In studying psychiatry and mental health nursing, my goal is to promote well-beings of adolescents and young adults through early prevention and intervention. People with mental health conditions often delay treatment-seeking until they experience mental breakdown. During prodromal stage, which is the period between putative symptoms occur and mental breakdown, many young people use substance as a coping strategy. Delays in treatment-seeking and the use of substance might result in poorer prognosis and derail educational progress and the acquisition of social skills necessary for independent adult functioning. My research focuses on understanding the process of prodromal stage in order to describe the trajectory of putative symptoms and how individuals cope with those symptoms before seeking treatments. This will inform the development of early identification tools and preventive programs to avoid substance use, to halt the progression to full-blown mental illness, and to restore affected individuals’ functionality.