North Star Take: Mental Health Awareness

By fhntoday editorial board

Published: April 1, 2015

We’ve all been there – failing a test you studied for, having a fight with a friend, stressing about future plans – and it can be rough to get yourself through. But when it’s a funk you can’t get out of, that may mean there’s something more serious lurking in the shadows.

Mental health is “a state of wellbeing in which the individual can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community,” as defined by the CDC. North, it’s time to talk about mental health: what it means and its importance to teens.

Stress is one of the leading causes of depression for teens, and with the increasing pressure to succeed and get into a good college comes a lot more stress than the generations before us have had to experience. According to the College Board, the average cost per year to attend a four-year public institution- take a large university like Mizzou, for example- was around $2,810 in 1984. In 2014, the average cost per year to attend a four-year public institution is almost $19,000. That’s more than seven times what our parents had to pay for college. The stress that comes with this alone can be enough to make someone want to stay in bed all day, but when it’s only a piece of the puzzle among homework, after-school jobs, and social pressures, it can be downright crippling.

It’s completely normal to feel sad about these things and struggle with them for a short period of time, but if one struggles for a long time, it could mean that there’s a mental illness in play. Mental illnesses are health conditions that threaten or damage functionality. Depression and anxiety are the most common for teens and these can sometimes be tricky to spot and differentiate from normal sadness or minor anxiety, which is why the number one thing that the school can do about this is to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms to look out for. Common signs of depression include decreased energy, feelings of loneliness and/or worthlessness, and thoughts of suicide. Common signs of an anxiety disorder include excessive and often obsessive worrying, fatigue, irritability, and sleep disturbance.

To raise awareness about these prevalent issues, we need to make a collective effort as a schoolto talk more about them. In freshman health class, one section of the curriculum is dedicated entirely to mental health, and KUTO (KidsUnder Twenty One), an organization for suicide prevention, comes in and provides a survey to assess students’ mental state. This is an excellent way to help students who maybe don’t have to courage to speak up directly, but the problem is that it’s only given to freshmen.

As stated before, much of the pressure put on students is in direct correlation to the stress of the future, and it is for this reason that the survey should be given to upperclassmen as well. Maybe it isn’t realistic to expect KUTO to tend to every student who may be experiencing a mental illness, but that’s where our very own guidance counselors come in. A survey, similar to the one that KUTO provides but created by the counselors, could be distributed to all students to provide that opportunity to say something. Often, students don’t speak up about personal problems they’re having because they don’t know what resources are available to them within the school. The guidance counselors are one resource, and crisis counselors are another. Additionally, by law guidance counselors do not have to involve a student’s parents unless the student is planning to harm themselves or another student. This means that your meetings will be confidential unless it gets potentially harmful.

Another resource is a support group, and there are many to pick from. One thing the guidance counselors could do is make these groups more open to the public, so that students don’t have to have a referral to attend them.

In addition to more support within the school should be awareness of signs to look out for, along with a list of resources that a student could go to if they or a friend are experiencing such symptoms. One suggestion is the addition of flyers to the school in the bathrooms and hallways that students use regularly throughout their day.

Mental health isn’t something to joke about, especially for teens that are already dealing with the pressures of adulthood, and we as a school can bring more awareness to its importance by doing a few simple things. One is to collectively talk about what mental health is and signs of mental illness, and another is to utilize the resources that we have available to us through guidance counselors and support groups. These are our lives that we’re talking about here, and we cannot, as a generation, afford to lose more of us to the potentially crippling effects of mental illnesses because we didn’t talk about our mental health. Awareness is key, and with it can come a more emotionally stable future to leave a mark on the world. All it could take is a little cooperation, compassion, and care for one another during this crucial time.

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