mental health awareness

12 FEATURE

DESIGNER Joie Agoo

DESIGNER Joie Agoo

65% of survey takers say school is their primary cause of stress

on a scale from 1-10, 57.8% of students surveyed rated their stress LEVEL at A SEVEN or above

48% of survey takers don’t feel like they can talk to adults at school about mental health issues

At MHS, many students find themselves involved in various extracurriculars in addition to school. As a result of balancing these activities, many of these students experience high levels of stress and anxiety, leading to serious mental health problems such as depression and anxiety disorders. “Having taught for over 13 years, eight years in another district — in those prior eight years, I probably had seen maybe three or four incidences of anxiety and depression over the course of eight years. And so I’ve been in Mililani High School for five years now, and that number is probably somewhere between four, eight per class. So it is drastically higher today than it was in my previous teaching career,” said Advanced Placement Psychology teacher Doug Muraoka. Progression of technology and social media have contributed to the mental health issues of this generation. Sara Hashimoto, Psy.D., a Mental Health Section Administrator (MHSA) for the Department of Public Safety/Health Care Division, believes that there has been a shift in the challenges that today’s youth face in comparison to previous generations, making mental health issues more common today. “Kids are heavily scheduled, families spend less meaningful time together and there is an overemphasis of creating a distorted illusion of what is ‘real’ and valuable on social media,” said Hashimoto. Muraoka added, “My generation had academic success pressures, but I think they manifest themselves differently with today’s teenagers and clearly social media, I think also has an impact on it, because instantly and constantly, teenagers are forced to compare themselves.” The negative effects of stress and anxiety range in severity and duration. “So stress is sort of undue influences, things that change our state of minds. Stress can be both positive and negative, simple as the butterfly nervous energy that you have before an activity — or stress can be reactions to certain environmental factors such as (a) death in the family or loss of a job or things like that,” said Muraoka. “Anxiety is more of the fear response that we have or the nervousness that we have around our daily events. So things like getting the sweats, things like a rapid heartbeat. These are the things that cause us to be anxious.” In comparison to stress and anxiety, the diagnosis of depression focuses more on the way an individual feels, thinks and behaves. Depression is often associated with feelings of sadness and lack of motivation. “Depression is a little bit different (from stress). Depression is a state of mind quite literally where you lose the ability to find joy. There’s different degrees of depression and different levels of depression. But literally it’s how much joy you can bring into your life,” said Muraoka. While it is common for students to experience minor stress daily, chronically high levels of stress may lead to both physical and mental damage. “So over time, chronic stress can have a lot of impact — simply it’ll change your biochemistry (and) it could affect your sleep patterns. And then there’s this ripple effect where when you don’t get a lot of sleep, your immune system can break down, your attitude changes, your motivation changes (and) your mood changes,” said Muraoka. However, there are various coping methods to deal with these situations that can be done at home, at school and with other people. “So when it comes to coping, number one first and foremost, find someone to talk to — anybody is better than nobody. I always suggest to students to try and find somebody who has either gone through — somebody older, somebody a little bit more experienced in life — (or) to talk to your friend,” said Muraoka. “Yale University has a program and their motto around that program is if you could name it, you could tame it. And basically what that means is that if you can understand and name what’s bothering you, you can also tame what’s bothering you.” Resources in Hawai‘i are available for people suffering with depression and anxiety disorders. If you or someone you know is dealing with any mental health issues, contact the Crisis Text Line Hawai‘i by texting “Aloha” to 741741. WRITERS Jacob Nakasone Danean Wurlitzer PHOTOGRAPHER Samuel Sameshima DESIGNER Madison Kelly Strength Sources of Social Media and Mental Health

Other coping mechanisms for stress and depression include: exercising, getting involved with outdoor activities, drawing, coloring and keeping a diary with your thoughts. Kids are heavily scheduled, families spend less meaningful time together and there is an overemphasis of creating a distorted illusion of what is ‘real’ and valuable on social media.” -Sara Hashimoto

14 OPINION

WRITER Alexander Ozawa

WRITER Alexander Ozawa PHOTOGRAPHER DESIGNER Madison Kelly Samuel Sameshima PHOTOGRAPHER DESIGNER Madison Kelly Samuel Sameshima

