{"id":10674,"date":"2025-08-26T15:01:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/involvement.co.ke\/?p=10674"},"modified":"2025-08-26T15:01:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:01:52","slug":"the-struggle-of-mental-health-among-students-and-young-people-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/2025\/08\/26\/the-struggle-of-mental-health-among-students-and-young-people-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The struggle of mental health among students\u00a0and young people."},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Isaac Biosse<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Picture this.
\n<\/b>You’re out with your friends at your regular chill spot. On this particular day, you\u00a0went early because you needed to get some work done. You thought you\u2019d be\u00a0the first one there, only to find almost everyone already seated, enjoying time\u00a0with the community. Granted, some of them were curating a show that day, so\u00a0they had to be there early. But then there\u2019s K\u2014who, on a normal Tuesday, would\u00a0be in the office.<\/div>\n
Anyway, you finish your work early and join the rest as you all wait for the\u00a0evening show. K is his usual self\u2014full of life. He\u2019s making terrible dad jokes,\u00a0giving people random hugs, and sipping his favourite tequila. Typical K.<\/div>\n
After the show, you finally decide to head home early because you\u2019re exhausted,\u00a0and you still have work the next morning.
\nThe next day comes, and life goes on the usual cycle. You then remember that\u00a0you had promised K you\u2019d link up again later that evening for a music show, but\u00a0you weren\u2019t able to make it, and you didn\u2019t even communicate with him.<\/div>\n
Then Thursday comes. You go about your day\u2019s business until around 3 p.m.,\u00a0when the most dreaded phone call comes in. The person on the other end is\u00a0sobbing. You try to find out what\u2019s wrong. And then they break the news:
\n\u201cK is no more. He left us yesterday.\u201d \u00a0 A vibrant student who was chasing after\u00a0<\/b>his PhD, A stellar pianist and musician, \u2018\u2019No more?\u201d I was heartbroken
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Suddenly, the world comes to a standstill. No more? Left yesterday? I mean, on\u00a0Tuesday he was just fine, according to how you\u2019ve known him. So what could\u00a0have triggered him between us going our separate ways on Tuesday night and\u00a0the morning of Wednesday? So many questions.
\nJust like that, a young soul, full of dreams, ambition, and love for others, is gone.\u00a0What wasn\u2019t visible, though, was the pain. The sleepless nights. Many times he\u00a0almost gave up hope. But this time, the monster had won. This happened to\u00a0someone in my circle.<\/div>\n
You see, the concept of mental health may feel foreign to many, but it lives among us daily.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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According to the\u00a02022 Kenya National Adolescent Mental Health Survey (K-<\/b>NAMHS)<\/b>:<\/div>\n
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    \u25cf Approximately\u00a010% of adolescents<\/b>\u00a0experience anxiety, and\u00a07%<\/b>\u00a0experience\u00a0depression.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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    \u25cf Another report shows that\u00a046% of students aged 12\u201317<\/b>\u00a0are struggling\u00a0with depression, while\u00a038%<\/b>\u00a0are dealing with anxiety.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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    \u25cf\u00a080%<\/b>\u00a0of young people who struggle with suicidal ideation have an\u00a0underlying mental health condition.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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    \u25cf Around\u00a0311 youths die by suicide<\/b>\u00a0in Kenya every year\u2014a number likely\u00a0higher due to underreporting.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    There are many causes of mental health conditions: biological, environmental,\u00a0psychological, digital influences, and even substance use.<\/div>\n
    Mental health is a real struggle. We can\u2019t ignore it. We can\u2019t run away from it.\u00a0And no one is immune.<\/div>\n
    The best we can do is be\u00a0aware<\/b>,\u00a0create safe spaces<\/b>\u00a0for our peers, and treat\u00a0therapy as a lifestyle practice,\u00a0<\/b>not just a response to crisis.<\/div>\n
    And as many say,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s okay not to be okay.\u201d
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    By Isaac Biosse Picture this. You’re out with your friends at your regular chill spot. On this particular day, you\u00a0went early because you needed to get some work done. You thought you\u2019d be\u00a0the first one there, only to find almost everyone already seated, enjoying time\u00a0with the community. Granted, some of them were curating a show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}