For many students, high school can feel like a balancing act. Pressure can build up in many areas of life, whether it be social, academic, or big life decisions. Adding sports, work, or extracurricular activities on top of that can make each day seemingly unbearable. For some students, it’s simply stress alone. But for the 20% of youth that suffer from a mental disorder, each day can seem impossible (npr.org). The majority of schools pay little attention to mental disorders and students can begin to feel hopeless. Schools need to acknowledge the crisis of mental health among students and focus more resources and energy on these students.

Perhaps there isn’t enough knowledge of mental health, or maybe teachers don’t notice the signs- but 1 in 5 kids in the US ages 13-18 show signs or symptoms of a mental health disorder, and 80% of these kids go untreated (teenmentalhealth.org). Some of most subtle symptoms include attention difficulties, sleep problems, and extreme emotional highs and lows. To many adults, these signs may seem like simply a moody, stressed teenager. For teens suffering from a mental health disorder, the illness is not just stress and is rarely, if ever, caused by stress alone.

The most common mental disorders include major depression, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and anxiety. When affected by one of these illnesses, it means that part of the brain is not working. In this case, one or more of six functions is not functioning properly- thinking, perception, emotion, signaling, physical, and behavior. This can, in turn, affect a number of things like chronic absence, low achievement, disruptive behavior, and dropping out. As the teen brain is in a constant state of development it is during the adolescent years that help is the most crucial.

Giving students more guidance would not only improve a student’s mental health but would also lower the unhealthy decisions they make and lower the need for self medication, whether it be the depressed patient who abuses substances to numb emotional pain, or the patient with social anxiety that drinks more than everyone else in order to feel more comfortable in social situations. A study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed that those who have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder are responsible for the consumption of 69% of alcohol, 84% of cocaine, and 68% of cigarettes (npr.org). Students who are suffering often look for a vice when there is no other source of guidance. In more extreme cases of mental illnesses, teens will resort to suicide or self harm. A study done by healthychildren.org showed that 90% of all teens who commit suicide have some type of mental illness.

The mental disorders most common to adolescents are typically caused by genetics and environment. It is out of a child’s control whether or not they are affected by a mental disorder, however they can control whether or not they reach out for help. Although many students feel uncomfortable talking about it and are unsure who to turn to and refrain from getting the help they desperately need.

What schools need is more education surrounding mental illness and school-based mental health programs. These programs should include mental health screening, include physical activity during the day, build mindfulness into the school day, limit technology, and take happiness seriously. As students spend nearly the whole school day sitting at a desk it can be difficult to notice the signs. One school in Tennessee used a “Youth Screening” as a way to identify mental health problems early on. Of the 221 students whose parents consented to screening, 75 were found to have a mental health or substance abuse problem.

Schools need to also get rid of the stigma around mental illness by educating teachers and students. Students should not feel as though there is something wrong with them if they are struggling whit some of these conditions. The millions of adolescents afflicted by a mental illness should feel as though it is just like any other illness that can be treated and managed in a healthy manner.