should they teach stuff about mental health in schools…?
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Yes they should in health class. We were taught “You can get schizophrenia if you do LSD” That’s all I remember about schizophrenia in school but they should teach more. And I didn’t listen because our teacher told us “You can see playboy bunnies if you take LSD” so my mind was too fixated on that to care about the schizophrenia. Bad teacher. She was practically a playboy bunny though.
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they probably do teach stuff about mental illness, but they just don’t go in-depth about it. I wouldn’t really know because I forgot most of the things in health education class
but I still remember a few things about human biology. 
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Yes they should, especially in Middle School and High School.
I worked in the Education field for decades.
I’ll never forget this one time when the Art teacher devoted an entire class teaching and explaining to Elementary school students the connection between mental illness and creativity.
I was really moved by her compassion
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Yes, for some of the students have mental illness. The education can literally save lives.
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Education wouldn’t have helped me. Which makes me think I was mentally sick from a very young age. Because I was in denial about my schizophrenia, so delusional, before I ever “actually” got schizophrenia. But yeah I agree it can help many.
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I’m from the 60’s and back then the word schizophrenia wasn’t even heard. Before I had my first breakdown I knew nothing about it, even though my aunt was a patient. Yeah, I think it should be taught in school, but what are they going to teach. In the media, you hear things like marijuana causes schizophrenia, and that’s just not the case. do high school teachers actually know enough to present mature facts about mental illness.
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It probably would be a good idea. It could probably reduce a lot of stigma and negative feelings.
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Seem to recall the basic history (1900’S) sigmund freud etc being taught.
I believe they should. I read the statistics that a significant number of college kids suffer from some kind of mental illness. It ranges from mild depression to phobias or more serious illnesses.
A mental health class taught in high school would inform kids of what to look out for and teach them preventive measures, and it would probably help lesson stigma as a byproduct. I just remembered that when I took a health class back when I was a freshman in high school in 1978, the teacher did touch on the subject of mental health but not in depth.
yea so kids don’t take drugs
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Perhaps more education would lessen the stigma, but I wonder whether the stigma is worse today than thirty years ago. I find the media only reports on negative stories about schizophrenia. I would like to think that a movie like A Beautiful Mind has helped out our community
I definitely think they should teach kids about schizophrenia and tell kids what causes it and signs that you have it. All i knew when I developed schizophrenia was that my Uncle had it and went to an asylum. I knew noting else.
I think mental health should be taught in schools so that those suffering from a mental illness can possibly get help early on.
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They need to teach all the people working in the schools an in depth course on mental illness and treatment/recovery. Most people working in education are compassionate but there are always the very ignorant and cruel ones… I even met one substitute teacher who I’m sure had a bachelor’s or master’s degree in something and regularly worked with special ed. kids in the high school I was also subbing in and she got real nasty about people with schizophrenia when the subject came up between her and me in the break room. I don’t know if she just had a bad day and was taking it out on me, or if she really disliked me, … I just felt sorry for her and the kids she worked with if her attitude like that came out when they were around… I remember feeling very sorry for her that she had no clue of what she was talking about and how ignorant she was but thought she seemed like she thought she was so smart… she seemed to have a very high opinion of herself by the way she carried herself and spoke.
Here my mental health group pays us to go to schools to talk about mental health and recovery. Once I get my certificate in the class I might go try it out! I feel like my presence might not be too encouraging… I got my bachelors from a top 10 university and now don’t have anything to show for it.
Yes…sadly lacking in Australia. It should be a part of the dialogue with drugs and alcohol. It should be in early high school for sure!"
They kind of did it half hearted in my old public school. They had talked about smoking (cigarettes) and how people only increased and never decreased. They didnt really talk about though. I think the anti-smoking thing was just a small passage in a text book. It was in a sociality class.
I think talking about mental health would havr to include talking about drug use. back when i was a teen, i think most people thought giving young people real information would encourage it. so it was never talked about except to say : " just dont do it"
the geration prior to my own was often provided with misinformation about drug use. i have seen some well intentioned but comicially rediculous 1950s old anti-drug vids on the web.
i had a very bad experience with a cruddy teacher(s) at my son’s school. They were talking over the kids head and not ackowleding a kid is capable of focusing on the wrong part of what is being said, as you did. Some kids will totally get the wrong message because it is beng presented to children too young.
It was very uncomfortable to be in front of a d@$!! if you do and d@!#! if you dont situation:
My son and three other 1st graders sitting at table eating after school snacks. Two of the kids were frightened, confused, and thought their parents were bad people. The kids faith in their parents was shaken and they were frighted. This happened after an anti-drug talk at school which sounded like it included cigarettes. Their parents were now bad people who would die soon because they smoked cigarettes.
Lots of phone calls were made that day. It is a sticky situation. kids and teens need the emotional security of being able to think their parents as “good”. And of course addiction is in the oposite cubby hole as “bad”.
It has been said many times trash talking or implying other wise is damaging to kids/teens. Yet, many kids/teens know their parents deal with addiction too. What to do?
sorry about above post some how a quote got on there and some text is cut off. it wont let me cancel the post. and the quote does not show up when i try to edit. so i guess disreguard.