29walterh

Hello my name is Walter James Huston. I was born in 2010 and at the time I am writing this I am 14 years old. I live in Brooklyn, New York and I go to school at LREI in the West Village. My Citizen Action Project is "Mental Health and Neurodivergence Access to Education."

A podcast with Shannon M. Bennett

I listened to a podcast where Shannon M. Bennet was being interviewed these are the most interesting notes/facts I learned from it
In 2021 42% of HS students reported feeling persistent feelings of sadness. To avoid and withdraw is a sign of mental health troubles. Depression changes energy levels. Parents try to protect their children when they see their child scared. We all experience feeling in different ways. Social media link – connection between using social media and mental health issues.
Whatever is important to you, you will always see someone doing it better or differently than you and then you feel bad about yourself. Passive scrolling can be a way to avoid and also when passive scrolling you see those people doing things you like better than you do. People say things online that they wouldn’t say in person.
Climate change can also affect people’s lives because knowing our planet is in peril is hard. We can’t predict what our generation will go through trying to undo the wrongs of the past. How to talk to others with Self Harm and Suicide parental point of view – talk to mental health doctor, going to ER treating it like the emergency it is.
Early 20s hard b/c of financial trouble and pressure to get a job.
It’s not just enough to manage symptoms, we have to get kids back on track.

A talk about mental health illness with Allison Isbell

The interview went amazing. Although we changed our topic a bit beforehand Victoria took charge of questions. We drafted a couple questions in the cafeteria then headed over to her office and waited outside. We asked her if we could record and she said yes than we asked her our questions.

She never answered our questions with a simple yes or no always going into detail. 8 questions took 20 minutes! In which she also showed us this book about mental health and 30 minutes later we emailed him. Thank you Allison.

A talk about mental health illness with Ever Ramirez

We walked into Ever’s office and he greeted us warmly. Immediately we were greeted with open arms and we jumped right in asking “What is your experience with individuals living with mental illnesses?” he answered and his answer segwayed into our next question and the flow of the interview.

One big takeaway I had was that change comes from the person. Almost like the saying “you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.” I think that is a very life lesson because people can’t do everything for you all the time and they can help but you need to help yourself as well.

In the end, he made a topic very challenging to talk about, not as sad as I was prepared for even cracking some jokes now and again and made the interview really engaging. I can’t thank him enough. I would recommend as an interview!