Teen Mental Disorders

This article from the Straits Times on March 12, is about a serious issue that concerns teenagers.

1 in 4 teens and young adults in developed countries have a risk that they may develop mental problems. With such frightening figures, the Institute of Mental Health invited 9 experts both foreign and local to develop a study on the identifying symptoms of people who may develop mental illnesses. This should help to prevent an onset of serious mental illnesses. A US expert has said that most mental illnesses hit teens whose brain’s frontal lobe is developing. This area particularly controls behaviour and emotion, which teens have trouble controlling. Thankfully, if there is a way to pick out such teens at an early stage, these teens may not even require the use of medicines to help them.

While Singapore does not have so many cases of teens with mental illnesses, the Institute of Mental Health has half of the outpatients having schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disease that should be treated early. This serious form of psychosis often causes patients to hallucinate or believe that others are controlling them. If treatment is delayed, medicine may become ineffective to the patient.

As such, there is a need to provide aid to the 10 percent of the teens who run a risk of such dangerous mental illnesses. After all, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. The government is already spending a third of its medical subsidies on mentally ill patients. If more teens are admitted with mental problems, the drain of medical fund would be unimaginable. Thus the government is wise to foresee this impending problem. It is important to take precautions in case it becomes a reality.

Teens often admitted to the Institute of Mental Health would be of ages 22-26. At such ages, I think they face a new phase of their life. As such, many new stress factors come into play. This would be the ages when they start to have a love life, and have to start looking for a job. If they face difficulties that they have never experienced before, they may feel despondent and may not be able to pick themselves up. Such may be the reason that many psychotic patients are around this age.

I am not of such an age yet, and I can only presume that this may be the reason for their mental illnesses. It is interesting to note that in previous generations, such problems were very rare. Also, the article states that the risk of 1 in 4 teens having mental problems only applies to developed countries. As our society improves, our pace of living has increased and this should be also one of the reasons as to why teens risk mental illnesses. As of now, I can only speculate and I will most likely understand when I reach the same age group.