Mental health is a vital part of the health and contributes equally as physical health to overall

wellbeing of an individual Good health of the youth is essentially significant for a nation as they
will build the future of the country. In Australia, menta health illnesses are the chief source of the
burden of disease among young people. Among the illnesses, the most frequently observed are
depression, anxiety, and drug use (Sawyer, Miller-Lewis, & Clark, 2007).

"Alike" is a short film exploring the struggle of youth in maintaining creativity while balancing
school. There are two protagonists character in the film, the son named "Paste" and the father
named "Copi". The two characters lead busy life in which they are conditioned to follow a
system. The son had to follow the rules of school while the father had to pursue the office
regulations. The setting of the film is in a colorless city which doesn't hold creativity in its
environment or among the inhabitants. But the two protagonists are colorful and the color is
metaphorically conveyed throughout the story to look at and compare the absence of creativity
within the setting and the characters. At the start of the film, father gets ready for work and
prepares Paste for school. Other colored character found was a violinist playing in a park. Paste
was attracted to the violinist but Copi takes him to school. Even the father was shown colorless
when he came to office to work. While the son is at school, he attempts to be creative by drawing
doodles instead doing school work. Later, on meeting his son after the office, he regained his
color back. This routine is followed for days which made Paste less creative at school and both
the characters unhappy which caused both of them to lose color. But Copi tries to make his son
happy by taking him to the violinist but he was absent from the park. So, Copi mimics the
performance of the violinist in the park and made his son and himself happy. Various close-ups
and medium sequences captured the facial expressions and body postures, which expressed the
conflict and the relationship between the Paste and Copi.

Discussion

Mental health should not be seen as merely absence of a psychological illness. Mental
health is a term which covers several states of mental health, ranging from the mental
disorders which can be diagnosed to good mental wellbeing. A good mental health state
needs more than the lack of mental health issues. Wellbeing is linked with experiences
of personal growth, internal motivation, constructive connections, self-sufficiency and
abilities. It is essential that to lead a healthy, happy and satisfied life, I must have a well-
developed mental and emotional development and growth. I believe if I do not have a
healthy mind which has a normal functioning, it will lead to negative consequences
which may or may not be visible to the outside world in the form a mental illness. Like in
the short film, when Paste felt the mental stress, his creativity was curbed which is a
negative consequence that might not be visible to everyone. I believe it is especially
relevant during the early stages as nobody will be able to see and interpret the subtle
early signs of the disorder. My mental wellbeing is directly related to my academic
excellence, accomplishments and satisfaction in my coming life. I believe the focus on
academic achievement is extremely high which subsides the emphasis on maintaining
wellbeing of the students. I feel that since in our education system exam results and
academic achievement remains the prime focus, it puts a negative influence on my
mental health due to stress of studies, competition, fear of failure, deadlines and other
factors. Like in the short film, the focus was if Paste was getting the alphabets written
right and the creative drawing was ignored. Further, with my experience of watching
other people's struggle with mental health issues, I believe, if the negative effects will be
ignored, then the resulting mental health issues can obstruct my social development as
well which can isolate me socially and make me unhappy. I have seen other people
drop out of the college or being involved in the substance abuse in order to overcome
the negative effects. I also believe mental illnesses can affect my ability to build and
maintain a helpful social circle or associations with my friends and other acquaintances.
During my academic life, I spent most part of their day in school, college and university.
When I spend such massive hours in in the lecture room, the educational institutions
can offer a perfect setting for encouraging mental wellbeing and also identify early
behavioral alterations and signs of mental illness. The social and emotional abilities,
information and actions that I discover in the classes can assist me in getting a resilient
character and build a pattern for way in which I can regulate their mental health across
the lifespan (Nguyen, Dedding, Pham, & Bunders, 2013).

