“Youth are among the highest risk populations for suicide. In Canada, suicide accounts for 24 percent of all deaths among 15-24 year olds and 16 percent among 16-44 year olds. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of 10 and 24.” (Canadian Mental Health Association)
Statistics like this are disturbing. How do we talk about mental health in a productive and significant manner? How do we change these stats? How do we create safe spaces to talk about these issues? How do we challenge our society’s belief that mental illness isn’t really a real illness? When confronted with stats like the ones above, we can’t be reluctant in facing mental illness head-on. If a quarter of Canadian teens were dying from stomach flu or from a cold, the government would have us on lockdown. People would be trying to get to the bottom of the epidemic. So what’s preventing our society from taking depression seriously? The first step would be to accept that mental illness is no less a sickness, and that the pain is no less real. But in the face of all of these troubling stats, why is mental illness still such a hush-hush issue?
Over the past couple of years, I’ve had to question my own personal beliefs concerning mental illness. I think that depression is something most people are going to go through at some point in their life. But for some people, depression isn’t situational; it’s a constant battle that they have to face day in and day out. In the last year alone, three of my friends have opened up to me about suffering from depression and each time my reaction was, “but they always seem happy, I never would have been able to tell.” I’ve come to realize that depression isn’t something you can spot in someone by a look on their face.
In my senior year in high school, somebody I knew committed suicide. It wasn’t like this person was a best friend that I talked to every single day. It was a casual friendship, but I knew him enough for the aftermath to be a jarring experience. He used to be there, and now he’s not. You start to feel like there’s no rhyme and reason to life. Sometimes people die. Sometimes people get tired. Sometimes things happen that aren’t meant to. He was a funny, redheaded kid. It’s been awhile, so now the memories seem vague and distant, but I’ll never forget his odd little obsession with cats. He was kind of eccentric, but had an off-the-wall type of humour that never failed to make me laugh. But the sad thing is, even if we were best friends and I knew that he was suffering from depression, I don’t know if my 17 year-old-self would have had the capacity to talk to him about it. That’s something that needs to change. Instead of civics and careers and learning about mathematical equations that we may never end up using in real life, teens need to be equipped with how to talk to each other about mental health.
When talking about mental health issues, it’s hard not to feel as though I sound like broken record. Depression can’t be ignored; depression must be addressed; depression is real, people aren’t making it up in their head. That’s all been said. People keep saying it and saying it and saying it and saying it. Yet the stats surrounding youth suicide are what they are. You can point out that things have gotten better over the last couple of years and that they’re going to keep getting better, but it needs to get better now.
But how?
That’s a question I’ve been struggling with.
How do I bridge the divide created by stigma and prejudice to reach friends who are suffering from depression? They say hindsight is 20/20, and maybe it is, but if we see something happening over and over again, side-stepping the issue and sweeping it under the rug is not only irresponsible, but dangerous. Obviously, as a society we need to do better, but what can you and I do on the individual level?
We can create a safe space for people to talk to us. A space free of judgment and free of prejudice. Everybody’s experience with dealing with depression is different. Some people’s parents are supportive, other’s don’t understand. Some people are open about it, some people are too ashamed to bring it up. Sometimes all we can do for our friends is educate ourselves on what it is they are going through and let them know that they have someone to talk to.
Discover the stories of real individuals battling depression in the article to come.
Good2Talk is a new, toll-free post-secondary student mental health helpline created as part of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ (MTCU) Mental Health Innovation Fund. Free, bilingual and confidential, Good2Talk offers professional counselling and information and referrals for mental health, addictions and well-being to post-secondary students in Ontario 24/7/365. Students can reach Good2Talk by calling 1-866-925-5454, or by dialing 2-1-1, from anywhere in Ontario.