High School Anxiety and Depression
Depression, noun: severe despondency and dejection typically felt over a period of time and accompanied by feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy.
The increasing prominence of anxiety disorders and depression in high school-aged teenagers begs the problem to be seriously addressed, as well as the nature of our school systems to be reevaluated. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, separation anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorders are felt by 8% of teens age 13-18. Of that percentage, only 18% receive mental health care, meaning the overwhelming majority goes untreated.
Anxiety disorders can be brought upon by a number of triggers, the most common being a combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors. Those who experience anxiety disorders tend to have a biological predisposition to stress, thus making them more susceptible to environmental stressors and stimuli (University of Maryland Medical Center).
Stressors including the growing pressure to perform on the SAT and ACT in order to be admitted to a “good” college, advanced classes, homework load, grades, athletics and extra-curricular activities, friend and love-life drama, jobs, family dynamics, among countless others. For one to cope with the drama and responsibilities of daily life, in addition, to the workload that high school places on them, is enough to give anyone an overwhelming amount of stress.
The National Education Association says that a student should be assigned no more than 10 minutes of homework per grade level per night (so a first grader would have 10 minutes, a second grader 20, etc.). That means that upon entering high school, a freshman would receive 90 minutes, or an hour and a half, of homework a night. As a sophomore in high school with a freshman sister, I can vouch for the fact that she works well over an hour and a half a night on her homework. The problem is here stated that many teachers are not aware of this guideline, therefore assigning more than thirty minutes of homework a night (multiply that by 6 classes and that’s a lot of work).
Now here is how anxiety and depression plays into the overwhelming workload imposed on us as high schoolers. The time spent glued to ones desk in school, then glued to a different desk at home, all that time working on worksheets, scanning over data, reading, solving problems, etc., is not exactly “fun”. To be happy, endorphins must be released in your brain, and those endorphins come from laughter, exercise, listening to music, eating sweets, meditation, just to name a few. In order for the youth of today to be happier, but more specifically, to be less prone to anxiety and depression, less emphasis needs to be put on school work and more on activities that make them happy. Sorry teachers, but for a majority of students, schoolwork doesn’t make them happy.
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