Mental health is a serious issue and not many people understand how hard and draining it is to deal with at times, especially some teachers and/or professors. Being a full time student and having grades and homework to worry about, on top of internship opportunities and jobs all in one, is not an easy thing to schedule out in order to make it less stressful, its just not possible. A lot of teachers and professors do not always seem to understand how stress from everything we have on our plate can seriously effect our mental state, especially if the student already has a mental disorder, like anxiety.

High school and college are the most stressful 8 years a teenager could probably go through, and there have been instances where teachers would not understand why someone would not make it to a class, or even advisors/counselors for some high schools would make it a huge deal and say it is unacceptable to miss because you simply cannot make it out of bed, and that you are just making an excuse to not come to school. But in reality, we physically cannot make it out of bed because our body feels too weak to move, our chests are tight and our eyes just feel like being blurry with tears.

I heard a story from a friend when she was a junior in high school, and having a tough time managing and after talking to her parent, they agreed that she can stay home from school the next day, thinking that everything would be fine, especially since it was a parent/guardian calling her out of school, but she was wrong. While in one of her classes, her advisor that received the phone call, pulled her out of class, questioning her as to why she will not be attending school the next day, she wanted to lie and give a "better" reason than just saying she was stressed out and needed time to actually relax and do nothing, but she panicked and told her that exact reason. Being that this person was her adviser/counselor, she believed that she would understand, because well, high school is very stressful, especially mid junior-senior year because your mind is on college and high grades., and she was completely wrong. Her advisor got angry, and began to tell her, "you're just a kid, you cannot have problems, only adults are able to take personal days," and that if she did not show up to school the next day she would be punished for it.

We cannot have "real" problems because we are not in the adult working world yet? Yes it is understanding that we may not be under the stress most adults face when they are finished with school, and working while taking care of a family and other things, but just because we are teenagers or young adults, does not mean our stresses and problems are not real. We go into high school with the idea of it being our way into a good college, which is true. We need our grades to be high, we need to be part of clubs and organizations in the school or athletics for most of us to be even considered to get accepted into our dream school or any college in particular.

Now tell me, do you want a student in your class who is fully aware of what's going on in class and taking part of the discussion or a student who is sitting in the corner, quiet, shaking, and unable to focus or participate because their mind is somewhere else and currently not capable of doing what you're asking for? Believe me, if we call out or do not show up because of that, it is not a lie, we seriously cannot physically go about the day because we are so mentally stressed that it is physically making us incapable of doing a daily routine.So believe me, if we call out or do not show up because of stress, it is not a lie, we seriously cannot physically go about the day because we are so mentally stressed that it is physically making us incapable of doing a daily routine.

We all know that missing a class can come with consequences, like missing work, the lectures and many other things, especially in college, but we should not be penalized for something we cannot control. Most professors and schools allow athletes to leave class early due to practices or games and there are even instances where they will not make it to class due to a game, but they get excused because it's a sport, why are those who are struggling mentally not given a chance. Personally, if a student goes on the side and explains their situation to a professor or the teacher, whether it is in person or through email, the professors should be willing to help them out, whether it is allowing them to have an excused absence for one class, even though there is no excused absences without a note or they used all theirs, be willing to extend a due date or even allow them a little extra time on the exam or allow them to take the test on a different date.

I promise, we are not lying and more professors and school systems need to come to more of an understanding when it comes to the stresses students face.