We’ll get through this but sometimes it’s just that. Sometimes there’s more. How we know the difference now is when it affects your function. When you cannot function what we would say “normal” do the things that your daily routine. Do the things that you need to do then we know it’s just more than a phase.”
For seventeen-year-old Angelina Villanueva, the transition from high school to junior college challenged her to cope with a heightened level of anxiety.
Angelina Villanueva
Angelina Villanueva, Student
“In high school I was very outgoing student. I’d be the girl that talk to everyone. I ran for student council president I was on the student council for a period of time. So I was a very outgoing student. It was a challenge because it was a new environment and entering into this environment you have goal and it’s very hard for us as teens because we’re expected to know what you want to do. So you have to know what you want to do. You want to finish between your time/period because everyone is expecting you to. Especially for me, I set high expectations for myself and after a while, I realize that you can’t always meet it. Alongside having stress of school, I was also having other stressful moments in my life so that itself put a toll on me at nights it was hard to sleep. At night I would just couldn’t sleep. And for me, it was the over thinking and I would just think and think and think. Think about everything in general. You know wanting to fit in or what people think of you what people expect of you and that’s so hard for us as teens because you want to be the person that everyone likes. You want to be the person that excels and it’s hard sometimes to balance both of them.”
Eventually the chronic over thinking and crippling anxiety led Angelina and her family to decide to seek out a counselor.
Angelina Villanueva
“I didn’t want to at first because for me I see myself as a strong person. I was like you know what I don’t need a counselor I can do it myself and you sometimes you really do need a person not for the just sometimes you just need a person to talk to not that I don’t have that at home but sometimes you need someone outside of your family household.”
Angelina’s bout with anxiety is an all too common occurrence for teens. For High School Counselor Tashera Swift, she sees firsthand how teens struggle to cope with everyday issues.
Tashera Swift
Tashera Swift, President, Belize School Counselors Association
“Some of the main issues that I’ve seen them dealing with are those of suicidal thoughts or ideation, attempted suicide, depression and anxiety just to name a few. We as a society tend to think that young people don’t have anything they should be bothered by. We fail to realize that sometimes some of the same problems that we are dealing with that we think that they’re not paying attention to. It trickles down. So we have mommy or daddy at home struggling to make ends meet and we think that it doesn’t bother them but they are at a school unable to concentrate having suffering from anxiety and depression worried about money who is trying to handle it all.”
According to the WHO, globally ten to twenty percent of children and adolescents experience mental disorders.
Tashera Swift
“The signs and symptoms are there from the adolescent years from as early as fourteen. So we need to focus on this age group. What we’re concerned with is their suicide attempts. We have a lot of suicide attempts and that’s flags for another suicide attempts which can lead to a complete suicide. Those are our biggest concerns.”
This is why the development of the research tool and project M-Map a tool to measure the mental health of adolescents across Belize and the Health Adolescent Thrive project is being welcomed by health professionals and those who work with children.
Juliet Simmons
“In Belize, we don’t know. We don’t know what is the state that is why we have these two studies that were trying to carry out right now. We don’t know the situation right now.”
Tashera Swift
“We go to the doctor is we have pain in any part of our body and similar it should become normalized to the point where if I’m suffering with depression I feel confident and comfortable going to see a counselor.”
As for Angelina, after some talk therapy to cope with her anxiety her adjustment to the new school environment has gotten easier.
Angelina Villanueva
“For me it was easier because I had a mom that was understanding so for her she saw it easier that maybe for me it would work that she found someone that can help me in that situation. It’s not as it was before because before I was contemplating a lot of things and for me I don’t have pressure on myself. My beginning of 6th from I had pressure that I must excel I need to do this. But for me now, I still have that mentality because we need to pass but for now I don’t have as much pressure on myself. So if I get something below what I would have expected myself to get it’s not that much on me because I realize you know what I’ve learnt my lesson I know what I can do better and I know what can change and I know I can’t always be perfect.”
