In this special podcast, hosted by Axel Pearson from North Springs High School, various guests, including Aniya McKenzie, Tatiana Plummer, and Imani Shine, along with contributions from Jordyn Newsome, Sergio Moreno, and Alexis Justice, discuss the misconceptions surrounding mental health among teens.
The conversation delves into personal experiences with Attention Deficit Disorders and self-harm, the impact of COVID-19 on mental health awareness, and the difficulties of open communication between parents and teens. The episode emphasizes the need for sensitivity and understanding in addressing mental health issues.
Production and Art Credits:
Aniya McKenzie
Alexis Justice
Axel Pearson
Imani Shine
Isaac Carter
Jordan Bartlett
Jordyn Newsome
Kaydence Gaither
Sergio Moreno
Tatiana Plummer
Music Credit:
Warm Acoustic By OctoSound
Melancholy LoFi By cleanmindsound
Chill Lo Fi By fatbunny
Chillax LoFi By deepersound
All songs royalty-free, sourced through Envato.
Resources:
For more resources about mental health topics and some how to balance living with the ins and outs of big emotions, visit the following sites!
Free Your Feels GA is a mental health awareness campaign inspiring teens to speak up, listen with care, and connect — and to help!
988 Lifeline provides free confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
Silence the Shame hosts events for youth (teens and college students) to feel empowered and educated on mental health and wellness.
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in these podcasts are solely those of the creators and participants. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of North Springs High School.
Transcript
(Edited For Clarity)
Imani Shine: Just a content warning. This podcast contains topics of self-harm, mental disorders, and other difficult topics to speak or hear about.
Axel Pearson: Since Covid, we’ve had it in our face, through social media or our own brain. I’ve seen BPD posts called “beautiful princess disorder.”
Jordyn Newsome: Your teenage years are when your brain is starting to develop mental health disorders, whether hereditary or from a specific source.
Sergio Moreno: Especially teenagers nowadays, more responsibilities are getting on top of us, plus, the less stuff we get for ourselves. I feel like mental health, at the end of the day, is the only thing that we really have with ourselves.
Axel P: Hi, this is Axel from North Springs High School. I’m 15, I’m a freshman, and my pronouns are he/they, and mental health misconceptions are our topic today. They’re common in our society and, like the word misconceptions suggests, are completely wrong. Today, we dig deeper into those misconceptions with our guests.
Who am I here with?
Tatiana Plummer: I am Tatiana. A 17-year-old senior from North Springs High School, my pronouns are she/her.
Personally, I have ADD, and a common one [misconception] connected to ADHD — they go hand in hand. On TikTok, I’ll see those videos where they cook dinner and then, “I saw a butterfly.”
I feel like the fact that some of them aren’t satire is crazy to me. Because it’s so exaggerated. Like, they drag it out.
Axel P: Yeah, they definitely drag it out.
Tatiana P: I get distracted, but it’s not like a dog.
Another thing people may tie it to is laziness. If I can’t focus, I will try to do my homework. But then I see a new Justin Press update, and now I’m on Pinterest. I don’t want that confused with laziness. People may think she just doesn’t want to do her work, you’re just one blink away, and now you’re watching a whole series.
It’s definitely frustrating. People either over-exaggerate or they under-exaggerate it. So normally I see over-exaggeration, but when it comes to, let’s say, my parents, like my mom. If she were to like see me not doing work, she’ll be like, “Oh, you’re being unproductive. You need to get on task.”
Gentle reminders definitely help, but I feel like it discourages me, because then my mind just doesn’t want to do it.
Axel P: While we’re on that topic, how do you personally feel about whenever adults or parents will be like, “Oh, well, you’re too young to know how that feels or to understand that.”
Tatiana P: Back to underestimation, a lot of parents, just adults in general, underestimate not only teens, but kids, too.
Kids are so much smarter than people think, and they’re so perceptive. Kids are extremely smart.
Specifically to your question, it’s just insensitive. Just because we have different brains, we have different life experiences growing up, I am younger than you, but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t experienced as much. I feel like teens today experience a lot more mentally than adults did back then. It varies because some people go through crazy stuff. But with social media and us knowing literally everything, and then they didn’t know as much.
Axel P: Definitely. I have been told that before, so it definitely felt like a blow to the chest. It wasn’t by somebody very close to me, if I remember correctly, it was a family member.
