Two students published an Op-Ed essay in The New York Times on Thursday about the difficulty they had trying to foster an open and honest dialogue about depression in their high school. Student Opinion Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older. • See All Student Opinion » Can students at your school talk openly about their mental health issues? Or is the topic still taboo? In “Depressed, but Not Ashamed," Madeline Halpert and Eva Rosenfeld write: Most of our closest friends didn't know that we struggled with depression. It just wasn't something we discussed with our high school classmates. We found that we both had taken Prozac only when one of us caught a glimpse of a prescription bottle in a suitcase during a journalism conference last November. For the first time, we openly discussed our feelings and our use of antidepressants with someone who could relate. We took a risk sharing our experiences with depression, but in our honesty, we found a support system. We knew we had to take the idea further. In the United States, for people between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Untreated depression is one of the leading causes of suicide. According to the National Comorbidity Survey: Adolescent Supplement, 11 percent of adolescents have a depressive disorder by age 18. We were not alone. We wondered why, with so many teenagers dealing with depression, it was still addressed in such impersonal ways. As editors at our high school newspaper, we decided to fight against the stigma and proposed devoting a whole edition to personal stories from our peers who were suffering from mental illness. We wanted honesty with no anonymity. We knew that discussing mental health in this way would be edgy, even for our progressive community in Michigan. But we were shocked when the school administration would not allow us to publish the articles. 1) What was the most surprising/interesting thing you learned by reading this article? 2) What question(s) do you have after reading this article? 3) Does the perspective presented by this author different from the mainstream narrative (what most people think)? How so?
Two students published an Op-Ed essay in The New York Times on Thursday about the difficulty they had trying to foster an open and honest dialogue about depression in their high school. Student Opinion Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older. • See All Student Opinion » Can students at your school talk openly about their mental health issues? Or is the topic still taboo? In “Depressed, but Not Ashamed," Madeline Halpert and Eva Rosenfeld write: Most of our closest friends didn't know that we struggled with depression. It just wasn't something we discussed with our high school classmates. We found that we both had taken Prozac only when one of us caught a glimpse of a prescription bottle in a suitcase during a journalism conference last November. For the first time, we openly discussed our feelings and our use of antidepressants with someone who could relate. We took a risk sharing our experiences with depression, but in our honesty, we found a support system. We knew we had to take the idea further. In the United States, for people between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Untreated depression is one of the leading causes of suicide. According to the National Comorbidity Survey: Adolescent Supplement, 11 percent of adolescents have a depressive disorder by age 18. We were not alone. We wondered why, with so many teenagers dealing with depression, it was still addressed in such impersonal ways. As editors at our high school newspaper, we decided to fight against the stigma and proposed devoting a whole edition to personal stories from our peers who were suffering from mental illness. We wanted honesty with no anonymity. We knew that discussing mental health in this way would be edgy, even for our progressive community in Michigan. But we were shocked when the school administration would not allow us to publish the articles.
1) What was the most surprising/interesting thing you learned by reading this article?
2) What question(s) do you have after reading this article?
3) Does the perspective presented by this author different from the mainstream narrative (what most people think)? How so?
4) Do you think the author effectively establishes her/his argument? Are there any conclusions that are lacking a premise or sufficient evidence? Explain.
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