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THE FRAGILE STAGE: Considering the wide range of mental health issues in teens

Sanford Herald
Mar 10, 2018

March 10--Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part series. Part two of "The fragile stage" will appear in Sunday's Herald.

Katie Thomas sees approximately 16 teenagers a week in her Sanford office.

The licensed clinical social worker helps these teens deal with a host of issues in her role as counselor. In her 15-plus years of experience, she's seen just about every situation.

"Developmentally, they're at a stage where they're trying to figure out who they are," Thomas said. "And on top of all the pressure of school and to fit in, they're trying to figure out what their identity is."

It's at that fragile stage of life that counselors and psychologists try to reach in and help teenagers deal with the mental health problems they might face. Lee County is no different than the rest of the country.

Various studies suggest differing levels of frequency, but the National Alliance on Mental Illness says that one in five people will deal with a mental illness at some point in their lifetime. Those illnesses could include depression, anxiety, trauma, attention hyper-deficit disorder (ADHD) and more.

In North Carolina, the number of adolescents aged 12-17 experiencing major depressive episodes (MDE) is rising, according to the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. In the 2011-2012 school year, the number was 8.1 percent, just below the national average. In 2014-2015, around 12.3 of all adolescents had an MDE, about 96,000 in all. The national average was 11.9 percent.

According to the North Carolina School Mental Health Initiative, a group organized in 2015 to study the reach of mental health issues among youth, 19 percent of North Carolina students aged 8-15 experienced some kind of mental health disorder in the past year. Suicide was deemed the second-leading cause of death among people aged 10-24, and North Carolina has seen its youth suicide rate double in recent years.

The effects of mental health issues are far-reaching. The 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that students who had an MDE were far more likely to use illicit drugs such as marijuana, psycho-therapeutics, inhalants and hallucinogens in the same year than those who had not. Other studies have shown that mental health problems lead to a drop in school performance, poorer physical health and more negative effects.

Why are mental health ailments so prevalent among teenagers? John Kelly, a school psychologist at Commack High School in Commack, New York, and president of the National School Psychologists Association, echoed Thomas in saying the adolescent and teenage years are formative.

"I think that part of it is clearly some of the challenges that they begin to face as they begin to make that transition into young adulthood and some of the realities that are hitting them," Kelly said. "For some students, they simply don't have the social-emotional skill to cope with issues that they're being confronted with. These are the kids that really begin to struggle. Then there's a biological component to it. There's biological issues simply with the changes that occur during adolescence, a lot of these things can be triggered."

Even though teenagers and high schoolers are having these problems, many are not reaching out for assistance. The N.C. School Mental Heath Initiative study showed that 75 percent of students with a mental health disorder did not seek help for it.

Thomas, who struggled with anxiety in high school herself, said it took her eight years to finally look for aid.

"While this teenage generation now is certainly more open to talking about mental health, there still can be a bit of a stigma," she said. "They don't want to feel different. So I think that can sort of sometimes get in the way. And the fear of they don't want to be judged or not taken seriously."

Thomas added that she's seen the influence of adults on keeping kids from sharing their struggles. She's talked with youth that have been told by other adults that their mental health issues are just part of being a "hormonal teenager." Sometimes it might be that, Thomas said, but that attitude can prevent children from looking for help.

When kids do reach out for assistance, most of the time they will seek either specialty settings like Thomas' practice or school-based counselors and psychologists. The 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health said 13.2 percent of youths aged 12-17 who sought help for mental illness that year went to school personnel.

Reach Staff Writer Zachary Horner at 919-718-1217 and on Twitter at @Zachary_Horner.

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(c)2018 The Sanford Herald (Sanford, N.C.)

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