It felt wrong to hear that, but at the same time, in a way, it was like it hurt, and it put me back. It made me rethink, “Oh, well really, do I know this? Can I feel this?”
And it can make people not wanna get help. “Oh, I’m too young to get help, too young to go to therapy.” You know? That’s…
Tatiana P: Invalidating.
Axel P: It’s very invalidating. So you never know what your words can do. How your words can make people feel, especially young people.
Tatiana P: Yeah.
Axel P: Vulnerable young people.
Tatiana P: It’s like a very sensitive time in their life, especially if you know that they are going through something. Even if you don’t know the gravity of it, you should definitely be aware and have a level of respect. I feel like a lot of adults lose that respect for us, especially parents.
It’s not like we’re asking to own the house or one-up them, but it’s like some basic respect. Adults should be more open-minded and listen.
Axel P: There are select few that do listen, but I feel like a majority of the adults I have met whenever I have tried to speak out about my struggles, or what has happened to me, or how I’m dealing with it, it’s just like, “Oh, well you can deal with that better,” or “it’s not that hard to get out of bed.”
There are a lot of things that anyone, really any age, especially with teenagers, a lot of teenagers don’t want to tell you what they’re going through. They just wanna keep it bottled up and bottled up until they’re out and they’re punching walls or they’re doing harmful stuff either to others or themself because they’ve kept it bottled up for so long. Because somebody in their lives has made them feel like they cannot let somebody know.
Tatiana P: One frustrating thing about parents: They make a space that you don’t feel comfortable in, and then they’ll be like, “Why don’t you talk to me?”
It’s so frustrating and then when you do talk to them, they’re like, “Whoa, where’s this coming from? Calm down,” or like, “You’re doing too much,” or “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
It’s very, very frustrating.
I think they come from a perspective of like, “Oh, I’ve dealt with so much up to this point. She couldn’t have dealt with this at such a young age.”
Axel P: Sometimes it feels like the parent doesn’t want to believe that their child is going through that.
Tatiana P: Yeah, I think it’s coping.
Axel P: I definitely have mental health struggles. I have my own. And with my mom, I know that she is trying.
For some parents, it can be coping, but at the same time, it can also be harmful. So I just feel like anybody should be careful with what they’re saying and how they’re dealing with the situation. They need to take it with sensitivity.
Tatiana P: We’re all going through something. You can’t really compare what each other is going through because we’ve grown up different. And so I think between parents and teens, ’cause I know parents have their thing too, like this is their first time being parents. So it is hard to accept the fact that you are the cause of your kids’ own mental health issues.
Overall, everybody needs to be more accepting and more open-minded to each other’s struggles.
Axel P: So, who are we here with?
Imani S: My name’s Imani, and I’m 14.
Axel: What do you think some misconceptions about mental health are?
Imani S: Some misconceptions. I feel like some stuff with self-harm, some people think some people do it for attention, or like, just to feel important.
But I don’t feel it’s like that. Some people have problems, some people have issues that they’re going through, and that seems like the only way that they can cope with their issues.
Axel P: Definitely. Do you want to share any personal experiences?
Imani S: With self-harm, I’m almost a year clean.
Axel P: Congratulations!
Imani S: Yes, thank you! With self-harm, I feel like it’s just something you don’t think about that hard, but it’s like, “Oh, damn. I’m failing my classes. I’m going home and I’m arguing with my mom and such.” That seems like the only way you can escape.
It’s been a minute since I have self-harmed. I’ve found some other ways to cope. I listen to music a lot. I sleep, stuff like that. I’ve escaped playing flag and some other stuff.
I almost did get caught. I feel like your parents make it a bigger problem than it needs to be when they find out you are. But I can understand why they’d get so angry if they found out. They feel like they’re not a good enough parent or like they went wrong somewhere. You know what I’m saying?
Axel P: Yeah. How do you feel personally about, whenever somebody reaches out for help and they get sent to a mental hospital?
Do you feel like it’s helpful, or do you feel like it’s not helpful?
Imani S: I haven’t dug deep into mental hospitals, but in some cases, it really doesn’t help. Because isolating a person and not giving them the actual help that they need, I feel like that makes it worse.
Axel P: Mm-hmm.
Imani S: So I feel like they need to be surrounded in a place where they can actually cope with their issues, and they can, like, self-discover some stuff that helps them cope with it.
Axel P: Have you ever witnessed somebody’s mental health or their struggles?
Imani S: Yeah, I actually have a couple of friends.
