In a small, religious and academically competitive home town one would assume that people would be taught various methods to work through their problems in a productive manner that allowed them to grow as human beings. That being surrounded by loved ones and people that want you to feel good would create an accepting environment. However, I've learned something startlingly different over the past five years.
There is a terrifying misunderstanding due to a lack of knowledge about the possibility that talking to an unrelated third party may actually help one's mental health. Because of the increasing number of psychologists and patients that these doctors talk to, there is the misconception that we are in a mental epidemic. I stand to say that this "Epidemic" exists for two reasons: the pressure placed on young people to succeed and the bravery to acknowledge one's own problems.
Ironically, due to high stress learning environments in high schools that are attempting to give students the best opportunities, teens are graduating with eating, anxiety and depression disorders. Instead of being prepared to handle the world, students have been prepped on how to bury their problems. I graduated from one of the most stressful high schools in the nation and can verify that I never went through a single course on how to handle stress or even an assembly on how to help friends. Every AP exam season there was a dark humor in discovering the first person that would have a breakdown. A literal breakdown about over-extending one's self to the point of sobbing in a Panera Bread (junior year) or falling asleep at a Chili Parlor the night before an exam and waking up in tears (senior year).
We had one school counsellor that I saw once every year: the freshman mentoring assembly. He came in, handed out lollipops, talked about positive reinforcement and then left only to reappear at the start of the next school year. Occasionally he popped up again upon the death of a family member of a student or on other extreme circumstances. He seemed rather inaccessible to a student that just wanted to talk for a few minutes. A student only went to speak with him if something was tragically wrong with them.
In my opinion, a school psychologist should be within the schools and always easily available to visit. Not hidden away in the school office building in the middle of town. It should seem normal and helpful to talk to a third party rather than dangerous and scary. Shockingly, getting an outside perspective could actually help you. Instead of being taught this, students are taught to cringe at the thought of asking for help. They think that in order to be strong they have to do everything by themselves. They treat their mental health in the same way that they treat a final exam: difficult with some uncertainties, but with the understanding that eventually they will persevere without any outside help. After all, a teacher can't give out the answers. But the difference between dealing with mental health and a test is that there is more than A, B, C or D and at the end of the day you aren't given an answer sheet.
However, after years, students are finally becoming more comfortable with talking about their mental health. Our generation is acknowledging our issues and beginning to ask for help. Nonetheless, there is not a lot of support for psychological assistance outside of the academic community. Students, professors, deans and those in the academic professions are experienced in anxiety disorders and see them unfold every single day. Therefore, they want students to reach out for help.
There needs to be a wider acceptance toward asking for help. There is nothing wrong with needing somebody else or talking through a problem. It's not weakness to acknowledge wanting help. There's a huge amount of strength in changing the way people talk about mental health. By making the choice to talk with somebody, our generation will change the way the world looks at mental health. Anxiety or depression affects 25% of all teens. By getting rid of the stigma surrounding therapists and psychologists we can help a quarter of the teens in the US to live a better life.
