Mental health amongst teenagers Mendez 1

Mental health amongst teenagers

Isabelle Mendez

Tallwood High School

Mental health amongst teenagers 2

Table of contents

Abstract…………………………………………… Page 3

Literature review………………………………….... Page 4,5

Limitations………………………………………....Page 5

Introduction………………………………………....Page 6,7

Body ………………………………………………...Page 7-14

Conclusion…………………………………………..Page 14,15

References………………………………………..Page 16-19
Mental health amongst teenagers 3

Abstract

This paper explores the challenges that teenagers face with mental health. It

gives statistics about anxiety and depression in adolescents in the United States, as

well as England. The paper also entails solutions other than therapy for children to

receive help. In addition, this paper also explores how school systems in America are

not doing enough for the students with their mental health. It provides ways for that to

change and steps for the school board to take in ensuring students get the help they

want and need.

Mental health amongst teenagers 4

Literature Review

Studies show that up to seventy percent of adults in the United States go through

a traumatic event at least once in their lives. Twenty percent of those adults developed

a post-traumatic stress disorder. (Post-traumatic stress, Sidran Institute)

Traumatic events can often result in mental health disorders such as anxiety and

depression. It is said that up to 15% of adults can experience depression at one period

in their lifetime (Depression Hotline Number). There are many types of depression and

they can all coincide with other mental health issues. A person with standardized

depression could be showing symptoms in their everyday life. Some symptoms include

feeling helpless, worthless, sad, and more irritable than normal. They have more

difficulty focusing and enjoying things they used to enjoy. People with depression feel

more tired throughout the day and have difficulty sleeping. The most extreme symptom

of depression is having thoughts of suicide or death.

Depression can be caused by a person experiencing the death of a loved one. It

could also be caused by a person going through grief; whether that being from a death,

or from a significant change in one's life (Grieving: facing illness, familydoctor.org

editorial staff).

Many teenagers experience anxiety due to stress and lack of sleep. Teenagers

need approximately eight to ten hours of sleep but only get about 6 to seven in a half

hours ( Teenagers and sleep, Gottschling). Untreated anxiety can lead to depression,

migraines, and eventually suicidal thoughts and actions (Complications from untreated

anxiety, Poorani). In addition, adolescents also experience grieving.

Mental health amongst teenagers 5

Grieving shows differently amongst every individual. Some people may find

themselves crying often, not sleeping, or having excessive worry. Others may be

feeling angry or even numb (Grieve less, Nemko). It is said that there are five stages of

grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (5 stages of grief,

Kübler-Ross) Some individuals experience all of those stages, and some experience

only some of them.

Individuals who go through traumatic events may choose to go to therapy, or

may not. Therapy is a safe place for the purpose of people to go and talk about their

feelings with a trained professional. This helps them get their thoughts off their chest

and it allows them to get guidance on what they should do. Although some people

strongly believe therapy is the way to go, there are still a lot of individuals who do not go

to therapy (10 reasons why, Soeiro).​ ​One of the major reasons why they choose not to

go is being therapy is expensive (The top 10 reasons, Iverson). They may also choose

not to go because of the fact that they feel as if going to therapy will be admitting that

they have a problem. They also think that talking to their friends is enough. They do

not understand that going to a therapist is confidential and they can talk about anything

without fears of it getting out and about oversharing.

Limitations

One of the greatest limitations that the writer faces is that she is closely affected

by the topic. She has been through a traumatic event in her life and writing was her

number one outlet. Being so closely related to the topic may result in having biases. It
Mental health amongst teenagers 6

may also lead to the writer trying to only find one side of the problem and disregarding

the other viewpoints as wrong.

Another limitation she faces is that everyone has a different way of coping

through these kinds of events and there is no one straightforward way of saying is going

to help. It will be hard to prove that writing is one of the best ways to help when the

viewpoint could be taken as an opinion opposed to facts on how much it actually does

help a person.

Other limitations include where a person who experienced a trauma is from.