One of my friends has been going through a lot. I don’t know what she’s going through because I don’t feel like it’s my place to ask. But a lot of our mutual friends cut her off because she wouldn’t want to get help for the issues that she has.
But I can understand why, because some people would over-exaggerate. I feel like she’s just trying to keep her peace. But I can see it physically, it’s hurting her, but I feel like she’s doing way better.
Axel P: Yeah, that’s definitely good. Do you know any ways you can help somebody who’s going through something? How can you help?
Imani S: Just be a safe space. Allow them to know that they can talk to you, come to you about anything, especially if you’ve been through the same stuff before, that you’re just there for them, and offer that support.
Axel P: So, who are we here with?
Aniya McKenzie: Hi, I’m Aniya.
Axel P: How old are you?
Aniya M: I’m 16.
Axel P: What do you think some misconceptions about mental health are?
Aniya M: I think therapy not being important, or mental health not categorized as real.
Axel P: Yeah. Have you ever experienced that? Somebody trying to tell you that, “Oh, well your experiences aren’t real,” or, “They aren’t true?”
Aniya M: In 2020. In 2020, everything was overwhelming.
Axel P: I definitely a lot of people’s… that’s when mine started, all of my struggles were during quarantine.
Aniya M: My siblings would just tell me, “You’re literally just out of school. You’re just sitting at home. You’re not struggling that bad. This is not hindering you from getting money. This is not hindering you from going to college.”
But it was affecting me so bad, and they brushed it off.
Axel P: Yeah, definitely. Because of COVID, it’s definitely gonna affect you mentally if you’re stuck inside for months on end. And you don’t really have contact with the outside world. You can’t even go to a grocery store.
Aniya M: You’re door-dashing everything,
Axel P: You’re door-dashing everything. Amazon is your go-to. If you wanna play a game, you’re going to have to Amazon a computer, or Xbox, or a Nintendo. You’re stuck inside.
I see where you’re coming from with that. Is there anything else you wanna add?
Aniya M: COVID changed a lot of people’s perspectives on mental health.
Because, before COVID, people were like, “Oh, mental health, blah, blah, blah.” Now it’s understood because people experienced it, and people got to feel what others felt before.
My cousin suffered from depression and anxiety before COVID. And I knew how serious it was. But I was like, “I’ll give you a hug.”
But now, it’s like she needed more than a hug, and I wish I knew that at that time.
But you never know how serious it is until you go through it.
Axel P: Have you ever witnessed, or been there, for anyone who was dealing with misconceptions about their mental health?
Aniya M: Yeah. My friend was struggling at home, and her parents weren’t taking it seriously, and she was losing her mind because nobody was believing her.
She felt helpless, and it got to the point where she wanted to end it. But me and my friends were like, “No. We understand. We get it.”
And that leads in to parents not believing in mental health and not believing it’s a real thing.
I think before COVID, especially in my family, therapy was categorized as not that important, not that serious.
I think after COVID that changed because a lot of people went through the struggles. And I just hated that it was ever like that.
Axel P: Yeah, it definitely sucks that it took a whole pandemic for people to be like, “Oh, well this is an important thing and maybe we shouldn’t joke about it, or we should actually take it seriously.”
Aniya M: And I hate so bad. Like,, I don’t know the statistics, but I feel like therapy is “up.” Everybody’s in therapy. Their moms, their dads, everybody’s in therapy because it’s important.
And I wish it were like that before the pandemic, because it’s real.
Alexis Justice: Hey! Wait! Don’t go away! There are more resources that can help you get to a better place in your mind.
My name’s Alexis, and mental health can be its own demons that not everyone can conquer on their own. It takes place in your brain, and it just stays there without you ever really knowing.
Then one day, it’s like your brain turns on you. It begins to tell you things that you know are not true, but you can’t help but listen to that voice that’s in your head. It’s like your brain tells you that every harmful thing that you’re doing to yourself and others is okay, and that you don’t need help to beat this.
You can do this on your own, but really, you don’t need to.
Free Your Feels is a mental health awareness campaign in Georgia that has lots of resources that can go to people when they don’t know what steps to take, when they’re trying to get the help that they need.
You can go to freeyourfeels.org to find Resources for LGBTQ, and harming yourself, and other things you might feel are necessary for you and your mental health. With this resource and others, there are ways to overcome your struggles with people and resources in your corner.
Thank you. Have a wonderful day!
