Items Tagged With mental health

While I am not surprised (but quite saddened) by the media hounding received by Owen Wilson, his family and associated executives in the industry, what does continue to surprise (and sadden) me is the continuing lack of awareness and reporting surrounding mental illness as well as suicide.

Considering that Mr. Wilson requested, "I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time," it is clear that even he perceives his situation as serious. His request has fallen on deaf ears. Newscasters are camped out at Cedars-Sinai.

If indeed Owen Wilson suffers from depression and if he indeed did try to attempt suicide (as up to this point no statements have been released to confirm or deny), requesting the media to grant him the courtesy to heal and receive treatment in private should ethically be honored. Ethics do not sell air time or newspapers, however.

I share these two entries about mental health issues in school settings - this one about high school and the next about college - as an opportunity to open up the dialogue for teens and young adults that will soon be either returning to high school or beginning college.

I went through high school and college with undiagnosed depression, anxiety and PTSD. I was an overly stressed-out person, and it is only in hindsight that I see my missed opportunities and close calls. My good decisions occurred only through sheer happenstance or by default. Perhaps by sharing an "inside look" at my experience, I may support those teens and young adults who are still in school and coping with mental health issues, and help them to make good decisions with forethought.

A youth welfare group has come up with a novel way to improve mental health in young people: an online video game.

But players won't be gunning down hordes of alien scum a la Halo, or hooning around the track in a BMW M3, Need for Speed style.

Rather, Reach Out Central, championed by the Inspire Foundation, is an online role-playing game in which players can "test-drive life and play it when and how you want to".

Helping and befriending the computer-controlled characters that inhabit the online world is essential, and Inspire hopes skills developed in the game - and choices made there about friends, partying, work and life in general - will transfer to the real world.

Inspire Foundation's director of programs, Jonathan Nicholas, said the program, launched today, targeted young people aged 16-25. Young males had been particularly difficult to engage using other communication vehicles, such as information sites.

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