Mental health can affect a student’s energy levels in school. A lot of students’ mental health is actually affected by school. Whether it be because of bullying, or the pressure of school work, it still effects students.

“At first there was way too much stress and work from school and it would get very hard for me to work on everything,” sophomore Victoria Fontes said. “Then at some point, I just wouldn’t do it and that was very bad for my mental health because I would just stress about it later,” Fontes said.

A lot of students feel academic pressure because they feel like they need academic validation. They feel like they sacrificed their mental health, and their health as a whole just because of school, and in the end, they just end up being burnt out because they sacrificed their whole life to school.

For some, school feels like a never ending cycle. Students are constantly tired just trying to get work done all of the time.

“I do think that some students place extremely high standards on themselves, and these students do either burn themselves out, or run the risk of burning themselves out,” Spring Valley’s sophomore counselor Molly Teal said.

Some students already have mental health issues and school doesn’t help the fact. The reason students are happy at school any more is because of the mentality that school gives them. Students feel drained by the end of the day, that they just want to end the repeating cycle of school, but can’t.

“Parents should understand that although mental health issues can stem from other places, they can form from school related things and many students aren’t just making it up for attention,” sophomore Jordyn Ohta said

Students feel like they don’t have an outlet to express how they feel. A lot of them feel like they can’t confide in their parents because they don’t get it, they’ll just respond with, “But you have a good education, so be grateful.” That doesn’t help their child’s mental health at all.

Many parents and teachers are disappointed, and some even mad, when their high school students get below a C on their tests. It’s time for parents and teachers to understand the kind of pressure students are under today. 

“It’s draining to keep up with every class, and not make a single mistake,” Ohta said.

“How does school affect mental health?” is a frequent question asked by parents. A parent sending their child to school–middle school, high school, or college–reduces their ability to monitor their child, meaning that they are inherently less involved in their child’s day-to-day life.

“Parents need to understand that mental health is an integral part of the success in school. If their student’s mental health is struggling, then their student’s grades will also certainly be struggling,” Teal said.

Social media plays a big role in some students’ mental health. Social media, specifically TikTok, is like an outlet to a lot of students because they know that so many people around the whole world feel the same way that they do and use social media as an outlet.

“Social media posts are often very glamorous–people only post the “good” that is going on in their lives, and then students feel as though they have to live up to a very unrealistic standard of perfection when they post,” Teal said.

For more information about this topic click this link: https://grizzlygrowler.org/9469/features/mental-health-in-schools-how-can-we-help/