This month I have been writing a speech about Mental health awareness in schools.
I have researched a lot and I have been working really hard.
Here is my speech:
The Importance of Mental health.
Schools need to take more action on poor mental health.
Introduction.
In simple terms mental health is our emotional, psychological and social well being, meaning it affects how we feel, act, and make everyday choices and decisions and how we handle stress.
Social media.
Our mental health is different to how it was in the past generations. You might be wondering how and why it is; but the explanation is quite simple.
One of the main differences between then and now is social media. It was proven that too much use of social media can increase loneliness, lower self-esteem, and can it cause depression. This is a reason why some countries have banned some social media platforms. But teacher and staff members probably didn’t experience it when they were kids. All the stuff I mentioned before can happen because of cyber bullying, or because kids/teens can compare their bodies or faces to influencers they see on social media. The reason they might compare themselves is because influences are like the perfect images and role models of how we should look. But the reality is that influences are mostly fake. We only get to see the good part, not the true reality. But this ties into disorders. 50 studies from 17 countries showed that social media leads to body image concerns, eating disorders and bad mental health. We can’t let this happen to our generation of children.
Bullying.
Bullying is one of the worst ways to damage your mental health. Bullying is how people can develop disorders, ptsd, depression and more. Bullying can even make people think suicidal thoughts or make people self harm. Bullying can be physical abuse or verbal abuse, that can damage mental health. Another form of bullying that I had mentioned before is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is a way to harass people online without showing their identity.
Cyber bullying can be even more hurtful than offline bullying in some cases. We need to make sure our kids are safe.
Suicide and self harm.
Self harm and suicidal thoughts or actions are really serious and should not be joked about.
When mental health is at its worse is when people mostly have suicidal thoughts and self harm.
E.g Cutting yourself, burning yourself, punching yourself etc. At this time (8th of April 2024) 289,160 people killed themselves this year. We don’t want our kids doing this, here are some ways we can help: Making sure there are people to talk to like therapists, youth workers, counselors etc.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, social media and bullying are bad for mental health.
No kid should ever have to go through this so we should offer help to kids even if they don’t want it or need it.