Health Expert Warns Trauma Can Deeply Affect Mental Health

And while the Bood family may not know what caused their son’s mental illness, Dr. Susanna Hoy of the Ministry of Health cautioned that exposure to traumatic events can increase our stress levels and impact our mental health. Dr. Hoy was our guest on the Love Morning Show for World Mental Health Day observed on October 10.

Dr. Susanna Hoy, Ministry of Health: “From a young age, if we’re being exposed to this, and again, we’re both biology and environment, and from a young age, if we’re experiencing these traumatic events repeatedly long-term, that looks like increased depression, decreased anxiety, which can also lead to more serious symptoms, such as psychosis.  So, it’s really important that we don’t only just focus on the mental illness itself, but how we get there too, and it starts from a young age, learning this, understanding this, and understanding exactly the role that we play in trying to assist ourselves before we get to medication and needing services.”

She added that while technology is a great tool it can have negative impacts on people; especially the young among them GEN X and Z.

Dr. Susanna Hoy, Ministry of Health: “Technology is great and has all its advantages, but it also has a negative side where we are seeing reduced self-concept, reduced self-esteem, increase in bullying, cyberbullying online,  difficulties  with understanding, you know,  true real life and then online  presentation. So that comparison is really hard for young individuals and for adolescents.”

We took our cameras to the streets today to find out more.

Citizen: “Kids are to be kids. On social media you have all kinds of things kids can do. I mean, you shouldn’t give a kid a phone and put him in the corner because…me personally sometimes I’m on YouTube and then you see something pop up with a real adult content and then you never know kids would press a finger, with a tap and then they would be watching all kinds of things.”

Citizen: “Set limits on it and how much you use a day, how much you take in and take a break to think is this real or not.” 

Citizen: “Social media can really be negative on other people’s thoughts, especially when people are hating on others.  So, when others insult each other, it can really cause a deep effect on your mental health or make you think bad about yourself or harm yourself.” 

Citizen: “They just don’t know how to hold a conversation or eye contact. Students that do not have social media tend to have a better imagination, creativity, they tend to hold conversation and eye contact better. And their overall sleep patterns are a lot better, which plays a huge part, you know, in mental health.  Because with social media, I feel like are suffering more than ever because, in their mental health, because of social media.”

Citizen: “When it comes to the terms of  the little girls acting as if they’re  my age,  because I’m 24, and they’re just  young little youths and  you know,  they want the lip gloss and  you know  just  Throwing tantrums or whatever based on the things they see on YouTube  I can speak from experience because I have a niece eight years old and she throws a lot of tantrums.”