“I Felt Like There Was Something Wrong in My Brain”: Growing Up with Trauma – How Young People Conceptualise, Self-Manage and Seek Help for Mental Health Problems

Background: Youth mental health is an important global healthcare topic and early interventions that are timely and evidence-based to support young people can increase quality of life and lower deaths by suicide. Research exploring young people’s mental health experiences and how they manage can further understanding into help-seeking processes. Objective: This study aimed to explore young people’s experiences of living with and managing mental health problems and how this impacts professional help-seeking. Methods: Eighteen young people were recruited, aged 16–25 years, with experiences of help-seeking to services for mental health problems (N = 18). Data were analysed using Constructivist Grounded Theory methods (Charmaz, Constructing grounded theory, 2014). Findings: The findings were presented across three sub-categories: (1) “Early experiences”; (2) “Conceptualising mental health” and (3) “Managing mental health”. Findings expand understanding on the resource pressures that young people experience whilst managing persistent mental distress emanating from early experiences of trauma, life stressors, and developmental tasks. Findings also report lived experiences of pain, loneliness and stigma, and how individual conceptualisations of mental health are informed. The preference for self-reliance can be rooted in developmental needs or learned behaviours and how this impacts self-management and help seeking is discussed. Conclusion: Through an enhanced understanding about how young people experience mental distress, developmental pressure points, marginalisation and stigma, mental health providers can prioritise individualised approaches to healthcare that can both respect a young person’s individual conceptualizations and positively leverage self-management strategies, which can contribute positively to young people’s development, quality of life, and healthcare outcomes.