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“What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” – Glenn Close
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness of and reduce the stigma surrounding behavioral health, as well as highlighting the ways that mental illness can affect people and communities.
Mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being – how we think, feel, and act. The World Health Organization describes “good” mental health as a person being capable of effectively coping with stressors, learning and working well, and contributing to the community. Mental illness, also known as mental disorders, are diagnosable conditions such as depression, substance use disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or schizophrenia.
Since the pandemic, mental illness has dramatically increased worldwide. One in 5 American adults sought treatment for mental health conditions in 2020, with women disproportionately outnumbering men – 25% of women to just 14.6% of men.
By adolescence, girls are twice as likely to develop a mood disorder as boys. In fact, over two-thirds of antidepressants prescribed to teens are for girls, 90% of children treated for eating disorders are girls, and victims of self-poisoning are 5 times more likely to be girls. This is one of the reasons Chrysalis After-School programs focus on ensuring that girls have the support they need to be mentally and physically healthy as they grow.
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