In this day and age, it feels like everybody we know — everyone we’re close with— is battling some kind of mental illness. There are many kinds of mental illnesses, and they are all very prevalent in today’s younger society. This might not necessarily mean that younger people are more prone to developing mental disorders, but rather that we are more likely to express them publicly. At this point, we expect people to relate to our struggles because so many do. Has the internet shaped us to be less willing to get professional help? Our way of communicating has changed radically, as we have become more acclimated to an open-minded society. However, instead of talking through our problems and getting professional help for our emotional needs, we often turn to humor for expressing how we feel. By making selfdeprecating jokes or memes to share publicly, we resort to showing off our problems to the world. There are entire online communities dedicated to jokes like these and even Instagram accounts with thousands of followers named after some variation of the words “depression” and “memes.” Why do we do this to ourselves? And why has mental illness become so common that these massive communities exist? It’s how we were raised that made us so crazy about mental health. If we reflect on the past, we can see the differences in how mental health was once perceived to where it is now. Older generations generally kept information about their mental health to themselves. An article from The Guardian states, “Mental illness is a result of misery, yet still we stigmatise it,” showing that as recently as 2016, adults with mental disorders condemned for having or talking about mental illnesses. The majority of the younger generations do not stigmatize the mentally ill like this. So, how come we prefer to share our common experiences haphazardly in a humorous way? What made us so desperate to talk about our emotions, but not to resolve the problem? Easy answer: the internet. People born more susceptible to illnesses like depression or anxiety or brought up in unloving or unwelcoming households, had a place to confide in. They didn’t have to pay to go to a professional therapist or convince their parents they needed help; they just talked with people online. From there, the jokes began. So, is the internet at fault as to why people refuse professional help? Well, there is nothing wrong with sharing our experiences with others. These jokes give people a place — a community — to belong to. They allow us to express what is happening in our lives and our relationships — anonymously. Mayo Clinic states that these kinds of jokes can give us serious physical and mental benefits as well, like stress relief and an increase in personal satisfaction. It’s our own form of therapy — a free psychological aid that older generations never had the chance to use. However people decide to get help. As long as they consider it effective as an emotional aid, they should be free to get the help they need. Strength Sources of

By Tai Phaniphon

WRITER Emily Zimmerman

DESIGNER Madison Kelly

Teenage suicide rates have been steadily increasing over the past couple of years. In Hawai‘i, suicide is the number one cause of death for those aged 15 to 24 (calculated in deaths per 100,000 people). MHS Behavioral Health Specialist Charnay Gima wants to address this situation by developing a new program called Sources of Strength. “We polled all the students based on surveys and what we got back was at least 50 percent of the students felt connected to a teacher and then also in the sense of belonging, 40 percent of students felt connected to the campus,” said Gima. Based on these surveys, half of the student body does not feel connected to the school. This lack of connection can lead to loneliness and, in severe cases, depression. Sources of Strength, a national suicide prevention program originally set up in North Dakota in 1998, will hopefully decrease that percentage and help students feel like they belong at MHS. The program will be a student-led organization that spreads positivity and awareness about mental health over the campus. Thirty one students from MHS have been chosen to be peer leaders and will begin training in February. “We realized we needed a change,” said Gima who, along with the school administration staff, felt that good mental health can lead to an improved school

environment. “The change needs to come from the students. The change can’t come from the school.” The students chosen to be part of the program come from diverse backgrounds. According to Gima, that’s where the change comes from: social networking. Peer leaders from the program talk to their friends, their friends talk to other friends and so on, creating a ripple effect of positivity. “I feel that Sources of Strength is an important thing to have at our school because a lot of teenagers go through an immense amount of stress throughout their high school career and many don’t feel connected to the adults that support us here,” said Sophomore Rain Hashimoto, one of the students selected to participate. Sources of Strength does not only target suicide prevention, it also is an anti-bullying and substance abuse prevention campaign. “I am choosing to become a part of Sources of Strength because, one day, I’m hoping their mission of bringing hope will be a movement on campus,” President of the Student Alliance for Mental Health and Wellness Club (SAMHW) Senior Megan Ogasawara said. The club was also a driving factor in bringing sources of strength to MHS. “Sources of Strength empowers youth and teachers to be able to provide coping mechanisms and overall support for one another. No student should have to live life alone,” said Ogasawara. Other schools across the island are also participating in Sources of Strength, including Nanakuli High School, Waianae High School, Kahuku High school, Moanalua High School and University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. More information on Sources of Strength can be found at https:// sourcesofstrength.org/ or by contacting Charnay Gima at charnay.gima@ mililanihs.k12.hi.us.