Talking to Parents and Other Supportive Adults

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Have you wanted to speak to your parents or another supportive adult (like a relative, grandparent, or teacher) in your life about mental health struggles that you face? What questions do you have about opening up to trusted adults? Are you afraid of something that might come up if you talk to an adult about your mental health?

Activity: Have a conversation with an adult that you trust about your experience in opening up to other adults about important things in your life. You can talk to a teacher about opening up to your parent, or you can open up to a parent about conversations you’ve tried to have with an aunt or uncle. If this adult knows the other adult, ask if they have any advice about the best way to talk to them! Afterwards, leave your feelings here and reflect about your experience.

Check out these articles to get more information about venting and opening up to adults:

How to Discuss Hard Topics with Parents

The Catharsis of Venting

As a reminder, please make sure to stay anonymous. Please do not share any information which can identify you like: your name, where you live, your contact information, or other personal details.

[Foxy]

In my experience, speaking with an adult about mental health always ends badly. They talk down to me and tell me that it’s not a real thing. How do I avoid that happening?

[turquoisetaurus]

I do want to talk to adults about my mental health but I’m not tryna have it end in any bad way.thats why I’m hesitant with telling adults stuff.

[TheWomanInMyMind]

Growing up, I was always SUPER hesitant about talking to adults about my mental struggles. As I got older, I became more comfortable with openly speaking about my mental health, though I think the most important thing to remember is to choose to speak to someone you are comfortable with. Even if those people aren’t your parents or caregivers – that’s okay! I’ve had some even better conversations with teachers and professors than I have with my own parents. Therapy has always been a great way for me to open up because I know my therapist will not judge me and will give me up biased advice and opinions.

I’ll leave you with this, even if you have a bad experience talking to an adult about your mental health issues, do not vow to never speak up again. I promise, there is always going to be someone trustworthy that you will feel comfortable talking to.

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