Within different cultures come different ways a person was raised. In cultures such as

the French, they are more reserved and do not usually speak out about their problems

to everyone. In other cultures such as South American countries, they are more

opened to talk about anything. That may sway the results of some of the tests done on

whether or not writing is effective.

Introduction

Students are faced with many stress factors ranging from getting failing grades,

to what outfit will make them stand out. As their high school years go on, more stress

factors come into play with the decision of if they will attend college, or if not, what they

are going to do once they graduate high school. These stress factors can be

manageable for some, but students with mental health issues may find it harder to cope

with the stress that school brings.

For example, if a student was struggling with anxiety, the thought of a big test

coming up will create more stress for them than a regular student. This stress could
Mental health amongst teenagers 7

eventually lead to a panic attack. The definition of a panic attack is “a sudden increase

in severe fear or discomfort. This discomfort generally reaches its worst peak within a

few minutes.” (Panic attacks, Hofmann). Some of the symptoms include: shortness of

breath, sweating, numbness, chills, shaking, and a feeling of dying. Panic attacks are

common with those who have anxiety and an anxiety disorder. For one person, that big

test could just cause some slight anxiety; but for others, it could cause a full panic

attack. That leaves the students feeling drained and hopeless afterward.

Teachers might not be aware that the student is dealing with mental health and

may perceive that student as lazy or that they did not study. This does not give the

child a chance to prove to the teacher that they are trying their best. If the teacher knew

what they were dealing with then maybe they could help relieve some of the stress off of

the student and their grade would significantly improve.

Teachers could go through training to pinpoint signs of when a students should

receive help. These signs may include: frequent disobedience, temper tantrums, aches

and pains, trouble concentrating, self-isolation, fights, and change in students

personality. If teachers were made aware of these signs and trained to look for them,

then they could recommend sending the student to see someone who could help. They

could also get trained on the variety of mental illnesses so they know what those are

and what they look like. Having the teachers informed about mental health ensures that

the students can receive the help they need, in which they do not at this point in time in

the school system (Perceived barriers, Gulliver).

Body
Mental health amongst teenagers 8

Students do not get the help that they need or deserve. Recently, in schools,

they changed the names of the employees from ‘guidance counselors’ to ‘school

counselors’. They took away the word guidance, therefore, at this point in time, those

workers are only responsible for handling students schooling stuff, not with helping them

through any mental stuff they may be going through (Schools Psychology, Williams).

What does this leave the students with for people to go to for advice? They no longer

have any person they can go to. Yes, they have the support of their teachers and other

staff but students may not feel comfortable going to them because of the fact that they

are the people in charge of their grades.

This leaves the students with the school psychologist. In an interview with Dr.

Williams, the school psychologist, she informed the author about what she does and

about her workload. Tallwood high school has approximately two thousand students

with one school psychologist. She is only here a day and a half per week. Dr.Williams

only sees about the top five percent of critical students, so therefore it would be

impossible for all of the students to see her. She only takes students from whom she

received a referral for from the school counselor. Therefore more than half of those

students do not get the chance to see the psychologist unless they are critical.

Although there are more people who students can see for mental health; it is not

made aware to the school that they can actually go to those people. In order for that to

be made aware, there needs to be information sent out and put up around the school for

the students to see. There are bulletin boards around schools which could be filled with

statistics about mental health and more information about it. The board could also have
Mental health amongst teenagers 9

more information about all the people in the school who they can go to for help and

support groups or numbers they can call.

There are an abundance of ways that students can get help outside of school

such as therapy. Therapy is a safe place that individuals of any age can go to. There

are a variety of different therapy sessions one could attend. The main two categories

are one on one therapy, and group therapy. One on one is where a person goes and

talks to a professional about their problems and the trained professional offers them

support and solutions to overcome what they are going through. Group therapy is

where multiple people go to see a professional about a topic they all might be going

through such as depression.

Although therapy is a good solution, is very expensive. On average, it costs

anywhere from $50 to $300 a session according to (How much, Vallejos). For therapy

to work, one needs to go to more than one session to see the results. Many people,

regardless of their age, cannot attend therapy because they cannot afford it.

