Southeast of Saline assembly explores mental health issues

GYPSUM - Identifying mental health issues and suicide prevention tips were the focus of an “Ending the Silence” student assembly Thursday afternoon at Southeast of Saline High School.

“Our leadership team back in the fall identified the major concerns around the school, and this subject came up,” said Susan Wilson, Southeast of Saline family and consumer sciences instructor and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America adviser.

“This is an important subject to talk about, especially with teenagers.”

The first speaker, Norman Klocke, a retired Kansas State University and University of Nebraska professor and a spokesman for the National Association for Mental Health, told about his mental health problems leading up to the diagnosis that he suffered from bipolar disorder.

He also has written a book, “You’re Not Crazy,” outlining his life with mental illness.

“There is still a stigma attached to mental health problems,” Klocke said. “That’s the biggest reason people don’t get help.”

Klocke said he had trouble adjusting to life, although he made it all the way through graduate school and into a career.

However, there was something in his brain that didn’t allow him to function without feeling depressed. He said he came very close to committing suicide when he was 28 years old.

“The problem was I had a wrong diagnosis from a previous doctor,” Klocke said. “I prayed and said I wouldn’t do anything until I saw another doctor.”

The other doctor determined Klocke was suffering from bipolar disorder, something he told Klocke was often hereditary.

“He said I wasn’t crazy,” Klocke said. “It wasn’t my fault.”

Klocke said one in five teens suffers from mental health problems.

Among the steps he advised students to take if they display any warning signs of mental illness is to talk to a friend or trusted adult or write a note and give it to a trusted friend or adult.

He said people contemplating suicide often talk, write or draw pictures about death; talk about being a burden or having no reason to live; feel hopeless or trapped; or start giving away possessions.

Friends or family members should be direct in speaking about their concerns, he said, and shouldn’t leave the suicidal person alone.

“It took a friend grabbing me by the shoulders and taking me to the ER,” Klocke said.

The second speaker, Alexa Magee, a Manhattan resident and AmeriCorps and VISTA volunteer, spoke about her mental health journey, which began in her childhood and continued with two months in jail as a student at Silver Lake High School, and her eventual diagnosis and treatment.

“My mental illness doesn’t have to control me,” she said. “Mental (illness) is scary, but it isn’t contagious.”