In response to the latest W5 Episode, from September 21,
2013, about student stress, mental illness and suicide, I had to immediately
share some thoughts and information. First off, here is a link to the article
and the episode, which ran this evening.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/campus-crisis-why-are-suicide-rates-rising-among-university-students-1.1463654#commentsForm-436982
To speak for a moment about the angle this story was shown
from and The Jack Project, I think it's a very detrimental message that’s being
promoted and revered, under the guise of "helping". One thing I’m
certain of is going into schools and preaching the message 1 out of every 4
students will suffer from a mental disorder, now line up and tell us about your
problems, has to be the strangest thing I've ever heard. They are telling
students that stress, anxiety and panic are mental disorders, which is not
true. These are things that can be controlled and are caused by a variety of
things that, if found, a solution is easily attainable. It’s a message that
sounds like something pharmaceutical companies would be fighting over to fund.
As far as I'm concerned the only person who can distinguish
a true mental illness would be a neurologist. I mean if an extremely
intelligent person could easily fool a psychiatrist and court appointed
professionals into thinking they were or were not depressed, manic, psychotic,
schizophrenic, etc. should the term mental illness really be thrown around as
loosely as we do? Trust me I have worked with 18-year-old street kids who would
blow your minds. I'm talking Oscar award winning performances on both ends of
the spectrum.
The only messages we should be promoting are positive
solutions, good life planning, an open line of communication explaining the
harsh realities of life and understanding that having a child doesn't mean you
invented a robot whose entire life you get to control and dictate. That would
make a lot of kids snap don't you think? Yes, if you are extremely overwhelmed
and feel mentally challenged, seek help, but please don't think that feeling
stressed about anything or having a depressed day or two or more, means you
have a mental illness. Don't allow anyone to put that on you other than the
appropriate professionals. Definitely don't let a man who was grieving the loss
of his son so bad that instead of coming to terms and dealing with what could
really have been the cause of Jack's suicide, he instead uses mental illness as
a scapegoat.
Watch the video on The Jack Project website and look at a quote
taken from this very article where Eric describes they had no idea anything was
wrong with Jack. So how in the world were they able to have Jack diagnosed as
mentally ill after he committed suicide? The fact remains he could have done it
for a multitude of reasons and many of the youth I have worked with who talk
about suicide or have thought about it/attempted it, would it shock you to
believe not many of them are suffering from a mental illness? The majority of
them had just had enough. Many had dealt with the kind of tragedy and lives we
only read about or watch in the movies and others talked about the pressure of
parents and not knowing where to turn for help.
In the short time that I have worked with Youth Assisting
Youth, The Josh Project, Youth Justice Services of Ontario, Hope House Youth
Charities, Horizons Youth Shelter and many others, I have encountered many
youth with "real" mental illnesses and believe me when I tell you
that there is no doubt they have one! You would never be living with a child
who is one of these individuals and not notice this unless you were a drunk, a
drug addict or an absent parent!
When the Jack Project was just beginning I met with Eric
personally, as we were both embarking on what seemed to be similar goals towards
helping youth, but when he asked me if I’d be willing to promote the mental
illness angle and to tell youth that the reasons I struggled when I was young
was due to mental illness. I told him I had no interest in promoting that
message because it was untrue and that neither he nor I were professionals that
should be sharing such a message with young impressionable minds. I would never
want a teenager to believe that feeling anxious, depressed or panicky was
reason to believe they were mentally ill. In fact I’m pretty sure the last time
I was in the line-up for a Rollercoaster with my son I had an anxiety and panic
attack. That definitely doesn’t make me mentally ill. Now that is something to
tell our youth.
It's true that many of these kids are definitely facing
uphill battles with all the pressures of University situations, but much of it
is self-induced and the extreme pressure applied by parents. The youth today
aren't properly prepared for the realities of life, the parents are too busy
doing their own things, too busy trying to be their kids’ best friends, too
busy trying to earn enough money or whatever else the reason could be. A lot of
the time we see students that don't want to do the program they are registered
for or they don't want to be in University at all, but they are terrified of
what the parents will do/say. Sometimes the simplest answers are the hardest
ones to digest. As I am often heard preaching, “the truth hurts and lies are
comforting.” Maybe instead of blaming other people and other things for what
happens to our loved ones and us, we start blaming ourselves.
For all the parents out there, unless your child has a
diagnosed mental illness, if stress, anxiety, depression or panic kicks in, you
better believe YOU probably had something to do with it. Let's stop looking for
scapegoats and “band-aid” solutions and start educating our youth as early as
possible about everything they will need in order to be successful in LIFE, not
necessarily University. We need to promote positive solutions and stay away
from labels! Just like many other situations in our current lives, we need to
stop jumping to extremes and being so riddled by fear.
As always you can find me at www.JoshuaStern.ca and contact me at Joshua@JoshuaStern.ca and now that I have joined forces with Hope House Youth Charities, which is responsible for our youth centre known as "The Corner". We can be found at www.TheCornerToronto.com and we can be reached at JoshProject@TheCornerToronto.com.
Thank you so much for all the ongoing love and support, without you all none of this would be possible!
