May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States. Stacy Brown, Vice President of Behavioral Services with Bridgeway, details what parents should look for when evaluating their children’s mental health.
“We need to recognize when these things are happening like when you’re talking about bullying. We have to teach people to be more aware, to really see what’s going on in front of them because we get so busy in our every day lives,” Brown stated.
Brown listed signs and symptoms such as isolation, behavioral changes, mood swings, use of drugs and alcohol, and declining school work as possible indicators of declining mental health.
According to Brown, 1 in 5 people in America have some type of mental illness. On average, it takes approximately 10 years for someone suffering with mental health issues to ask for help. Brown says this must change:
“We need to learn how to be able to talk about things that we’re feeling and experiencing. And it can be every day things that happen to people that cause them to have more stress in their life … We need to not be afraid to talk about it and ask for help,” she said.
Brown also gave other ways to combat mental health battles such as: spending time with friends and family, meditation, reading a book, getting a massage; the important thing is detaching yourself from the stress you are feeling.
For more information on Bridgeway, visit bway.org.
written by Jackson Kane
