My Rants

Rant One-Mental Health In Schools

Schools put too much pressure on students. Okay, I know what you're thinking. "They're trying too make sure we aren't slackers." "They want us to succeed in life." And all that is true.

But something teachers and principals and sometimes parents put too much pressure on kids. Some people need to learn the difference between putting a healthy amount of challenge on students and making us want to curl into balls of self doubt, coffee stains and tears.

I had to help one of my best friends in the bathroom because she was having an anxiety attack. You know why? She had to give an oral presentation in front of the class. And I know more kids and teenagers have trouble with these types of things and frankly, most teachers do not care. Our teacher didn't. She was in her late 50's and for unknown reasons, didn't believe social anxiety was a thing.

I have social anxiety. And I love writing, reading, and have lots of opinions that would make me pretty good in debate class. But, because of my mental health problem, if I put to much pressure on myself, things go down hill. Nothing will never be good enough for me. When I stutter on a word while presenting a slideshow, I will beat myself up for days for that slight mess up. And teachers don't realize it.

When I was first diagnosed with social anxiety, my mom and me came to an aggrement. Two days a semester, I would call a mental health day. That meant I skipped school to hang out at home without having to tell my mom the reason. When I had a major panic attack the day before, or I wake up and feel the urge to down 27 cups of coffee spiked with red bull to study for the next text, which usually results in staying up for nine days (true story. I don't know how I'm still alive), I stay in my room and do what I can to recover.

One of my most prominent school memories is the first school assembly my middle school had. And the first words my principal said to us was, "None of you are good enough. For this school. For the world." As an extremely shy, socially conscious sixth grader with no friends, that's harsh. I was terrified and that haunted me for years. I wouldn't sleep for days, would forget to eat, because I was trying to be good enough. And over the years, I'm still struggling with that.

So many kids in our schools overwork themselves. And people overlook it. So many kids have depression. And people overlook them. So many kids are contimplating suicide. And no one notices. Maybe so many kids would be more educated about these things, if we provided a class for it.

A mental health class, where young adults can learn about eating disorders, self harm, ADHD, depression, anxiety and things we need to learn about but aren't. Because the people who are supposed to be teaching us life skills, aren't providing us with things that are actually important. Because excuse me if you disagree, but I think learning how to help someone through a panic attack is a lot more important than finding the side of a triangle.