Mental Health Opinion Writing

National English Competition 2023 Essay Competition

Embracing and Inspiring Campaign by Understanding Adolescent Mental Health

Subtheme: Inspiring Change for Adolescent Mental Health

Written by: Muhammad Zaki Insan Falah / 0062623369

SMA AL HIKMAH SURABAYA

JALAN KEBONSARI ELVEKA V JAMBANGAN
KOTA SURABAYA
2023

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 PREFACE

First of all, the writer would like to give a really great thankful to Allah SWT who has
given health and opportunity to her to create this wonderful opinion writing for NEC 2023.
Blessing and salutation may also be upon the most honorable prophet, Muhammad SAW, who
led us towards light and taught us to learn more about knowledge in this life. Besides that, I
would like to say thank you to Ustad Ulum, for always guiding me towards the good and
showing that life can be a challenge sometimes. Besides, thanks to all the individuals who have
helped with the process of writing this paper. Hopefully, this paper can bring benefit to everyone
who matters.

Surabaya, 18th of July 2023

Muhammad Zaki Insan Falah

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1
Ideas and Solutions ........................................................................................................................ 2
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................4

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Embracing and Motivating Movement by Understanding Adolescent Mental Health

By Muhammad Zaki Insan Falah

Background and Analysis

The essential part to establish adolescents with healthy mental health by embracing and
inspiring them in three ways. Adolescent mental illness refers to the mental health struggles that
teenagers face during their teenage years, usually between ages 12 and 18. This time is crucial
because it's when they go through a lot of changes and pressures, like dealing with emotions,
fitting in socially, and doing well in school. Some common mental health problems that teens
may experience include feeling very sad or worried, having problems with eating, difficulty
focusing, and sometimes hurting themselves. These issues can be caused by a mix of things like
their biology, genes, surroundings, and how they interact with others. It's essential to understand
that being a teenager can be tough, and mental health problems are not because they are weak or
immature. Early help and support are really important to help them through these tough times
and build their inner strength. To address their mental health, it's necessary to talk openly, have
access to professional help, and create a caring and understanding environment. By taking
mental health seriously during this time, we can help teenagers grow into strong and mentally
healthy adults.

Mental health issues are one of the most important parts of building a healthy life. In
recent years, there has been increasing acknowledgment of mental health's important role in
achieving global development goals. Depression is one of the leading causes of mental illness
(RSJ Menur, 2020). WHO (World Health Organization) said, suicide is the fourth leading cause
of death among 15-29-year-olds (WHO, 2019). It means society doesn’t pay attention to
adolescents' mental health. When at that age, teens experience emotional, physical, and social
changes that can impact their mental health. Common challenges teenagers face include
hormonal changes, identity formation, peer pressure, academic pressure, and mental health
disorders. Academic pressure was one of the important reasons that schools need to pay
attention. Sometimes they just focused on rushing for school targets and don’t care about
student's mental health. And sometimes people need their personal space form of self-protection
efforts, stress reduction, and efforts to gain focus (Temali, 2022). In Indonesia itself, they called

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the system “Sekolah Merdeka”. The government claimed this system is the most effective for
these years of education. But in my opinion, this is all about government and school profit to
score outstanding students as much as they can without considering the consequence.

“Fathers Find a Student Killed by Hanging Himself in Sleman Boarding

House”(detik.com, 2023). According to the family’s information, the victim is known to be
healthy and has not had any problems so far. Victims tend to be quiet and rarely open up to
family members. This information is so disappointing due to people's mental health awareness.
We need to make them realize they are not alone, so many out there have experienced the same
even worst. And some of them don’t want to open up because there is no space for consultation.
Some of them have no friends and broken homes. Even have a harmonist family perhaps it’s
because the family can’t take it well. Not everybody can be a good listener. That’s why some
people need a psychologist to be their listener, adviser, and even a safe place for them. But not
everybody can be well-knowing to a person.

Ideas and Solutions

There are several ways to embrace and inspire adolescent mental health to be a healthy
adolescent not just from the physique but mentality too. The first thing that can help is opening a
counseling center where the members of the counselor are volunteers that just wanted to help and
are sincere for adolescents who got mental illness. Certainly, a campaign for this concern needs
government facilities and financial support. This campaign can be contacted online or offline.
The counselee for this campaign is an adolescent who cares about their mental
health—Counselee who needs some advice and a person to share and care for.

The second way to keep adolescents' mental health healthy is by holding seminars and
webinars. Because adolescents are lazy to come for offline seminars, webinars could help. The
guest star for this campaign is an expert for this forum nor an experienced person who has a
similar experience. The campaign contains about how to keep mental health healthy in puberty,
how to find their identity, and how to keep stable from academic pressure. In this campaign,
adolescents can summarize things from a real expert. Through this campaign, adolescents can
see what aspects they need to fix or improve.

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 Thirdly, make a forum where adolescents and a person that experienced and already
recovered from mental health problems. This can be made online or offline. If the forum is
online, this can be made out of Whatsapp group chat even group calls. The offline forum can be
made with a room with adolescents, including the experienced person gathered. From this forum,
adolescents can learn from the real experienced person and be advised about teenage years
awareness. This move is essential and effective for adolescents to keep a healthy mentality and
be directed toward their future. Adolescents would understand that they are not alone, everybody
experienced it. It’s okay to be sad and depression is not a thing to be ashamed for. Most
adolescents will realize that happiness will come from themselves, there is always a light in the
darkness.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are several ways to embrace and inspire adolescents' mental health to
keep healthy. The main thing is every campaign or every forum people try to embrace and
inspires them however, the key to happiness is in their hand. Avoid relationships with toxic
people. Depression, sadness, and hopelessness are made of mindset, It can be changed with a
strong heart and discipline. Therefore, government and society need to pay attention to
adolescents’ mental health and adolescents need to discipline and trust themself.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Purbowati Deni (2022). Perbedaan antara Psikolog, Psikiater, dan Konselor - Pilih Mana? (2022,
July 6). Aku Pintar. Retrieved July 23, 2023, from
https://akupintar.id/info-pintar/-/blogs/perbedaan-antara-psikolog-psikiater-dan-konselor-
pilih-mana-
RSJ Menur Admin (2020, July 28). FAKTOR PENYEBAB GANGGUAN JIWA. Retrieved July
23, 2023, from
https://rsjmenur.jatimprov.go.id/post/2020-07-28/faktor-penyebab-gangguan-jiwa
Temali (2022). (2022, August 30). YouTube. Retrieved July 23, 2023, from
https://kumparan.com/temali/seberapa-penting-personal-space-bagi-kesehatan-mental-kit
a-1sdUtsSoMGk/2
Tim detikJateng (2023). detik Ayah Temukan Mahasiswa Tewas Gantung Diri di Kos Sleman.
(2023, July 9). Detik.com. Retrieved July 23, 2023, from
https://www.detik.com/jateng/jogja/d-6814055/detik-detik-ayah-temukan-mahasiswa-tew
as-gantung-diri-di-kos-sleman
World Health Organization (WHO) (n.d.). Mental health. Retrieved July 23, 2023, from
https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health#tab=tab_1