7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Mental Health Analysis

Opportunity: A lot of Americans suffer from poor mental health because of genetics, brain damage and substance abuse.

              The who: Americans

              The what: suffer from poor mental health

              The why: genetics, brain damage and substance abuse

Testing the who: Not only Americans are suffering from mental health issues, a great majority of people around the world are.

Testing the what: Many people who have poor mental health are unaware of it and do not get treatment for it, whether that is seeing a psychologist or talking doses of medicine. This issue comes from the use of drugs, a brain injury, or chemical imbalances in the brain.

Testing the why: There are more causes of poor mental health than the ones listed in the hypothesis. I will include some more overarching ones here that will cover all the smaller causes. They are as follows: infections, brain defect, prenatal damage, poor nutrition, poor socialization, including lifestyle choices, abuse or neglect.

Interviews

              Interview #1:

This interview was done with a you male in college. When he first started college he felt fine and had never experienced or even discussed mental health before. So, when he felt changes in his mood, he had no idea what was going on. A friend told him to go see a psychologist, which he admits now that he was very embarrassed to do this. He now sees these symptoms in classmates and friends

              Interview #2:

I tried to find someone who feels they had never experienced poor mental health. This was quite hard, but I did. She is in her early 20s and has never experienced the feeling of poor mental health. No one, that she knows of, in her immediate family has experienced this. She feels her family is very positive about most things that happen in their lives. However, she has many friends that she sees go through phases of high depression and anxiety.

              Interview #3:

Middle-aged man, used drugs when he was younger. He feels his choices when he was young is the main cause of his depression then and now. He also has high anxiety. He feels the drugs held him back from what he should have been doing in that time in his life. His regrets overwhelm his life now and he takes medicine to keep his anxiety and depression down.

              Interview #4:

Psychologist. Young woman. She sees a lot of younger people than older people. She feels that the younger generations are not as embarrassed to go get help. She feels with the older generations there is still the stigma looming over mental health. She says, “it’s cooked into their brain to think people with mental health issues are just ‘psychos’.” She hates to see people suffer.

              Interview #5:

This interviewee is a close friend of mine. She likes to share her experiences with mental health to help others around her. She had trauma in her teen years that has impacted her mental health now and she struggles with bouts of depression because of it.

What I learned from the interviews…

·       I tried to keep my interviews very discussion based because many people find it hard to discuss this issue.

·       The psychologist (interviewee #4) really helped me pin point where the problem was when people have mental health issues that they do not take care of.

·       I found that some people just ignore their mental health thinking things will get better on their own.

·       My only open interviewee was one who experienced trauma (#5) and that is the cause of depression. Trauma victims are usually closed off.