Story Time: Using Popular Media to Talk to Your Children About Mental Health
Written by: Jennifer Yen, MD, FAACAP
Let’s face it: it’s tough to talk about mental health and mental illness. This is especially true when it comes to children and young adults. Often times, it’s a struggle to figure out how to bring it up, much less find the right words to use. Nonetheless, it’s an important conversation for families to have.
According to the National Institute for Mental Health, teens between the ages of 13 to 18 have a nearly 50% lifetime prevalence of a mental disorder, and at least 22% experience serious impairment from their symptoms. In many cases, interventions and treatments are delayed because of a lack of education about what to look for. In others, it’s because parents aren’t aware there’s an issue until significant dysfunction has occurred.
So how can parents encourage children to open up about how they’re feeling and thinking?
One good way is through books, TV shows, and movies!
In recent years, there’s been a push for more diversity in popular media aimed at children and young adults. Books like The Hate U Give and the Harry Potter series, TV shows like 13 Reasons Why, and movies like Inside Out, Five Feet Apart, and Euphoria all touch upon various psychological and social issues faced by children and young adults today. One of the most popular themes is mental illness, though the portrayal is often times negative, exaggerated, or glamorized.
In addition, many of the authors and actors interact with fans on social media both during promotion and after release. It’s not uncommon to see them discussing mental health and sharing their personal experiences. In most instances, this is a great thing. It destigmatizes mental illness and encourages their fans to seek help. However, some of the information they provide can be inaccurate and even harmful.
All this can feel quite overwhelming to parents who don’t always have the time to keep up with what their child is consuming. The good news is, neither can they. Focus on familiarizing yourself with what your child or teen likes. If you don’t have time to read or watch everything, there’s easily searchable summaries and reviews online. Common Sense Media is a great resource for parents seeking information on the latest books, TV shows, movies, as well as video games, music, and websites. It includes everything from plot summaries to content warnings and rating scales.
The next step is to have a conversation with your child or teen. Let them take the lead and listen carefully to what parts of the story they found the most interesting, or who they connected to the most. That can tell you a lot about what they are thinking about. This is particularly true if they’re repeatedly drawn to the same type of characters or themes. For example, if your child always identifies the most with the “outsider” character, perhaps they feel isolated from their peers or struggles socially. It might be challenging for them to talk about how they feel personally, but easier to discuss it in the context of the character. The emotional distance it gives helps ease the pressure and discomfort your child or teen might feel otherwise.
One thing to pay attention to is when the character undergoes challenges or conflict in the story. How do they deal with it? If the character handles things poorly, it gives you an opportunity to discuss what went wrong. If the character successfully overcome it, what did they do right? Encouraging your child or teen to identify these things on their own can be a great way to teach them healthy coping mechanisms without making it seem like a lecture.
Doing this over time hopefully will help your child or teen become more aware of their own thoughts and feelings, as well as feel more at ease bringing any issues up with you. If nothing else, it’s a great way to spend quality time with your child and teen while connecting with them on their level!