"I'm Fine"

Schools are the place young people find themselves, where they explore who they are, boyfriends, girlfriends, blue hair, green hair, they explore themselves and try to make the tough journey of discovering who they are and what life is about.

A journey tough enough without added pressures of mental illness.
There is so much pressure on young people at the moment, the government are trying to boost league tables and increase GCSE results, teenagers are being forced to stay in education until they're 18, the focus is entirely on education and grades. But where's the focus on well-being?
There's plenty of emphasis on the values of physical education at school and how schools need to implement mandatory sessions (2+) of P.E per week, agreeable yes, it is important for the body to be kept healthy, but is that all?

There's so much highlighting of healthy eating and cutting out chips and other "junk" within menu's at schools, there is an incredible focus upon this, importantly so, however there is not anything focusing on mental health.

What actually constitutes health? Because there can be a student who absolutely excels at sports, is brilliant at basketball, tennis, hurdles, the whole hog, but maybe, just maybe, she could be suffering from mental health problems.
Many schools overlook mental health because it is something that they can't see, if a student were to start crying because they had fallen over and hurt their ankle they would be sent to a medical room so that somebody could look at it, because they can see it.
 If another student were to start crying because they were suffering mentally, a lot of teacher perceive that to be either attention seeking or nonsense, again, a lot not all, and therefore can be sent to return to lessons, which is absolutely ludicrous as they are probably suffering just as much as any other Tom, Dick and Harry.

So many children are suffering, and nothing is being done to help them, suicide is the biggest killer of 15-25 year olds, in 2013 alone 1600 young people died from suicide. Why is this statistic not making anybody do anything? This statistic is shocking.
When there are shootings and 20/30 people die, the country is stunned into silence, however 1600 people is 80 times that, what will it take to force people to open their eyes?
If 1600 people were gathered in the same place, and miraculously something caused them all to die, there would be complete outcry, the nation would be driven wild, these are people, not just a statistic.

Teenage years are a tough battle as it stands for the average teen, without the inclusion of mental health problems too, so many young people's struggling goes un-noticed and further they go without help.
Self harm is a very taboo subject which a lot of schools tend to avoid, unless you come forward and ask for help, there's none offered, and little to no education on it whatsoever.
Self harm is an incredibly embarrassing problem for many young people, some use it as a coping method which will last for a minuscule amount of time, others use it and it can stay with them forever, and for some it can develop into life threatening self injuring. What the majority of society seem unable to deduce is that self harm is not for attention, a large proportion of people choose to keep it a secret, but what can seem a harmless coping strategy can be a very dangerous slippery slope to get onto.
Common methods include cutting arms with sharp objects, and often people can find they don't get the same "buzz" the same "release" they can start to cut deeper, and not know their bodies limits, how much they can withstand it and sometimes unfortunately young people can end up cutting themselves too deep, they might not have intended to commit suicide, but they equally might not have realized how deep they were going, or what was where in their bodies.
This is why children need to be equipped with the warning signs to spot it, it could be their best friend, their brother, sister, or even themselves one day, they need to know the dangers of it, the reasons behind it, the myths, the facts, they need to know how to spot it and what to do if somebody starts to do it.
There are so many common misconceptions about eating disorders, bipolar, depression, anxiety and many more disorders that need to be addressed, so many people think that mental illness is a choice, it is something to be ashamed of, but it's far from it.
Young people need to have workshops implemented into their curriculum in PSHE, parents need to realise instead of trying to oppose this, they should be helping children to learn about mental health because if it affects them, then they need to know it's OK, that they're not alone, people certainly don't think they're attention seeking and that they need to ask for help.

The issue with mental health is that you can't see it, mental health problems can be incredibly difficult to notice, and often with secretive disorders such as Anorexia, Bulimia, Bipolar and Self Injuring the individual can have been so used to concealing their problems that spotting them can be very difficult, almost impossible.

Which is exactly why there needs to more done to let young people know that they aren't alone, and provide them with the knowledge to identify the warning signs among themselves and friends, and further educate them on the importance of seeking help, the procedures, and identify the myths from the facts regarding other people's opinions.

When their child is ill, parents move heaven and earth to ensure that they're comfortable, have all the cough medicine they need, and generally ensure that they're OK, they constantly ask questions to check this.
This shows that they don't want them to suffer, especially in silence, they try to find out what is wrong, so why should mental health be any different?

They wouldn't want their children to grow up thinking if they fell over and hurt themselves then they could not tell anybody, in fact, the idea sounds immensely obvious and almost laughable.
If somebody is suffering, why would you want them to do so in silence?
So why is mental health any different?

