Other important adult figures in her life, her therapists, also failed to acknowledge and validate Danquah’s struggles. Instead of making her feel heard like a healthcare provider should, they suggested that her parents send her to a “school for troubled kids.” This suggestion had two determintental impacts on Danquah’s mental health. First, the implication that she was a “troubled kid” implies that Danquah was misbehaving in some way, that her mental health problems were simply bad behavior and that she had the autonomy to fix them. Again, this harmful outlook perpetuates the stigma surrounding mental health and it affected how readily Danuqah received help for her depression as an adult. By being told that she was “troubled” as a kid, Danquah took on this identity, trying to solve her struggles alone instead of reaching out for help. 

Additionally, the fact that her therapists recommended that she be shipped off to a “special school,” made Danuqah feel even more outcast by those she was closest to. She needed to go to a “special school” because she was different from her peers and needed to be fixed. She started to view herself as a burden that her family wanted to pass off to someone else.