Facebook can be such a great resource, let me tell you. Today, I saw a post from Stand for the Silent, which I had heard about from watching the Bully movie. The post announced this 24/7 helpline, 121help.me (Call 1-855-201-2121 (toll free) that is available for youth in need of someone non-judgmental to talk to, someone who will listen and provide some counseling over the phone. Note that this is not meant to be a crisis/suicide hotline (for emergency situations, dial 911). Calls at 121help.me are answered by counselors affiliated with the North American Alliance of Child Helplines.
Stand for the Silent is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2010 by a group of students from the Oklahoma State University after they heard the story of Kirk and Laura Smalley’s son Ty Field-Smalley. At the age of eleven, Ty took his own life after being suspended from school for retaliating against a kid that was bullying him for over two years. Ty’s story was one of those featured in the Bully movie.
I’m thankful for resources such as this that are available to help youth that may feel like they have no one they can talk to about their feelings. Had I known about this resource when I was a teenager, I more than likely would have called this helpline. I know, since I’ve been through the angst that comes with the isolating experience of adolescence–especially if you don’t have many friends–that having support is crucial. If I didn’t have the Chinese teen club and Chinese church that I belonged to at that time–despite the fact that I didn’t quite feel like I fit in with those groups either (both groups were not made up of kids from my high school)–my loneliness might have completely taken over me. As I mentioned in prior posts, I had no real friends in the high school I attended. I was constantly fighting with my parents and one of my brothers. I had no other relatives that lived near me or who were in a position to be of any help. There might have been a couple of individuals that I sort of confided in about what I was going through, but I could only divulge so much to them. What I needed was to talk to someone non-judgmental and neutral….someone who didn’t really know me. Someone I felt comfortable confiding in, without that person potentially using the info to my detriment later on (as I learned that, unfortunately, girls tend to be backstabbers and gossipers).
If you are a teen that is going through a challenging point in your life, please remember that it is very important to find an outlet for your emotions. Whether it be talking to a non-judgmental individual or journaling (writing thoughts down)…..you have to let it out. Journaling (or even blogging) can be very therapeutic. In the process of blogging or following a Facebook support page like Stand for the Silent, you will come across others who are in similar situations, so you will see that you are far from alone in your experience. You will see that there are many good and caring individuals out there. You will see others, like me, who have been where you are and have survived and have used their past experiences to help others by increasing awareness of the importance of resources like this for our youth, as well as starting up anti-bullying initiatives or support pages for teens.
My personal wish is to see more support services for teenage girls, as I feel they go through so much physiologically (and emotionally as a consequence) with the hormonal changes that come with the onset of menstruation and certain behaviors/emotions (aggression, moodiness, low self esteem, eating disorders from wanting to appear attractive, mood disorders like depression). See my past post on why it’s so important to educate girls early of the physiological changes they will go through and the difference between premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). The more support services and awareness, the less stigma and struggling through these physiologically- and emotionally-challenged years there will be among teenage girls….and the less risk there is for postpartum depression (PPD) onset down the road, as a history of depression is a risk factor for PPD. It’s a vicious cycle I talk about in my book that we need to address early on. Being proactive, rather than reactive (waiting til you’ve become depressed to do something). If we were successful in doing this (along with seeing a growth in the numbers and types of postpartum support services), I fervently believe we will see a reduction in numbers of mothers suffering from PPD.
I want to see less suffering, more empathy, and more standing up for the silent (those that are being bullied…and I’m not solely referring to schools as the backdrop because bullying happens among adults at work too). There is really no excuse for us not to achieve these if we put our minds to it!