Mental Health Unit: Reflection
According to Mentalhealth.gov “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.” No matter your age, race, gender, or walk of life, we are all susceptible to poor mental at some point. Throughout our Mental Health unit in NEW School I learned the importance of awareness and the right to make mistakes by analyzing Shakespearean characters, producing a video about anxiety, and running an inconclusive forensic DNA lab.
We began this unit by acting out the play Romeo and Juliet and later had to write an analytical essay diving deeper into the mental state of our chosen character. I chose Romeo and took a closer look at his depression and how it seemed to repress and worsen after certain occurrences. I had to look at quotes im the play and really dissect their meaning. While some quotes undoubtedly revealed his sorrow, it was the implicit factors that had caused his depression, including childhood neglect. It took research to figure out this cause because I had to learn that during Shakespeare’s time, parents did not normally care for their children and that childhood neglect can cause depression. We began with the upbeat reenactment of the play and proceeded to look further into the reasons behind the mental health of some of the characters. I really enjoyed learning more about causes of poor mental health and how they can be avoided through story analysis.
My favorite project during this unit was our “unit project” where we had the freedom to explore and create some form of media that displayed our chosen mental health. My partener and I decided to spread awareness about anxiety because we both knew multiple people that currently experience it. We created a video that included strong visuals and voiceovers of the people we interviewed. Once we found 5 people willing to be interviewed we came up with questions and and rules for interviewing. This included questions about their experiences and feelings. We wanted to respect their privacy and make sure they felt comfortable so we made agreements such as “you don not have to answer any questions you do not feel comfortable answering” and “we will only record your voice if that is what you are comfortable with”. I found it very interesting learning more about anxiety and how it affects my peers. I was very proud of our work and I hope that the more people that see our video, the more awareness we will spread about anxiety.
Continually,I learned that it is okay to make mistakes while exploring science. I struggle with accepting my mistakes as well as other, however this unit has taught me that being able to accept mistakes is a key component to maintaining strong mental health. Each group (there were 8 groups in which you were assigned to be with) in our class ran their own forensics DNA testing lab. We learned how to make gel boxes, extract DNA, and run it. Unfortunately our lab was inconclusive because we make quite a few mistakes such as using steel that was not stainless which rusted the entire box making our results unclear. We also left our comb in the gel box too long and did a poor job extracting the DNA from the test tubes. While this lab was fun to run and educational, the results were very disappointing. I have come to accept the fact that labs will not always go correctly, especially complicated, expensive ones. It is important to keep an open mind about all aspects of life even when things do not go as you planned. This lab taught me to be careful when performing labs, you can always learn something no matter the outcome, and that mistakes are a part of life.
All in all, mental health is a complex, serious topic and at the end of the day, the topic needs to be treated with care. I have learned to keep in mind that anyone can experience mental health at any point in their life and that they may be fragile. If you know anyone who experiences poor mental health, or if you simply do not know much about it I challenge you to learn more about the issue so you can help anyone who might be going through a hard time.
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