• Question: What age do you think mental health can be affected the most

    Asked by anon-216543 to Robert, Olly, Nicola, Jasmin, Dennis, Caroline on 10 Jun 2019. This question was also asked by anon-216554.
    • Photo: Jasmin Moon

      Jasmin Moon answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      I think teenage years can be the hardest because you are still trying to work out who you are and who you want to be. You also have the pressures of school and peer pressure alongside this. That’s why I think it is important that young people are taught how to manage worry and recognise low mood in themselves and others so that they have the skills for life and are better able to ‘bounce back’ from difficulties in the future.

    • Photo: Dennis Relojo-Howell

      Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      Some research shows that 75% of mental illness starts before the age of 18.

    • Photo: Robert Dempsey

      Robert Dempsey answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      For me, this could be any age as there’s lots of different things that happen at the different stages of our lives. Childhood and adolescence is a key time as we change so much in terms of our bodies and our identity, but as we get older we continue to change and there might be different pressures on us then (e.g. having a family, worries about money, getting old, having longer term illnesses, having more responsiblities). I think we can also experience more positive aspects of mental health at any age… I used to worry a lot about what other people think when I was a teenager… as I’ve got older I don’t think about this any way near as much!

    • Photo: Caroline Brett

      Caroline Brett answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      I think people can be affected at any age, particularly if they have not experienced mental health difficulties before. That said, adolescence is a time of change and many suggest that a lot of the things we carry with us throughout life – personality, outlook, resilience – are developed during that time. Therefore, experiencing mental health difficulties at that age might potentially have more impact

    • Photo: Oliver Clabburn

      Oliver Clabburn answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      Just like getting a cold or the flu, mental health can affect anyone. But for sure adolescence and being a teenager is a hard time. You’re going through so many changes both physically and mentally, let alone having pressure from exams, sixth form/college/uni applications. I think that its during these teenage years that we all learn skills about how to look after our mental health as it will put us in good stead for the rest of our lives….

    • Photo: Nicola Johnstone

      Nicola Johnstone answered on 14 Jun 2019:

      This can be any age. Symptoms usually begin to show around times of big events or changes – these can be good or bad things.

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