Mental health issues are arising amongst teenagers and the schools have yet to submit their solutions.

”Yes, there’s therapy, but where’s the discussion in classrooms?”

These days, it can be hard to catch a break from our busy lives. It’s no wonder then that depression and anxiety in teenagers is higher than ever.

We’re told to prioritise schoolwork but also go out and have fun. We have piles of homework thrown upon us daily, but are also encouraged to maintain a balanced social life as well.

How can we be expected to live our lives to the fullest, when mental health issues amongst young adults are more prominent than ever before?

Nowadays, the chances of a teenager developing a mental illness has increased by 4% since 2012, with the Mission Australia’s 2016 Youth Survey finding that 22.8% of the 21,846 young people surveyed (between the ages of 15-19) display symptoms of mental illnesses.

This has also been my experience. For the past four years, I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression and it’s heart-breaking to see these statistics. I’ve also experienced the heartbreaking effects of mental illnesses on many of my loved ones, such as my closest friends and family members.

So I find it surprising to see that people aren’t doing enough to help. There are absolutely brilliant organisations out there, such as Beyond Blue and Lifeline, so why are the statistics still so high and continuing to rise?

A teenager’s life usually revolves around school and for something to take up that much of our time, it has to have some strong impacts on various parts of our lives, including our mental health. ReachOut.com states that ‘schools play a vital part in reducing mental health stigma’. Although schools teach us essential topics such as English and Maths, they also teach us life skills, such as the ability to form new relationships.

This means that if we aren’t taught that mental illnesses are a real and common thing, in a place where we spend so much time, students can start to feel as though they are abnormal and that their mental state is something to feel ashamed of. I personally feel that although schools provide support services such as guidance counselling, there is nowhere near enough discussion regarding mental health in day-to-day life and in classrooms.

Mental health currently doesn’t feel like an inviting subject as it’s rarely talked about (except in specialty classes), causing some students to feel isolated and alone, as though their feelings are unique.

“Yes, there’s therapy, but where’s the discussion in classrooms?”

I interviewed a couple of my peers, and their responses proved that this is a serious issue.                        “For me, my school didn’t make the topic of mental health seem inviting as it was never really talked about, so when my anxiety hit, I was ashamed, confused and unaware that this was something people commonly suffered with and I didn’t feel comfortable asking for help”.

There needs to be more mental health discussions in class facilitated by health care professionals. This could also include more education on the topic of mental health, frequent reassuring to students that the teachers are always there for them, and for the topic of mental health to be brought up more and more in daily life, becoming more normalised in society.

If schools can teach teenagers that mental health is a topic that is healthy to talk about, that there’s always help available and that there’s nothing to feel ashamed of, I believe that teenagers will start to reach out and get the help they need, decreasing the unnecessary angst amongst adolescents and helping them realise that there is always hope and they are never alone.