Eighteen-year-old Khajaun Ewing sat in his college counselor’s workplace at Benny Benson Secondary College displaying off his new tattoos. On one thigh it reads, “I can do it” in block letters. The opposite reads, “I’ll do it.”
“It’s my warrior cry,” he mentioned. “Every time I’m feeling like I can’t do it, I inform myself, ‘I can do it and I’ll do it.’ And I push by way of all obstacles.”
Ewing has plans for his future. He is aware of he’ll concentrate on supporting his household and serving to others by finding out to turn out to be a chiropractor.
“I’m fascinated with all the totally different bones within the physique,” he mentioned. “The way in which issues work, how one can assist somebody with all of their totally different aches and pains over time.”
However Ewing didn’t all the time have this outlook on life. He skipped class to drive round together with his mates, ignored his mother and father’ guidelines and didn’t care in any respect concerning the future. He was failing out of faculty till he enrolled final August in Benny Benson, a credit score restoration program in Anchorage. There, lecturers allowed him to work at his personal tempo, motivated him to maintain going and supported him to satisfy his targets.
“My GPA went from a 1.2 to a 3.5 since I’ve been right here,” he mentioned.
He was additionally on the consideration roll for 4 quarters in a row.
With the encouragement of his mentor, Ewing modified his pal group and sought out individuals who could be constructive influences.
“I seen I used to be doing dumb issues, so I modified that and I took all of these adverse folks out of my life,” he mentioned.
The varieties of adjustments Ewing made had been all associated to psychological well being. In truth, the steps Ewing took similar to investing in wholesome relationships and discovering methods to serve are options made within the Surgeon General’s 2021 advisory on supporting youth mental health. However Ewing would by no means by no means body it that approach.
For Ewing psychological well being means one factor.
“You’re not completely satisfied. Not being completely satisfied,” he mentioned. “That’s my tackle psychological well being.”
As a result of that’s precisely how society teaches us to consider it, mentioned Jason Lessard, government director of the Anchorage chapter of the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness, a psychological well being advocacy group.
“When folks hear psychological well being, they consider psychological sickness or the negatives of psychological well being,” he mentioned.
Lessard mentioned usually conversations round psychological well being within the media and in private interactions concentrate on adverse points or psychological well being diagnoses. They don’t concentrate on the concept psychological well being is simply one other facet of our total well being, and that it’s influenced closely by the environment and the folks round us.
Psychological well being is tied to our bodily well being, too. Lack of meals can result in irritability identical to nervousness may cause you to have abdomen pains, he mentioned.
“I believe that’s what will get so difficult about psychological well being and psychological well-being and mind well being is that it’s so linked with so many different issues,” Lessard mentioned.
The World Health Organization defines mental health as a state of well-being the place folks can notice their very own skills, can deal with the traditional stresses of life and may contribute to their communities. This implies psychological well being isn’t simply when you have issues or melancholy, and supporting psychological well being isn’t nearly drugs or remedy.
So how do you shift conversations round psychological well being to be extra inclusive of all facets of it, from the constructive issues to the adverse issues? How do you discuss concerning the small issues we are able to do to enhance our psychological well being with out being reductive?
“It’s a tricky one, and I’m unsure that I totally know tips on how to make that change with out additionally sounding, you recognize, slightly too, slightly too Pollyanna-ish and prescriptive,” Lessard mentioned.
A part of the issue is that defining psychological well being and all that it consists of will be arduous, even for individuals who work within the area.
“Your psychological well being is… I don’t know tips on how to describe it even,” mentioned peer help specialist Taylor Stapley. He works with teenagers at VOA-Alaska, a psychological well being service supplier in Anchorage. “It’s simply your approach. Yeah, it’s actually arduous to outline that for me.”
Stapely mentioned psychological well being consists of the uplifting emotions and the arduous ones. Talking as each an expert and an individual in restoration from addictions, he mentioned that psychological well being is influenced by every thing.
“The whole lot contributes to it. How folks discuss to you, how folks take a look at you, how you are feeling about your self, the way you suppose different folks view you, your vanity, your lack of vanity. Your temper you’re in. The whole lot contributes to it,” he mentioned.
So how can we get folks to consider psychological well being and speak about it extra comprehensively and with out worry? Each Lessard and Stapely mentioned it begins with extra schooling.
“The sooner we are able to have these conversations and discuss to children about their feelings in order that they perceive them slightly bit higher,” the higher we’ll be within the long-run, Lessard mentioned.
Stapely mentioned schooling has opened up conversations about many points previously and may do the identical for psychological well being.
“You don’t must be frightened of it. It’s simply, it’s what it’s,” Stapely mentioned.
Psychological well being schooling just isn’t presently a part of the Alaska state schooling requirements, although the state legislature has mentioned bills about the issue for the previous three legislative periods. Senator Lisa Murkowski additionally not too long ago introduced federal legislation to fund psychological well being promotion and suicide prevention applications in Okay-12 faculties.
This story is a part of an ongoing solutions journalism project at Alaska Public Media about destigmatizing psychological well being. The challenge is funded by a grant from the Alaska Psychological Well being Belief however is editorially impartial.
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