The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that about 50 percent of mental illnesses recorded worldwide begin at the adolescent age.

The statement was made in a report: ‘coming of age: adolescent health’ released to mark the World’s Mental health Day, on the 10th of October 2018.

“Half of the mental health disorders arise before the age of 14,” WHO mental health expert, Dr. Tarun Dua explains in the report which is focused on factors affecting the overall health of adolescents globally. “If left untreated, they extend into adult life, thus impacting educational attainment, employment, relationships, and even parenting,” He explained further.

This statistic is clearly evident in Nigeria with the rate of suicide and depression increasing steadily at a geometrical rate since 2016. While there is no clear data to prove that teenagers in the country are more suicidal than other age groups, WHO’s  October 10 report on mental illnesses in adolescents sheds light on the problem which is now more prevalent than in years past.  

Most unhealthy tendencies in adults began when they were teenagers. Unfortunately, most of these cases go undetected and untreated. The advent of social media and unprecedented development in technology has made the situation a lot worse. Online influences now expose young adults to evil vices, including, negative change in social behaviours, teenage smoking, addiction to video games, drugs, pornography, and gambling. And it is no surprise at all that these attributes have been associated with depression and suicide in recent times.

According to WHO, 80% of depression begin during teenage years. As saddening as this situation may seem, it offers a rare opportunity for Nigeria to tackle future problems of suicide and depression.

Adolescence is a period where young people begin to make decisions for themselves for the first time in their lives. They now have more say on what they eat, watch, whom they interact with, whether or not to involve themselves in safe sexual practices, or whether to do drugs or not.

This makes positive development critical for young adults, especially learning new social skills, developing a sense of self-worth, building the ability to empathize with others, and gaining a sense of right and wrong.

Valentina Baltag, the Technical Officer, Adolescent Health, WHO says, “Some adolescents will make healthy choices but some will start making unhealthy choices. These may start as experimental behaviors but without adequate support can become lifelong habits.”

While WHO through its recent report has taken a stand to design policies that will make healthy choices easy, and unhealthy choices difficult, expensive and inaccessible on a worldwide scale, relevant authorities, parents, and guardians, especially in Nigeria, can follow the same path.

When young adults are guided by age-appropriate policies and programmes as well as proper parenting, they can grow to become better, healthy, and well-adjusted adults.

Youth Empowerment Schemes have been developed by both the Nigerian government and private sector in recent times to get young adults engaged and far from bad influences.

While some of these programmes have made significant progress, a lot more needs to be done if the reports of suicides, depression related incidences, and drug addiction among teenagers are to decrease. 

Understanding, a key tool for prevention strategies

As it has already been stated above, quite a lot can be done to prevent mental illnesses among young adults and adolescents. However, prevention begins with the understanding of early signs and symptoms of mental illness. Guardians, parents, and teachers can help adolescents build life skills that will help them cope with everyday challenges.

Asides the intervention of the government and NGOs, psychological support can be provided in schools and within the local community settings. This effort coupled with investments of the social, health and educational sectors in Nigeria will help raise awareness among young adults of ways to look after their mental health and create a conducive environment for them thrive and become better adults in the future.

This year’s World Mental Health Day serves as a wake-up call to the entire world and indeed, Nigeria.  

WHO