Why Mental Health Education Needs to Begin Before a Career
When I started speaking publicly about schizoaffective disorder in college, it was an education on, “look what people like me can achieve despite all of this”
Now, when I speak for classes and community presentations, it’s, “look what it’s really like to live with this”
And when I speak for law enforcement and correctional officers, it’s, “look at how I go through all of this, but I’m still just like you.”
Same life story, different goal.
I rewrote my talk again in anticipation of speaking to the Chicago Police Department for the second time. I began speaking publicly as a junior in college and was both terrified and excited at the same time. At almost four years into my schizoaffective diagnosis, I wanted to share with the world what I had learned – that I was still capable of living life.
These days, most of those I speak to are law enforcement officers including both police and correctional officers. When I speak to them, it’s the same story that I tell students and community members, but a different goal. I tell them why I am like everyone else despite what I’ve been through. I fight to break the stigma, not just to provide an education and a better understanding, but also to save lives. It’s, “hey, here are all the things you don’t see that make me act the way I do, and I’m still just another human like you.” The more I thought about it, the more I questioned why I have to do this.
When did people with mental illnesses have to start explaining why we’re still human?
Why do some people, not even just police officers, see us as anything other than human? The curriculum officers go through in the Crisis Intervention Training for which I speak is fairly thorough, but why must someone have to go that far in order to finally be taught empathy and support for those with mental illness? I am fully on board with the changes that have been happening here in the United States when it comes to crisis response – moving away from police being the first line and, instead, passing it off to mental health professionals and Emergency Medical Services. But sending a social worker to aid in a crisis situation doesn’t solve all our problems. The majority of people are still not educated on mental illness.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 50% of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14.
Perhaps it was different for others, but I didn’t learn much about mental illness before that point. I know from experience what it’s like to stumble through symptoms without understanding what’s happening to you. I’ve felt isolated and alone. The shame that wrapped itself around me like an icy hug kept me from speaking up. And I didn’t realize that help was available because I didn’t know that what I was experiencing was actually not all that rare.
My experience with education on mental health was almost entirely elective.
While brief opportunities to learn about mental illness were offered in junior high and high school, they were limited. And in each of the two opportunities I was presented with, we only touched on depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. The first opportunity was elective and students were able to opt out of the second. I chose to take a psychology class in high school, but, until college, the main source of my education on mental illness came from walking through it myself.
In college, I studied psychology and learned a great deal about my own disorder as well as others. I pursued this interest avidly and worked in schizophrenia research for a few years. But my university had no required education on mental health or mental health awareness. Myself and the other members of a mental health club I was a part of took it upon ourselves to provide that education and increase awareness. We hosted events and ran social media campaigns. We quickly discovered that students were eager to learn more. Ultimately, the club helped secure a grant to create a required event for incoming freshman. It featured a speaker with lived experience and representatives from campus resources. But even by then stigma and misunderstanding may have already blossomed and taken root.
But students aren’t the only ones who need educating.
I was lucky. In high school I had a teacher, advisor, and administrator who supported me immediately and with the utmost discretion. At a point where my entire life felt out of control, they were always there to encourage me. In college, I had the support of other students, the disability office, and all but one professor. However, it felt like the administration saw me as a liability. Many universities force those with mental illnesses off campus when they are struggling. For some, going home may help. But, had that happened to me, I would have felt more isolated and different than ever before.
We need to start normalizing mental health in elementary school.
Had I known, as a child, that it was okay if I didn’t know why I cried or felt sad, maybe I wouldn’t have felt like I had to hide it. If someone told me that other people experience irrational anxiety or shifts in mood, maybe I wouldn’t have felt so alone. And if I understood as a child that mental illness was nothing to be ashamed of, maybe I wouldn’t have struggled with feeling like I was a worthless freak when I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder at 17. Maybe people with different or no mental illnesses would have had a better understanding of what I was going through. Maybe someone would have caught the warning signs.
If we can take the time to teach elementary school kids about puberty and all the things that go with it, then we can talk about mental health. We also need to involve teachers, administrators, and parents. Let’s fight stigma before it starts. Together, we can create a world where people speak up when symptoms start. And not just because they need not fear judgment, but also because they recognize symptoms and know they have support. I don’t have a solid plan for how to make this happen, but we can, and must, make change. Parents, teachers, advocates, and administrators, let’s work together. You should not have to get a degree related to psychology or earn a badge and carry a weapon to get an education on mental health.
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