Two-thirds (66%) of young Scots say that they feel that young people are dismissed by adults when they try to open up about their mental health. Kirsty, 19, from the Scottish Borders, has first-hand experience after trying to get support from teachers when she was still at school — and she wants to use her experience to help educate others and break down the stigma that surrounds mental health.
Mental health has been a really big part of my life from a young age. I’ve experienced challenges with my anxiety, both physical discomfort and feeling mentally drained, and also times with depression, which like left me devoid of feeling. The biggest struggle with that has been speaking out and speaking about it, and trying to seek support because of the stigma.
When I was struggling I felt trapped. It leaves you feeling isolated, especially as a young person, still trying to establish good relationships with people that I feel comfortable discussing these things with, and in a society that still has as much stigma and discrimination within it.
Stigma definitely kept me silent. The fear of judgment, the fear of not being understood the fear of being dismissed and not heard.
I was worried about being honest, I was worried about the judgment that I would face for that. And I was worried about the negative impact as a consequence of speaking out. I worried that people would change their opinions of me or think I was less able to achieve things as a consequence of my mental health. But the reality of that is wrong — there’s nothing I can’t achieve.
My worst experience with stigma was in school. I had a few teachers that I had particularly good relationships with and I built up the confidence to talk to them about my mental health — but the stigma actually came from those people. They kind of dismissed me — they argued that it was just part of being a teenager, it was all hormones, it was the stress of exams. But it wasn’t, and they made me feel as though my feelings weren’t valid.
That really impacted my relationship that I had with those individuals, and I suddenly thought, if they don’t understand then, nobody’s going to understand. I really began to question whether I was allowed to feel the way that I was. It left me in a worse place with my mental health, because suddenly, my feelings didn’t seem justified, but I was still experiencing them.
It really did take me quite a while before I built up the confidence to reach out again. I had to have the stubbornness to push and to say, actually, I do need support. Sometimes you need to have the drive to knock down every barrier you face, you have to keep pushing at it to really ensure that you are getting heard.
With my teachers, I don’t think it was just them being dismissive — I think it was a lack of understanding. I’m really passionate about providing that fundamental education for everybody regarding the stigma of mental health, and getting people to start talking about it.
We need to educate our society on the basics of mental health, developing a really foundational understanding of how stigma is still being experienced. We’re not pushing for everybody to become qualified therapists, but providing people with a toolkit to feel comfortable having these conversations, which then would create a really safe space for young people or adults alike, to feel more comfortable talking about their experiences and opening up about their mental health.
