When stress is spoken about it is 99% always reflected upon an adult image, and their day to day worries depicting bills, picking up children, daily house duties so on and so forth. But when you put stress and adolescents together it is always foreseen as something to "Get over." "What can you possibly be stressed about?" they say, without realizing that these students hold just as much tension as any adult would. On the Star of Mysore an article titled "Stop Pressuring Students" written from the

voice of a reader Ashok Bhushan of an article earlier in the week identifying two PU students who committed suicide due to failing the exams--an exam so intense that it will literally make or break their future. Ashok states how these private institutions provide intense frustration and stress on the students sitting for this exam and ,instead, of providing guidance to those who are not excelling as much as others they prefer to aid those who show proficiency.

   After having spoken to some of the staff at PHRII (Public Health Research Institute of India) who have had children go through this phase of their lives I received liberal comments as far as the career path they would want their child to take. Based off the article, he entails how it is impossible to excel at something if you have hold no interest in that certain task. These children are being tormented into becoming engineers and doctors because it is what is mostly looked great upon.

The mothers answered that they were always welcoming to different paths as far as career with their children whether it be a teacher, mechanic, etc. So there is a wide view in both conservative and liberal parents which certainly leads back on certain traditions within the family.

   I try to put myself in these adolescents shoes and I cannot imagine myself having to work my entire high school years towards an exam that will detail my life without me having any care for it. I have noticed that in India mental health is a taboo and not taken serious in any circumstance. But yet suicide is at its highest point in the current years. Only 7-10% of those who took their lives had seen a mental health professional, leaving about 93% of people who had no counseling on any end. (Vijayakumar,

2004). Yet in western countries the ratio differed to 30% had seen a professional. India, Asia in itself are in an enormous mental health epidemic that needs to be voiced. Countless deaths continue to rise and it will only continue unless those numbered are severely tackled to decrease. As Dr. Vijayakuma states, Suicide is rather a social state in India which is the opposite of how it is seen abroad in the western countries. A much more traditional exercise. If there is not mental well being then

the function of that person only deteriorates.

   But where the problem lies is that if you are not mentally well how can you be expected to work well? Mental health is so important across a broad road of reasons and my intentions are to be able to provide awareness and decrease the stigma on said topic. This idealization some parents and professors hold are damaging children and causing lives to be taken away. Why? There is a huge amount of ignorance in India as far as what Mental Health brings alongside and provides to everyone globally.

I can only imagine that these adults know no better than to treat the children the same way they have been treated generations back. But the only way to alter those ideas and values is to inform the population surrounding it.

   What can be done? Educate. We cannot expect much of these people if they do not have an education on Mental Health and the need for it. A proper way to go about this is to gather all the different perspectives and depict where exactly the issue lies. In the Indian Journal of Psychiatry it explains how the rate of suicide back in the 1900's used to be for sacrificial purposes only and in the recent years India has been named the suicide capital of the world with youth suicide specifically escalating

at a worrying rate. Ranging from 10.9 in 2009 to 11.0 in 2013 that is an estimate of about 10,000 deaths more. The relying factor here holds many aspects across a border. But it is reported based off the National Center for Biotechnology and the article from Indian Journal, the over achievement parents expect from students are one of the main reasons the rates on youth have predominantly been escalating throughout the years. What age groups believe a set career will alter their life forever

as far as in this certain situation. If the adolescent is the one to hold this path for the rest of their lives why do those surrounding them hold the key of where that door will be? Suicide rates will only continue to increase unless something is done. We need to get these children to voice their feelings and reach out, provide support groups start at grass root. This is so crucial because even if the teen does not commit suicide, if they are unhappy with said career they will be miserable for

the years to come. Life is a marathon race and unless action is taken they will be covered by a band-aid only waiting for the next lost life to make it to the newspaper.

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Vijaykumar, L. (2007). Suicide and its prevention: The urgent need in India. Indian Journal of

     Psychiatry, 49(2), 81. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.33252

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Ponnudurai, R. (2015). Suicide in India – changing trends and challenges ahead. Indian Journal of

     Psychiatry, 57(4), 348. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.171835