Mental health can be a very sensitive topic to some, whether someone struggles with their mental health or not, it’s a tough topic. 1 in 20 high school teens suffer from depression and/or anxiety. However, that’s just two of the many other mental illnesses that someone can have. That is a very high number, and actions should be taken to change that ratio.

School may very well be one of the biggest factors in that. When putting it into perspective, there is a ton of things that happen in school that cause mental health to be a concern. Bullying happens at every school, and since it happens so often, it gets brushed off as if it were nothing when really, it’s a big deal. If someone that someone knew was being bullied, that person would likely be very angry over it. More times than not when we see someone being bullied, we brush it off because we don’t know that person, and since we don’t know them it doesn’t impact our daily lives. We need to acknowledge the fact that the person being bullied is a living being, who has emotions, it’s not a lifeless object. They are hurting, they need someone. Schools don’t do much to stop bullying besides hanging anti-bullying posters around and basically saying, “Hey, don’t bully people.”. Not much is being done, the best way to help is to step in when someone is being bullied, even if you don’t personally know them. You could save a life.

Aside from bullying, a lot of students are always flooded with homework, and if not then they most likely have a ton of material to study. Students are growing, they need a social life. They don’t want a social life just for fun, they need it. It helps the growing process. Being stuck in a room all day staring at assignments will likely cause a student to feel incredibly lonely as well as stressed. Stress happens to everyone, but the percentage of stress teens are experiencing today is at an all-time high. As stated before, stress happens to everyone, but students have brains that aren’t fully grown, and that much stress can damage the growth process and cause many mental issues in the future when the brain is fully developed. There are schools out there that don’t allow teachers to give their students homework, and while that’s great, I get the point of homework. It can help the student take in what they learned that day, however, some teachers give students pages of homework that must be completed the next time that teacher sees them. It seems as if some teachers forget that most of their students have 7 other classes that they are getting homework from. This leads me to my next point, time.

School, homework, jobs. School goes from 7:30 AM to 2:10 PM. For this example, let’s say a student works from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Now comes the homework, depending on the day, a student could have up to 3 hours worth of homework, maybe even more. In that case, they won’t finish until after 12:00 AM. Obviously there is the time it takes for them to shower if needed, and get ready to go to bed afterward. Playing it safe, we can say a student goes to bed at 1:00 AM after finishing everything they need to finish. Teens need 9.25 hours of sleep a night, with this schedule, a teen is only getting around 5.5 hours. Sleep deprivation is a huge factor when it comes to mental health. Lack of sleep could cause a student to feel more anxiety than usual, worsened symptoms of depression, worsened immune system, struggle with focus, trouble remembering things, and even risk of heart disease. There are countless other things lack of sleep causes, but even with just the ones stated, it goes to show how much students need sleep. Especially with how much information is being fed to us at school, we need to get the proper amount of sleep if we are going to learn and retain any information.