Studies have found that 50 to 75 percent of mental disorders start in childhood. Anxiety is common in early childhood, as is depression in the teen years. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth across the country, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Shilpa Narayan was 14 years old when the distress she had tried to hide for years erupted into tears after a teacher asked how her day was going.
“I looked at her and I just started crying,” she recalls.
At that moment, thanks to intervention by her teacher, Narayan took the first step toward treatment for the anxiety and depression she had suffered from since the age of 12.
“Everything was scary, everything was daunting,” said Narayan, now 20. “Some days I couldn’t speak. At the end of the day, I felt I had run multiple marathons but hadn’t won any of them.”
Anxiety disorder and depression were clinical terms the teenager didn’t understand at the time. She just knew that she felt overwhelmed. Click here for all of Shilpa’s story. Every parent, care-giver and required reporter needs to be hear her story.
Source: Vancouver Sun
