As students, there’s a lot of pressure on us to excel in school and achive` good grades so we can have a successful life, but is there too much pressure and stress on us? I’ve seen it all: I’ve seen my peers pour over their notes during lunch, I’ve noticed the bags under my friends eyes as they tell me how late they were up studying, I’ve heard my classmates talk about how much they’re going to fail because sometimes it’s easier to assume we’ll fail than hope we succeed. I’ve been there myself. Just like everyone else, I’ve felt the pressure of my acedemics and also the social aspect of high school. I believe that school is intensifying students mental health.

“School is your number one priority.” They say.”Get a good education so you’re successful.” They say. But whats more important, my mental health or my education? Some adults may say that we’re just kids and we shouldnt worry, that if we “manage our stress well” we’ll be fine. One in five students struggle with some type of mental health issue; and in a class of twenty-five students, that’s five (if not more) kids struggling. If you add all of that pressure from parents and teachers to do well, that just makes the mental health issues worse.

The ammount of stress that we deal with daily at school can intenfiy or lead to other mental health issues. Children and teens have problems expressing how they’re stressed. Some stress factors for high schoolers can be relationships, peer acceptance, grades, college and parental pressue. Sometimes coping with stress can lead to other underlying symptoms including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, panic attacks, ect. (Stress Management in School).

Sometimes asking for help is hard, it’s hard to admit that we’re struggling when we see people do the same concept so easily; it eventually all builds up which can lead to some sort of mental illness, or intensify an issue that may already be there; which can be dangerous, and for that reason we need to start talking about how school and mental health affect each other.

High school is such a diverse enviorment in which everyone is different and has their own obstacles. In an article written by the Association for Childrens Mental Health, the topic of how anxiety affects school is discussed. It says that youth with anxiety disorders are so caught up in their worries that they have a hard time paying attention. They may also experience physical symptoms and be absence often due to that. Students with anxiey issues may have issues starting and completing their work because they’re scared that it won’t be right, or because their scared to be embarassed. Suffering from anxiety disorders may also cause students to struggle to interact or miss out on school activites all together (Problems at School).

Sometimes we stress so much we feel sick, I’ve been there: the shaky hands, stomach aches, headaches, and then the social aspects: avoiding friends, games, tests, and interactions overall can all be signs of anxiety progressing, which is why we need to start opening up and allowing the conversation of our mental health become more frequent.

Most of us have the idea of graduating and going to college and having a family sometime in the future, but often the thought of the future can be a lot to handle. How are we suppose to get anywhere in life if we can’t even get through the stress of high school? We stress about our grades, we worry that we should know what carrer we want when we don’t, we’re terrified that we won’t do well on the ACT and get rejected by colleges because of it.

We’re so stressed about the future and all of that stress builds up and affects our mental health and poor mental health can affect your academic future. An article posted by the Suicide Prevention Resoure Center states that mental health issues do affect students severley. Poor mental health issues can affect students energy levels, optimism, concentration, and dependibility which can then affect their overall performance. Their reserach also suggests that students that struggle with depression will often have lower grade-point averages (Consequences of Student Mental Health).

I’m only a freshman, and yet I see signs of stress and mental health all the time. Some students stress more than others, about our grades, friends, family, the ACT, and some of us think that once we’re out of high school it’s over. It’s not. If you go to college it’s going to repeat itself all over again: the late nights, the stress, the worry, grades, tests, just at a higher stake. It seems that we’re in a constant cycle of poor mental health and stress and not a lot of people are talking about it. Why? Poor mental health issues can link to drop outs in college and poor grades, yet being only in high school, I see it affect my classmates all the time.

It’ll be worth it in the end though...right? The back issues from hauling 3 textbooks home so I can study; my frustration because I don’t understand parabolas; my lack of sleep because I was up late studying. It’ll all be worth it when I end up working for someone else, hopefully making enough to put food on the table for my family and pay the bills.

Everyone struggles differently. One of your friends could be struggling and you might not even know, maybe because they don’t like to show emotions or maybe because they’ll feel weak if they express how they feel. The stigma that has been placed around mental health needs to be eliminated and students need to learn that it’s okay to open up so no one struggles, and in order for that to happen the conversation of mental health needs to open up. We’re the future, the younger generation that’s suppose to keep the country going, but how can we do that with all of the stress on us right now. Stress is good, it teaches us a lot, but how much stress on teens is too much?