Mental Illness // School

[3zoev]

www.upworthy.com/he-climbs-on-his-desk-insults-his-teacher-and-leaves-the-whole-class-speechless-point-made?c=hpstream

Mental illness is such a wildly misunderstood and underrepresented issue in high school and elsewhere. I will try to speak about this objectively and not use too much personal experience, however let me say that insensitive comments, especially from teachers or peers - the people who are in some sense, supposed to look out for you, can be devastating. I firmly believe that education is the first step to stopping the blatant disregard of mental health issues. If schools were to integrate this into their curriculum in ways other than half assed senior year health class after most kids have learned it all the hard way already, it would make a substantial difference to the well being of the people who experience these problems. These people are in no more control of their condition as a student with, for example, diabetes.
This video is a friendly reminder that you never know what someone is going through, so be compassionate.     

[3sanna]

I completely agree with your point, and strongly believe mental health should be integrated into our school curriculum. Health education in this country in my opinion is already failing at its task as many students don't even receive a proper sex education (depending on where they live). I agree that comments from teachers or peers can very much be breaking points in a persons mental development, and as one of the accepted factors of going to school and growing up is some form of abuse from your peers, we should strive to put mental health care in place to protect students from the long term affects these seemingly innocent comments can have on a person. We've become accustomed to believing in and relying on that old saying of "it gets better" but in fact the education system uses this phrase to cast away the responsibility of helping these people through their problems. As many a student can testify, often times counseling programs in schools are understaffed and misguided in their attempts to provide help that seems very guided by what the DOE deems acceptable and safe enough to deal with within a school. As professional therapy and acceptance at home of one's condition are often out of reach, we need mental health awareness and education in our schools.

[3bisabella]

I also completely agree with your point. I don't believe that whatsoever mental illness is a priority for the people who run schools. I can't even begin to compare the amount of times that I saw a "Try Hard or You Won't Succeed" poster to the amount of times I saw a poster that said "Your well-being comes first".
The statistic at the end that said "3 of your classmates will experience mental illness" really made my mouth drop. It sounds corny but I personally find it amazing that this occur so often and that barely anyone has anything to say about it.
Even mental illness clubs in schools don't help. After school one day to go see what clubs there were, I passed by the mental illness club and their slogan was "We know you're crazy so come join the club!". Mental illnesses are so misunderstood in schools and outside of schools and it needs to change.

[3zrheanna]

Mental illness has become a stigma in our culture today, making it so much harder for people to recognize that they are ill and find the courage to look for help. It is no longer seen as an illness, but a "need for attention" or "immaturity", people fail to realize how difficult it is to be living with anxiety or depression or another form of illness. People disregard cries for help by saying "Oh you're just sad" or "It's just stress from school, it will go away" or even more blatantly "Grow up, it's not that bad," This is even more damaging to the person seeking help, I firmly believe we need to change the way people view and treat those with mental illness in our world, because we aren't truly dealing with the problem at hand. It's not the person's fault, it's their illness that they cannot treat by themselves. Don't attack the victims, treat them.

[6pkatherine]

I also strongly agree with this statement. Being diagnosed with a mental illness is not something a person chooses and it is a very hard thing to deal with. I have seen how unhappy and lost a person can be due to depression and it seems like another world. My brother is one of the many patients in this world that have to handle this illness and it hurts just to see it. He also used to have problems at school and they never did anything about it, they just told him to improve. It's honestly ridiculous that the people who are supposed to be preparing us for the rest of our lives and caring for us the best end up treating us the worst as if we aren't important at all. They should also take it into consideration due to many mental illnesses being caused by stress from the extreme amount of workload students get.

www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/increased-levels-anxiety-and-depression-teenage-experience-changes-over-time 
Schools should find a way to address this serious situation that affects the youths for the next generation. The link above expresses that in the last 30 years "The proportion of 15/16 year olds reporting that they frequently feel anxious or depressed has doubled in the last 30 years, from 1 in 30 to 2 in 30 for boys and 1 in 10 to 2 in ten for girls." This is an issue that should have been solved years ago not only for the world's future, but to make struggling children feel like they belong somewhere.

[6pdasha]

I completely agree with your argument. Many studies show that students' levels of depression are rising. However, mental health issues aren't being adequately addressed in schools, the places where students develop most of their communicational skills. I've personally experiences insensitive and hurtful remarks from peers, teachers, and even parents. None of them ever realized how their words affected me. In fact, oftentimes people hurt others without ever intending to. Most students suffering from mental health issues don't seek help due to the pressure coming from the people around them. They are so used to hearingremarks like "you should just ignore everything and try harder" that they feel alienated and misunderstood. To them, it seems like they are worse than others because they can't deal with stress like everyone else. Schools should teach kids different methods of dealing with mental health issues as well as educating people about dealing with people who suffer from mental issues. Both of these parts are equally important: introducing ways of dealing with mental issues can help students "battle their demons", while teaching people about ways of dealing with their depressed peers can help avoid putting pressure on students with mental health problems.