Several researches have proved that adolescence is the prime age of development of
mental health illnesses as around half of the patients occur before the age of 14 years
(Kessler, et al., 2005). Due to the early onset of the mental disorders and majority of the
youth in Australia goes to acquire secondary and post-secondary education, the
prevalence of mental disorders is particularly increasing in colleges and universities. We
can see that a young adult who suffer from a serious mental health disorder may be
substantially damaged due to the disorders which may subsequently lead to a disability
state I believe that the school years are central in building social and emotional abilities
and skills. The schooling period lays down a model for the manner in which young
person will handle his/her own mental wellbeing in the later years. The literature also
suggests that one-third of all the diagnosable mental illnesses that an individual faces is
linked with the negative events of his/her childhood. In spite of the huge influence of
childhood experiences on adulthood wellbeing, school has been a major stressor in
children's life. One of the studies also suggested that 66% of primary school students
reported that they anxious the entire time regarding at least one thing to do with their
home life or school life (Place2Be, 2017). We know that school-related stress is among
the leading factors that cause mental health issues among young people, I have seen
that the students having depression, anxiety or stress is increasing. Like we see in the
short film, that Paste's creativity level reduced when the stress from school to do well
increased which also declined his creativity levels. I believe if my mental health
problems can influence my academic growth, and can even have lasting negative
consequences on my health, and social and occupational situations as well. Literature
also suggests on my condition that since I have mental health issues have reduced
chances than my mates to attain educational qualifications, and I will have more
chances of taking considerable period of break from school or face exclusion. In
addition, it is also told my expert that my emotional health during my childhood is the
most significant indicator of life satisfaction and personal consequences in my
adulthood. I think that the schools alone doesn't have the adequate capacity and
resources required to both teach and work against various impediments in education
faced by the students like me who are disadvantaged mentally. Literature suggests that
to build provision for students like me, collaboration between parents, families and
societies will be useful. Such collaborations can offer the required resources and
assistance to schools to assist in dealing with the complex student requirements (Dix,
Slee, Lawson, & Keeves, 2011). These kinds of collaborations have been proven to be
a safeguard for children like me as these encourage positive mental health and assist to
ease environmental improve my academic and social skills. Like in the short film we
saw that the parent was able to make his son happy by giving a nod to his creative
instincts. 

I believe with the rise in the prevalence of youth with mental health issues in society
including educational and social settings, there is a growing need to be familiar with the
influence of views of the societies on mental illness. It is only obvious that only after
exploring the various issues of mental health, one can better understand my
experiences. I believe if we review the historical developments that form the attitudes of
society towards me and other people facing these issues, we will be able to attain an
enhanced insight as to existing conceptualizations and social-political effects that are
present about mental disorder. The most historical view regarding mental illness and
disability is the moral model that views the disorders as deficits or weaknesses
occurring due to sins, malice, or a drift in faith (Roush & Sharby, 2011). As per this view,
I would have encouraged to isolate and go in hiding from the society which might have
inculcated the feelings of shame in me. I would have been dealt with sympathy and pity
by other people. This view saw a switch to a view based on medicine which altered
society's beliefs and behaviors. This is one of the frequently held view by the people
which sees mental health illnesses as abnormality and pathological issue. As per this
view also, mental health illnesses are seen as flaw within me but this view proposes that
medical professionals of the community can try to heal me by removing the flaws so that
I become capable of functioning well in the society like the normal people without any
mental disorder. The medical view frequently assumes that I can regulate the mental
impairment as if I have control over it. But I believe this should be disregarded as the
society has come to believe that individuals with mental disorders unlike physical illness
are responsible for their own illnesses. The most recent view of mental health problems
is the social model. The social view has moved the emphasis from the person to
matters of outside environment and society in general. As per this view, mental health is
regarded as a result of social and ethical aspects that may have afflicted me. This view
proposes that an individual with a socially outlined mental or physical disorder, is unable
to perform at the potential if put in an environment that is not prepared for or mindful of
to him/her. I believe significant model shifts in views about the mental health disorders
have yet to create an enduring attitudinal change in our society. With advent of the
social view of mental health disorders, issues of mental disorders have been included in
the health reforms largely. In addition, the views of society have changed so that people
like me who have mental disorder can accept my condition as a part of my identity and
also ask for assistance to be able to succeed in my school and other social settings
(Gammon, 2013).
The number of young people experiencing a range of mental

health issues is on the rise. Mental health should not be seen

simply as absence of a diagnosable disease. Rather, there is a

whole spectrum of mental health issues that an individual can

experience. Majority of the mental disorders of adulthood have

their onset in the childhood and adolescence and therefore, the

mental health of the youth is particularly significant. Historically,

society has seen mental illnesses with different views. The

attitude of the society has changed from moral to medical to

social views regarding mental disorders. The youth experiences

the public stigma as well as the self-stigma from the different

educational as well as social settings which should be prevented.