With all the articles written about younger & younger children taking their lives.

It’s time I wrote my own opinion on this subject.

We need to make our kids more resilient & educate them.
I’m Not talking about more spelling test.

I’m talking about telling them what “depression'”, sadness, anxiety, stress and a ton more Mental health issues look & feel like.

We need to start the anti-suicide “conversation” with kids, young kids.

When are you going to give our kids the Tools they need to understand mental health issues?

Sesame Street just introduced us to the first different Muppet.
I’m not going to call her (Autistic) because she shouldn’t have to be labeled Julia the Autistic muppet.

Her name is Julia.

She may be different, so what.

It took until 2017 for Sesame Street to embrace kids with differences!
When are we going to show that real life is not all songs & games.

How long will it take to put a bully on Sesame Street?
I’ll tell you, Never?
Because that doesn’t make good TV.
But it is real life.
It will more than likely be in your big child’s life.

Let kids see what bullying behavior looks like from a young age so they can recognize it and start learning how to share when they are emotionally hurt by someones comments, or rumors or posting an inappropriate pic or video of them for all to see.

Teach them how to handle the situations they are going to come across in real life.
How many kids are living through their parents separation or divorce, loss of a pet or loved one or a break up.
Teach them what to do with their feelings.
“provided insight in to the emotional health of students”

Kids are taking it upon themselves to make horrible permanent decisions, for temporary issues that they feel stuck in at that present time & feel like it is the end of the world.

Our generation lives instant gratification, so why would you think kids today have any tolerance for bad things to go on.

Kids are sad, depressed & possibly have a Mental Health problem,

Sometimes they know why they feel badly, but most times they don’t.

That is where practicing Good Mental Health comes in.

Don’t you want your kids to recognize when they can’t “feel” happy?

Or they feel like they are in a dark place or feel alone & no one knows what they are going through?
Maybe they feel like no one likes them & the world would be a better place without them.

They should have awareness built in to them as a young child.
So if & when they feel these things they can recognize it like a “physical Rash” they broke out in.
I bet 9 out of 10 kids would show a parent their rash.

Why are you Not teaching us how to see/recognize what is hurting us on the inside,
How to, “understand their emotions”

When our thinking is off, when we feel depressed or deeply sad or angry.
Not to wait to long for the “rash” to spread.

Or depression, sadness and anger to get worse.
Health class has never changed.
We are still learning the same stuff my mother learned.
That’s not good.

Schools, parents, teachers, counselors have all embraced teaching us;
Healthy Eating/healthy lifestyle.

It is high time to start talking about practicing Good Mental Health!

Society owes it to our generation to teach us how to recognize the signs.

Not just for the kids already in therapy.

But before we get there.

We should be teaching Mindfulness in our schools from a very young age.

We have to teach our youth that No matter what goes on in School, Social or home life which is all totally public today, it is NOT the end of the world!

Kids are making Permanent decisions to temporary issues.
Because they feel like things will never get better!

This thinking has to stop.

We have to start educating our youths.

Schools have embraced school lockdowns because of disasters that have occurred in our schools.
But they have Not even begun teaching us how to address our Mental Health.

Why do I know soooo much about Good Mental Health?

My Mother taught my siblings and I from little children that it is the Most important thing we can be aware of.

“Without our Mental Health we have nothing”!

Our kids today are suffering in silence!

Bullying is NOT something new.
It has been going on forever.
The only difference today is that we can’t get away from the bullies when we get home from school.
The bullying continues through Social Media (cyber) etc.

We aren’t going to shut down the internet or Social Media.
So we must teach our youths how to deal with this issue right away.
Teach kids to address their feelings regarding what is bothering us.

We have to teach them Not to be ashamed about the situation & share & open up about what is being said or spread as rumors or pranks or smeared on Social Media or videoed doing something that is humiliating or embarrassing to them or being left out & having no friends.

We must be taught that these things are NOT worth taking our life over!

How about all the youths that lash out at their parents for being served consequences for their poor behavior.
They turn around and hurt themselves because their parents gave them consequences to their actions and they lost privileges to cell phone use or watching YouTube or playing video games or any other things they enjoy.
To bad!
Kids were always given consequences, if my mother came home after her curfew, she didn’t get to use the car.
Oh well.

Serving Consequences are part of life, Not death.

Kids need to be taught not to resort to hurting themselves or worse because they don’t like being served the consequences for their actions.

But it’s the adults in our life that Must listen & Not turn a blind eye or make excuses or ignore us and let us down when we do reach out.

There is a series on Netflix called 13 reasons why.
There is a ton of bad press regarding the show.
Why don’t people Stop criticizing how graphic & inappropriate the show is & address that it is a huge problem in our society.

My mom said, the series clearly shows you that the girl didn’t know what to do with her problems or Who to share them with as they continued to pile up.

I didn’t watch it.
But my Mother told me all about it.
We talk about these issues.
In that show, there were many reasons the girl talks about.
The thing is, no matter how much she was hurting & suffering, she needed to tell people how she felt.
Even though she finally told her school counselor & he was zero help.

There are too many cases like, “a counselor told him it was his fault”

Where these counselors are not giving the right answers or keeping the student
With them while reaching out for help.

Kids who are reaching out need to know that if & when they do, you will do everything in your power to stop their pain.

But you must first teach our young children to talk about things bothering them.

Her parents & school & Health class prob taught her not to smoke or use drugs but nothing about recognizing Her own Mental Health.

She didn’t recognize she was becoming more and more depressed.

I’m speaking from experience here.
I just turned 13 & I have been a bullying survivor 2 times already.
Once when I was 9 in 4th grade my 2 classroom teachers bullied me & the other time this very school Year in 7th grade.

I am currently being bullied by a girl in my class.
I’m not going to lie & tell you it is easy to go through or that I haven’t been in a dark place before.

But I will tell you that I was taught to recognize my sadness & depression & anxiety & what being bullied looks like.
I was taught, my feelings are my feelings no matter how my school or others told me to feel.
My mother taught me to reach out & don’t stop until someone listens to you!
My mother taught me to Never give up!

She said, “Nothing will ever happen to me that is worth giving my life over!”

I promise you that you are not alone & that we have all more than likely been in a dark place at one time in our life or another.
I will Not stop speaking up about Practicing Good Mental Health!

We need to save our youths from themselves.

As my mom would say, “it is not a bad thing for my child to tell me, they feel like they need to speak to someone, that is a wonderful thing”.

Lets teach them how to recognize & reach out & share when they aren’t feeling well & promise them that when they do,
We
Will
LISTEN!!!

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”, goes the wise Chinese proverb.