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Video, podcast and tech help struggling young people find connection

New Hampshire Union Leader - 3/5/2023

Mar. 4—Erin Murphy's two-minute video opens at the beach with a narrated message that is both haunting and hopeful.

"Dear Younger Me, I know there was a point in time when staying wasn't a realistic thought....Thank you for holding on... and for realizing you had a purpose."

Peppered with antics and wry smiles under a sun-splashed sky, the video is about staying strong and finding reasons to keep going when life looks bleak. Murphy was hospitalized at age 13 during a mental health crisis following a period of depression and self-harm.

After winning the People's Choice Award at the Magnify Voices Art Contest in 2021 — when she was 15, and her cousin and collaborator, Amy Murphy, was 18 — the video and its message have joined an arsenal of online tools to boost mental health in youth and young adults. Just as it spoke to friends and strangers, the project also rejuvenated its creators, allowing them to experience the healing that comes from helping others.

"That video completely changed Amy's and my life," said Murphy, now a senior at Windham High School. "After we watched it, we were so emotional. We were so proud. Just the number of people who told us they related helped me see there are so many people, not just us. It taught them they're not alone. It taught us that, too. Even if the viewer doesn't struggle, they know someone who does."

The pandemic ushered in weeks and months without routine interaction or social engagements. As a result, mental illness — including anxiety, depression, stress disorders and substance misuse — reached new levels in young people, a demographic that depends on social interaction for affirmation, identity-building and making sense of the world.

According to recent reports from the 2021 Youth Behavioral Risk Surveys completed by 17,000 public and private school students nationwide, teen girls' mental health saw a striking downturn, as did the mental well-being of LGBTQ teens. "America's teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma," according to a statement from the Centers for Disease Control. The findings may represent the tip of an iceberg.

In 2022, the Kaiser Family Foundation/CNN Mental Health in America survey found that the youngest adults, ages 18-29, reported the most concerns with their mental health. Many sought mental health treatment but were unable to get it.

Half said they felt anxious "always" or "often" in the previous year, compared to one-third of all adults. One third described their emotional well-being as "only fair" or "poor," compared to 22% of adults overall.

Four in 10 said a doctor or other health care professional had told them that they have a mental health condition such as depression or anxiety. Nearly half (47%) said there was a time in the previous year they thought they might need mental health services or medication but did not get them.

For youth and young adults, the pandemic's isolation ramped up loneliness to levels many thought weren't possible. Susan Stearns, executive director of NAMI-NH, recalls hearing from friends across the age spectrum who suddenly realized how much they needed other people.

"I thought I was an introvert until I couldn't go anywhere and see anyone" was an oft-heard remark. That observation cut across generations.

During and even after the pandemic, young adults found themselves alone — and technology offered a way to reach out. For many, it became a door opener and a life preserver, a way to connect remotely with the outside world.

"As a species, we do better when we live cooperatively, with a sense of community," Stearns said. "An important life skill is help-seeking. If you're isolated because of illness or distance, technology can be a wonderful boon. When you can't meet in person, you can still connect. Life gets really hard at times."

Finding community, mission

The reaction to Murphy's video on YouTube and on social media platforms surpassed her expectations, sparking conversations with teens and adults she had never spoken to, and it expanded her circle at Windham High, where she has been class president for two years.

Now Murphy travels as a guest speaker with NAMI-NH, sharing her message about resilience and the importance of reaching out for help — especially when life doesn't seem worth the effort.

She works in an after-school program focused on emotional well-being and is planning a career in special education. Although she doesn't seek speaking engagements, she says yes to requests to share her story — including on 603 Stories Podcast, which is produced by and for young adults through NAMI-NH.

When it comes to ending stigma and broadcasting the realities of mental health, "I don't see myself stopping any time soon," she said.

Disconnected during COVID, her generation enlisted an omnipresent ally. Technology's established channels for social interaction became low-risk and far-reaching tools for emotional expression. Different levels of engagement were possible.

Many communicated opinions and feelings, including humor and sarcasm, through memes blasted online to friends and followers. Some posted videos on TikTok, hoping to spark feedback from like-minded souls. Others found community by joining subgroups on Reddit, which offers online pods based on everything from mental health challenges to music, politics and pets.

In search of similar souls

These spaces, in theory, provide sympathetic places for sharing and venting that can be turned on or off. But engaging blindly, without vetting the group and the source, can be like experimenting in a minefield.

Lynn Stanley, executive director of the New Hampshire chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, which provides professional support to the state's social workers, said there's a plethora of choices for online mental health support, including groups, but not all live up to their advertisements — or provide useful guidance. That includes AI (artificial intelligence), which does not furnish a thinking response, but a statement based on a faster-than-humanly possible cull of information online or scanned into the deep reservoir of a supercomputer.

When it comes to finding online help or a community for what you're going through, "there are all sorts of places you can go, but is it helpful?" Stanley said. "If it's free-for-all support, who knows if it might be damaging or traumatizing?"

While cautions abound, life online can be liberating for those who are able to gather across distance and time with other souls in the same situation, Stearns said. Used judiciously, social media can supply a portable community of folks with things in common.

Jace Troie, 25, of Manchester, a program assistant at NAMI-NH, coordinates and co-hosts 603 Stories podcasts, which give young adults age 18 to 26 a forum to share their personal journeys. Since the podcast launched in April 2021, programming has included children's mental health, pandemic stress, Pride Month, coping with stress for young adults, and most recently, the invisible pressures that undermine young people who compete in beauty pageants.

During and after COVID, NAMI saw a trend of young adults looking for online support in such places as Reddit, TikTok and Instagram, said Troie, who tapped into "a huge mental health community" online that enabled him to make worldwide connections, including new friends in California with whom he stays in touch regularly.

Opening up, helping others"I have always said I wanted to be the person I needed when I was young," said Troie, a transgender male, who has struggled with ADHD, anxiety, depression and PTSD, plus unresolved grief over losing his grandfather to suicide.

In sharing his 603 Story, titled "Overworking is NOT the same as healing," Troie talks about his exhaustive, compulsive efforts to achieve academically and socially and his suicide attempts in high school and college.

"I needed someone open and willing to share their story," Troie said recently. Through the 603 podcast and on social media, "I'm able to be that voice and find the support I needed."

So far, the 603 podcasts have garnered only positive feedback, attracting attention from mental health advocates and high school influencers, Troie said.

A camp director shared ideas about how to make after-school programs more inclusive for kids with mental health challenges. A teacher talked about the mental health of educators. A mother and daughter told the story of how their son and brother's mental illness impacted their family.

"As long as it's tied to mental health, they can come on as a guest," Troie said. "It can be extremely cathartic, but that's not always the goal. We want to make sure guests have had time to heal first."

The goal, he said, beyond reducing stigma, is to elevate young adult voices and make them as powerful as the other adults in the room.

For more information, go to naminh.org. NAMI-NH offers a resource call line (800-242-6264, press 4) or email option (info@naminh.org) for young adults who don't feel comfortable speaking by phone.

rbaker@unionleader.com

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