Workshops where young people anonymously submitted their fears and worries and then the tutor randomly pulled one out of a bag to discuss as a class would be beyond useful, it would gratify the person who actually wrote it, whilst providing a blanket of anonymity. They would have the opportunity to hear the class' view on it, and understand that perhaps they would not have gotten the negative response they originally thought, and also it would help the class to see that people do suffer in silence, worries are real, and perhaps they need to be mindful. Further, those who were unsure how to answer, would be equipped with the knowledge to deal with the scenarios, and of course as written by the class, perhaps a few added in by the tutor, they would be real life situations.

Of course there is the added bonus of improving speaking and listening skills, as well as developing problem solving, all of which are a positive asset to the children and valuable skills which they will carry throughout their lives.

No child should suffer in silence, you wouldn't expect them to walk around for 12 months on a broken leg and try to suffer the pain and anguish alone without any help, mental health is no different, there needs to be change and schools are where is starts.

We need to make a difference, we need to educate people, society needs to change, so open your eyes and end the suffering now, before people end it for themselves.

Beauty in the media.

The media is highly influential on society today, it shapes the views that people have on how they should look, act and feel.
It's natural as you're growing up to feel insecure and for your confidence to waver regarding your looks, naturally you grow up looking to the media and the men and women on the front of magazines as role models.
We look at all these magazine covers and see all these perfect, airbrushed women with not a lump or bump in the wrong place, perfect hair, perfect skin, and we are left feeling bad about how we look, how we can't ever measure up to them, and then we are left feeling inadequate and downright ugly.

This photo is a prime example of airbrushing and twisting of the media. The photo of the woman on the left has been manipulated an incredible amount, but why?
She looks  absolutely beautiful in the photo which has not been airbrushed, what is the point in trying to fix something which doesn't need fixing.

Come on, get a grip, it's giving the youth impressionable people of today an unrealistic view of what women actually look like, even if you're a size 6, if you pull that back-twisting pose then I'm sorry sweet cheeks, but that is how the female body sits.
This contributes to triggering people with eating disorder, giving people the impression that this sort of body is achievable, this is not how the body is supposed to look, airbrushed to cover everything, instead of spending so much money and time changing real women to look how they're not, the media needs to embrace women, embrace how they are.

Instead of spending so much money on campaigns to "find the new you", society needs to start campaigning to show women that they are how they are, love themselves, they don't need to lose weight to fit in with societies messed up idealizations of perfection, if anything, people should only lose weight for their health.

Women are beautiful, whether they are "boyish" "curvy" "apple" "pear" "skinny", these are all just words for beautiful, you don't have to have pert or big breasts to be a women, some people are naturally small framed, but equally, you don't have to be slim and slender to avoid the labelling of "fat" and "lazy".

Seriously, society really is truly blind, what would be so wrong with printing photos of natural women, they really are beautiful, they are real, and that is what the women of today want to see, they want to see real women, ones that they can relate to, and ones that aren't airbrushed to the point they look like a lollipop.

There are women in society who we perceive to be real, who we can identify with, and whom we respect for standing up and saying "yeah, maybe I do have a fuller figure, and what?".
One of these is Kim Kardashian, she is very pretty, has a relatively good sense of style, the majority of the time, and a lot of people look up to her, but society really can't handle that can they?

I don't know about you, but i can see absolutely nothing wrong with the photo on the left, i'm pretty sure if she was walking along on the beach she would turn quite a few heads.
At the end of the day, all it comes down to, is selling, if a magazine shows an airbrushed itsy bitsy perfect woman on the front cover, and in big bold print there's a caption from an article promising you this brilliant body which basically means you will therefore have a perfect life, perfect boyfriend, perfect brains, perfect friends, you will perfect and everybody will want you; then people are generally going to read it. They're going to buy the magazine, they're going to read the article, probably try the months worth of extortionate shakes at £80 a pop, lose 5 pounds, realise how miserable it is, never try that fad diet again, get drawn in by another magazine, another diet, another perfect, but of course 100% unattainable, beach perfect body, and repeat the cycle again.
Who cares? It's how economy works today, print to sell.
Who even cares what's printed, as long as it brings in readers and money, they don't really care about the readers, but need to pretend to, because at the end of the day, readers mean money.

We have all been given such tainted role models since we were very young, the favorite being Barbie, but if you look at the photo to the right, you can see how the average woman looks in comparison to the proportions of Barbie. If a woman were to have those proportions she would look so bizarre, she would most definitely not look like the average woman that you see walking down the street, yet from the age of 2 when you receive your first Barbie doll, we see all of the women of today as fat, they are fat, imperfect and abnormal, when really, Barbie is not normal.







The media is run by society, and it has a duty of society, stop making everybody feel so bad about themselves, get rid of all these fake women, real women, that is exactly what real people want to see.