In addition, therapy may be a good option to seek help, but it is not available for

an abundance of people; therefore there needs to be an alternate solution to help those

in need. There are many barriers for the population to receive therapy including:

finances, support, time, and mental reasons.

Writing is a good solution for the reason that it has many benefits. Writing allows

students to express themselves without fear of judgment. Writing also has proven

physical benefits as well. Writers have improved moods, reduced blood pressure,
Mental health amongst teenagers 10

improved memory, fewer stress-related visits to the doctors, and improved lung and

liver functions (Emotional and Physical, Baikie and Wilhelm)

In addition to physical benefits, there are also emotional benefits. Some of them

include, but are not limited to, managing stress, helping cope with depression, reducing

stress, a better outlook on life, boosted self-esteem, and helping with getting one's

thoughts all together (The health benefits, Colino)

Writing allows a person to express what they feel without fear of judgment. They

are not limited to certain topics and they do not have to filter what they write. It causes

them to have to think about what is bothering the person and to put it into words. This

lets the person see what is bothering them and have the ability to pinpoint the cause.

Writing makes it seem like the individual has everything under control because of the

reason that they see what is it that is bothering right in front of them.

Writing can also allow a person to feel in charge and in control of their life

(Journaling for, Paul and Marianne). They can write down everything they need to do

that day or that week and have it organized. If a person feels more organized then they

will not be as stressed. Not being stressed by being disorganized can help a person

become happier over time. It allows an individual to be able to put the tasks they need

to handle in order of importance and makes sure that they complete all of those tasks.

Being more organized leads to a less stressful life.

For writing to be effective, one does not solely need to write about how they feel

or what they need to complete. A person could also write about anything. Writing, in

general, gets the creative flow going in their mind and that can lead to more creative
Mental health amongst teenagers 11

thinking in other aspects. It allows them to get anything off of their mind and it clears

their mind of clutter.

One could write about what they are grateful for, this allows them to see

everything good they have in their life and they can keep it for the future when they

need the reminder. An individual could also write about anything they have learned or

what they need to remember (The mental health, Lawrence).

Although writing can allow a person to be more organized and to express what

they are feeling; some people may view writing as unimportant and useless. They may

think that writing is a temporary fix to a permanent problem and they may think that

therapy is the only way to fix the problem. Even though therapy is a good solution and it

does work for people, most humans can not afford to be seen by a therapist because

they are expensive and some insurances do not cover the costs. They may also think

that going to therapy is admitting that they have a problem.

Traumatic events. When one hears those two words, they may think of things

along the lines of going to war, witnessing a death, or even getting abused. Traumatic

events can be anything, including those things, but also including much more. When

one goes through a traumatic event, they can develop mental disorders and may need

the help of either therapy or some other form of getting their thoughts and feelings out.

Although there are other forms of helping one through traumatic events, writing is a

more worthwhile solution. It is a form of self-expression and it allows a person to get

out everything on their mind without fear of judgment.

Mental health amongst teenagers 12

One way that people can help themselves through traumatic events is writing

(Coping with traumatic events, Galea). Writing allows one to explore their ideas and

express what they are thinking without having to talk to someone. It can also allow a

person to gather all their thoughts and create a feeling of having everything under

control.

One study was performed on sixty-three newly unemployed individuals. Some

were assigned to write down their thoughts on how they felt about being unemployed. A

few of those chosen people followed the rules and wrote down their feelings, and a few

just wrote about anything. The individuals who wrote about their attitudes towards

getting unemployed found jobs quicker than those who wrote about anything and those

who did not write at all.

In addition to the mental effects of writing, there are also physical effects. One

study found that writing can be beneficial to a general population as well as to trauma

survivors. (Writing about emotions, Robb-Nicholson). In the study, the participants were

asked to write fifteen minutes about the most traumatic event they have been through

for four days. There were no rules on grammar or spelling, the only rule was that they

could not stop writing until those fifteen minutes were up.

They had two groups of people; one group who wrote about the events that

traumatized them the most, and one group who wrote about something neutral. Both of

the groups were exposed to short-term benefits. They were happier and experienced

less stress. In addition, the participants also had fewer depressive symptoms, better

performance, and improved memory.

