Should Mental Illness Be Taught In Schools Essay

“Why Mental Illness Should Be Better Taught In Schools”
How well is mental illness taught in school? Not well enough considering how many teens suffer from mental illness. According to a teen mental health website, ¨The statistics are staggering, 1 in 5 young people suffer from a mental illness, that’s 20 percent of our population but yet only about 4 percent of the total health care budget is spent on our mental health” (TeenMentalHealth.org). No money or time is being spent on the importance of a healthy mind, and yet with better teaching one can reduce misconceptions about mental illnesses, broaden the mind about the different disorders and explain the dangers of leaving serious mental disorders untreated.
The most common mental disorder
There are plenty of mental disorders that affect a teens lifestyle, mood disorders and eating disorders being the most prevalent. Mood disorders, like depression, can cause teens to stop taking care of their hygiene or self control, leading many depressed teens to drugs, alcohol, self harm or suicide. Eating disorders are even more life changing. In an informative paper on common mental disorders, Austin Child And Guidance Center states, ““Eating disorders can be life threatening. A young person with anorexia nervosa, for example, cannot be persuaded to maintain a minimally normal body weight. This child or adolescent is intensely afraid of gaining weight and doesn’t believe that he or she is underweight. Anorexia affects 1 in every 100 to adolescent girls,” (Mental Disorders In Children And Adolescents). Anorexia makes it hard to keep a healthy body weight which can be very destructive to a person's physical health. Reversing a state of mind is hard enough, convincing someone they need to gain weight when they think they’re fat is impossible. But it can be done, and with better knowledge being taught in schools, there is a chance of improving someone's mental and physical