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Keyana Blanchard
Argumentative Research Paper
UWRT 1101-008
Professor Turgeon
20 February 2017
Parental Invalidation of Mental Health in Adolescents

In America, 20% of youth between the ages of thirteen and eighteen have been diagnosed

with a mental health condition (NIMH). On a broader scale, 50% of all cases of mental illness

show symptoms beginning by the age of fourteen years old. Yet despite these alarming statistics,

the average delay between the first symptoms and intervention is eight to ten years. Parents play

a crucial role on the decisions made about their childrens health during these adolescent years.

when parents, whether by conscious decision or not, invalidate their childrens feelings as well as

symptoms and expressions of mental illness they not only delay treatment but also help to

perpetuate the mental illness. This issue could be resolved by providing educational resources for

parents on the symptoms, treatment options, and prevalence of mental illness.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death in Americans between the ages of ten and

twenty-four. Not coincidentally, 90% of those who committed suicide had a history of underlying

mental illness (NIMH). When parents see certain behaviors in their child such as feeling

withdrawn or unmotivated for more than two weeks, risky behaviors, severe mood swings, or

drastic changes in personality, they are seeing the warning of signs of adolescent mental illness.

In some cases, teens can start to even notice and feel these changes within themselves and

approach their parents about getting a mental health checkup. However, it is not uncommon for

parents to invalidate these concerns about their childrens health. Parents may attribute this

behavior to stress, exhaustion, problems at school, and hormonal fluctuations due to puberty.

This is not done out of malice, but parents tend to have a hard time attributing real world

afflictions to their own children who seem too young to have any real problems.
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Adults typically look at the world in a way that is different than adolescents. They see

through a lens of concrete facts and figures. For adults, it is easy to feel like teenagers do not

have anything to truly worry about. Teenagers dont pay bills, work a full time job, or have to

provide for their families so, in the eyes of adults, they have nothing to truly worry or be sad

about. However, being a teenager in todays society is so much more than what it looks like at

the surface level. Adolescents are trying to become who they are going to be for the rest of their

lives, while also being someone that their parents, their peers, and themselves approve of.

Moreover, mental illness tends to defy the rules of what adults deem to be real problems

because the very definition mental illness is not based on the amount of problems that someone

has, nor is it based on how many reasons someone has to be sad. The exact definition of mental

illness is a condition that affects a persons thinking, feeling, or mood ( NAMI). It is a health

condition. Even if someone appears to have the perfect life, with no stressful factors whatsoever,

they can still be afflicted with a mental illness. It is not based on how hard ones life is, or how

much responsibility one is saddled with, and therefore can affect people at any age.

Adults also typically stigmatize mental illness in a way that skews their idea of what it

truly is. They associate mental illness with words like crazy and fragile. They would be

ashamed to admit that they are on medication for mental illness, that they go to therapy, or have

spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Their shame is then inflicted onto their children. They dont

want their children to have a mental illness because they want them to be normal. In order to

avoid the truth they rationalize the behaviors exhibited by their children, attributing symptomatic

behaviors to stress, hormones, or lack of sleep. By consistently invalidating their childrens

emotions and concerns, they are actually perpetuating the symptoms of a mental illness. These

children feel misunderstood, so they withdraw from their daily life and activities even more.
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They may turn to drugs and alcohol to distract themselves from how they feel. They feel alone,

like no one understands what they are going through, and think that they are damaged in some

way. And most importantly an adolescent with a mental illness can turn to suicide because they

never got the treatment that they needed because their illness was never recognized for what it

was.

A major reason for the lack of parental response to mental illness, is simply due to being

uneducated on the subject. When society does not start a clear and honest dialogue about mental

illness parents can only make assumptions and draw their own conclusions regarding these

illnesses and the people they effect. The best way to end the stigma is by spreading awareness. It

can be very beneficial to understand the symptoms of mental illness, particularly in children,

because some children will not go to their parents for help with these types of issues so in some

cases it is up to the parent to spot these warning signs and to start the conversation. Parents

should also be educated on treatment options, so they know that being diagnosed with a mental

illness doesnt mean that their child will be sentenced to a psychiatric facility for the rest of their

lives, or stunting their growth by taking mood-altering prescription drugs. While psychiatric

hospitals do exist and many people take prescribed medicine to help ease the effects of their

mental illness, there are many more options for treatment. Children and adolescents can also

attend support groups or therapy, including alternative therapy such as specialized summer

camps. Parents should also have a better understanding of the actual prevalence of mental illness.

According to the united States Department of Health and Human Services, one out of every five

adolescents is living with a diagnosable mental disorder, with nearly one third of them showing

symptoms of depression. (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services) When people know that

there is nothing to be ashamed of, they will be more likely to seek help for themselves or their
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loved ones. People will be more open to admitting that their children are living with a mental

illness if they are exposed to regular people struggling with the same issue, so they know that

having a mental illness does not make them weird or crazy. This is the mindset of many

nonprofit organizations such as This Is My Brave, Inc., whose mission is to end the stigma

surrounding mental health issues by sharing personal stories of individuals living successful, full

lives despite mental illness. (This Is My Brave, Inc.) There are a number of organizations just

like this one who know that simply knowing that you are not alone can go a long way in the

battle with mental illness. When mental illness is normalized in our society and not seen as

something to be embarrassed about or ashamed of, parents will be more open to seeking help for

their child showing symptoms of any of these illnesses.


Children can have a tendency to see their parents as superheroes, they are expected to

save and protect the child at all times , to be the biggest support system, and ,for younger

children, to have all of the answers. This can be a conflicting issue when a child knows that

something is off and that they need help, but their parent simply brushes it off. It can make the

child feel self-conscious and afraid to come to their parent with personal issues too big to handle

themselves, or it can send them into a behavior pattern of minimizing problems in their life

rather than taking the necessary steps to resolve them. As parents, it is important to realize that a

parent is typically a childs primary, but not sole, protector. Some issues are bigger than the

family model and it is important to seek help if help is needed rather than just chalking

symptoms of mental illness up to having a bad day or changes in hormone levels. In order to

truly help children living with mental illness, the first step is acknowledging that these are very

real diseases that can effect anyone at any age.

Works Cited

"Living with Postpartum Depression." NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness.


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Web. 20 Feb. 2017.


"Mental Health Facts in Children and Teens." National Institutes of Health. U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

"The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services." Office of
Adolescent Health. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

"Mission." Mental Health Nonprofit | This Is My Brave, Inc. Web. 25 Mar. 2017.

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