Mental Responsibility

of mental instability and is either seeing a counselor or should be seeing a counselor. She discussed how the majority of her friends have some form of self- harm such as cutting and inflicting pain upon themselves. She described how she would always be there to listen and support those around her but never contacts the counselors or other adults at the high school because she says it doesn’t work. She stated, “You tell the counselors because you want them to help your friend, but they go and tell that friend’s parent right away which makes the situation even worse because parents are often the source of the issue.” She discussed how body image, which according to Berger is a huge stress for adolescents, plays a great deal into her personal …show more content…
I believe that this adolescent was a perfect example of this theory because their upbringing was in an extremely conservative and Catholic family with eight kids who had strict rules and morals that needed to be followed. I knew that she has strayed from the ideas that her parents follow which has shown that she is beginning to identify with who she is as an individual rather than as a part of her family. She has discovered that that university that she wishes to attend is Hamline University to major in sociology and political science. When asked how she would describe herself as a person she stated, “I am very hard working, outgoing, loyal and caring, and value friends and family above all.” She acknowledges that her musical side of herself will soon fade as she begins college and makes a new role for herself as she matures and finds new activities that she enjoys taking part in. She also believes that going to a university in a big city will show her the harsh realities of the world and will be very eye-opening in comparison to our smaller town. She discussed that she has strayed from her parent’s religion and although she identifies as being a Catholic, she does not believe in many of the values that they preach. She discussed that one of the other issues that makes her disagree with the church was the fact that she was always forced to go to mass and …show more content…
An overwhelming theme that occurred with her was that all three topics negatively have affected her life. She may have learned from the experiences that she has encountered but when upon first encounter she was negatively harmed. She has felt peer pressure in both the positive way from her friends and negatively from society and adults. She has seen the drastic amount of mental illness with her age group and how it effects different components of life such as family, extracurricular’s, and school. Lastly, she felt negatively pushed to believe certain ideas that her parents taught her and was able to educate herself and make her own decision on who she was and what she believed in. She was able to describe the issues that she and others of her age face as they grow and mature and ultimately become a functioning adult in society. If I could have asked more questions it would have been regarding mental illness to learn about her perception of why she believes that it is so greatly prevalent in our town and school system. From this adolescent I learned that my high school experience that I had especially with the mental illness that occurred around me is similar to the generation that has now taken my place at the high school. This project meant a great deal to me because it allowed me to deeply connect with an individual that I had nearly lost contact