Youth Mental Health Crisis! What Youth Mental Health Crisis? Poem by Mary Champion

I would not have these mental health issues
if life was kinder to my mental health.
If school only highlights my weaknesses
and rarely tries to develop my strengths,
why would I think it worthwhile to attend?

And even if I am academic,
one who'll get grade nines and first class-honours,
they only ever focus on my mind,
forgetting that I've got a human soul.

And whatever the grades I might achieve,
how can I concentrate if I'm hungry?
if the other kids always take the piss,
(and some of the teachers aren't much better)
when I'm not wearing the right uniform,
cos my mum and dad can't afford it.

Is it any wonder that I'm anxious
with all that shit on social media
designed to make me feel inadequate.
However bright I am, or good I look
I will never come up to those standards.

And then there's the future of the planet?
Of course I won't feel secure and hopeful
if I keep being told that we are doomed,
that I'm likely to fry in searing heat.
or drown because sea levels are rising.

And what am I supposed to be eating
apart from whatever the food bank's got?
It's UPF or unsustainable.
If not it's likely unaffordable.

What's my adult future got to offer
in the way of a decent job for all?
Most of us will be replaced by robots
and those that aren't will probably be serfs
on zero hours contracts scraping by.

As for a home and family - no chance!
a house deposit's way out of my reach
and rents rise all the time, so no chance there.
I'm not sure it's moral to have children
given what the future of the world is.
And childcare's too expensive anyway.

Heard about the knife-crime? - it's all round us.
My mates and me are scared to go to town,
‘less we've got machetes in our pockets
and anti-stab vests underneath our clothes.

Governments just talk about our problems,
but nothing ever changes, - not enough.
Voters only want short term solutions,
too immature to face the brutal truth.

No! my mental health is not the issue.
It isn't me who needs to see a shrink.
It's this fucking system that needs changing
It's not me, but the world that's going mad.