Why are we waiting until our teenagers are in crisis to support them? Why aren’t we moving “upstream” to support teen mental health and well-being?
Let’s create a culture, and teach life skills that help teens thrive. As an expert in treating adolescent stress, anxiety and depression, and enhancing teen health and well-being, I recommend a comprehensive mindfulness-based Stress Ed curriculum.
Simply defined, mindfulness is the practice of paying attention here and now, with kindness and curiosity, so that we can choose our behavior.
With practice, teens can bring an attitude of kindness and curiosity to their thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, impulses and actions. Learning to observe their internal and external experience equips young people to make healthier, wiser, more compassionate choices.
This ability to respond, rather than react, is crucial when teens are dealing with persistent suicidal thoughts: “My life is hopeless.” “I’d be better off dead.” “No one cares.”
When teens are taught to investigate such thoughts with kindness and curiosity, they realize they don’t need to believe, or act on them.
Mindfulness works. A 2014 Belgian study, led by University of Leuven professor Filip Raes, demonstrated the benefits of mindfulness courses for high school students.
In the study, the number of mindfulness students with depression decreased to 15% from 21%, while the percentage of control students with depression increased to 27% from 24%.
Six months later, the difference increased. The percentage of control students with depression rose to 31%; the number of mindfulness students with depression held steady at 16%. Thus, at six months, the eight-week course decreased the rate of depression by half!
Our caring community can provide this cost-effective, life-changing and live-saving intervention to our youth. I recommend a comprehensive eight-week mindfulness based Stress Ed course for every freshman; mindfulness is scientifically proven to decrease adolescent stress, anxiety and depression, and enhance well-being. This intervention can prevent tragedies.
Stress Ed would create a safe place for all students to learn these proven skills. If all freshmen participate, it would eliminate the unfortunate stigma of seeking support from a counselor.
Additional benefits of this format are that instructors can identify individuals who need immediate additional support, and serve as crucial resources for students at vulnerable times in the future.
Further, students may discover common stresses that can be addressed on both a school- and community-wide basis.
Please note I am not suggesting that mindfulness or any other single intervention will prevent all teen suicides. I am suggesting that we can provide cost-effective, scientifically proven preventive measures to every freshman, not just those who are contemplating suicide.
Students desperately want proven skills that they can apply in their day-to-day lives. Teens who learn mindfulness report it is extremely helpful in decreasing stress, anxiety and depression, and living more enjoyable, fulfilling lives.
As adults, these same skills can free us from the obsessive addiction to grades, SAT scores and college admission that is, literally, killing our kids.
— Amy Saltzman M.D. is a Santa Barbara resident, board-certified integrative medicine physician, director of the Association for Mindfulness in Education, and author of A Still Quiet Place for Teens: A Mindfulness Workbook to Ease Stress and Difficult Emotions. The opinions expressed are her own.