Mental health amongst teenagers 13

While both groups did get exposed to the benefits, the participants who wrote

about their traumas seemed to have better outcomes in the four months after the study.

They had fewer visits to the health center and were less likely to get sick opposed to

those who wrote about anything that was on their mind. Along with having the benefits

the same as the other group, the trauma writers also saw greater long-term benefits.

There was also another study done on healthy college students from the

University of Austin, Texas. Dr. Pennebaker asked forty-six students to participate in

this study, asking them to write about traumatic or serious events that have happened

or less serious topics for a total of fifteen consecutive days. Six months following the

study, the students who wrote about traumatic events were less likely to visit the health

care center. The young adults, in addition, had reduced anxiety and dress.

This research also proved that those with conditions such as migraines, asthma,

and sleep-related problems saw better outcomes than those who did not have those

conditions. It also proved that writing about those serious events can give participants a

sense of healing and comfort. It allows them to gather all of their thoughts together and

put them down on paper in which they can see everything written down. In addition,

there have been few studies that have shown negative effects on writing about

traumatic events.

Although these are solutions that could help students through their mental illness,

The change needs to start with the school system because if we take steps to prevent it

from progressing; we can take steps in preventing it from happening in the first place.
Mental health amongst teenagers 14

School systems should be more proactive in making sure that the students get the help

that they need.

Traumatic events are defined as: A traumatic event is one in which a person

Experiences, an actual or threatened death, serious injury, threat to the physical

integrity of self or another. This can also hinder a child's education (How trauma affects,

Miller). Trauma can cause a child to close up to their families and not want to talk to

anyone. This forces the child to keep all their thoughts in their head and not have the

ability to get them out. Having too much on one's mind can cause them to not have the

ability to focus on their schoolwork. It also creates a negative attitude towards their

work. If they feel helpless then they will not try to put forth the effort to receive good

grades.

Most people in their lifetime will go through a traumatic event. Each person has

a unique way of going through the hard times and there is no right way of getting

through it easily. Some individuals may acquire a mental health disorder from the

traumatic event, or they may have had one since childhood. Although there is no right

way to go through these hard times, writing can help one collect their thoughts and be

able to express how they feel.

Conclusion

Although the school system does provide students with some resources including

mental health, they need to be giving children more help and also training teachers to

look for signs. In doing so, this ensures that the rate of school-related anxiety and

depression declines and that all measures are taken in ensuring that the youth are
Mental health amongst teenagers 15

mentally stable. If little actions are taken such as: hiring more professionals, putting up

flyers around the school about mental health, and having counselors come into classes

to speak to everyone, this would help ensure that students get the help they need.

Mental health overtime would not be perceived as a bad thing and getting help would

not be seen as ‘losing’.

Mental health in England is very similar to the mental health in the United States

(The mental health of children and young people in England). Only twenty-five percent

of children receive help for their mental illness. In addition, London has the highest

percentage of young people reporting low life satisfaction in 2015. As the years pass,

the numbers are rising and they are not getting the help they need. More of the

younger generations are developing more serious illnesses because they are not

getting treatment.

Mental health is a serious issue that is viewed as ‘pretend’ in today's society. It

has a negative connotation and some individuals can even get ridiculed for speaking

about it. This leads to problems such as people not receiving the help they need and

then their disorder progresses into something worse (What is mental health, Legg). If

mental health were something that society openly spoke about, then children would

have less of a problem getting help because it is talked about as something that

happens.

If schools were to continue giving students the support system that they do for

elementary schools, students would have that sense of support and comfort. They

would feel more comfortable going to see their counselor or someone who could help
Mental health amongst teenagers 16

with advice. This would alleviate stress and the build-up of emotion one has if they

keep all of their thoughts to themselves.

The one major thing that school systems need to be doing is hiring more

professionals for students to speak to. The root of the problem starts with stress from

school and home life. If an individual were to have someone to speak to about both of

those problems then that would significantly help.

Mental health amongst teenagers 17

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