Mental health is a serious issue many people face. Many people like teens suffer from mental health issues everyday and with school pressure, it just gets harder and harder. There is a couple of students here that suffer from some kind of mental health issue. It can be more stressful for students because it is just something new to them and their emotions are still running all over the place.

The thing is, does the school, Morton West provide any type of help to make things easier for students. “ I tried to seek out to my social worker a couple of times but she always happened to be busy so I just stopped trying. I went to my counselor once and talked to him as well and he was really understanding about it.” Megan Digan (20) a student here that suffers from anxiety. ” I don’t get a lot of help from the school. The school provides calmer places such as the library. I really enjoy being there because Ms. Pricilla is really kind and just brings my mood up instantly.” Emily Morales (20), another student from the school. “School affects me a lot, if I feel overwhelmed with all the work, I start stressing really bad which leads to me panicking. I try to tell myself, I will graduate… I will make it. Sometimes it’s very difficult being a first-generation student.”  Morales states, ” How it affects me at school is mainly the hallways. the hallways are extremely crowded and it really causes me to be anxious a lot,”  Digan added.

The school in a lot of ways does affect the students because, with the amount of homework, crowded halls, and self-doubt like graduating on time plus they have multiple things to do after school which makes things difficult for the students. There are a lot of triggers that caused  Mental Health issues, it can literally be anything, it just depends on who the person is. Megan Digan said, ” What mostly causes my triggers of anxiety are really big crowds. Having people walk past me constantly and being shoulder to shoulder with them makes me feel so dizzy and anxious. Like I’m going to pass out. That’s when I have the most anxiety. Sometimes I’ll just have anxious moments for no reason. They can happen at the most random moment. The least expected too,”  Emily Morales indicated the things that trigger her the most. ” Personally, triggers happen when I start recalling things from the past or when I’m overwhelmed. For example, past relationships and friendships and school. In some occasions it’ll happen randomly because I’m too nervous something will happen.” Each student has different situations where things trigger them and how it makes them feel during a certain situation.

Is it too much for students to handle, how difficult can it really be? “Yes! It can go from 0-100 really quick. some days it can be be just a little nervousness and heart race and others I can be sobbing out of breath feeling like I’m going to pass out. I don’t know what triggers them when they randomly happen but they do. I just tell myself it’s going to be okay and use the tips I’ve learned from therapy to get through it. It’s better with someone there than it is alone to calm yourself.” says Digan as she explains how and why it is too much for her. Emily Morales also says how it is too much for her, “There is a point where it’s too much. For instances when all the stress builds up and you can’t do anything expect cry and panic due to all the pressure surrounding me. I know personally things will be better, but in that moment all i can think is how it’ll affect others such as family.”

Many students accept the fact that they are dealing with some type of mental illness now, accepting this fact wasn’t a piece of cake for many, some are still learning, but accepting this for sure was progress. “How I’ve learned to accept it was definitely a process. Anxiety is something that isn’t curable nor will it go away. Everyone has anxiety and some people just happen to express it more than others. therapy was definitely a big factor of helping me accept it and now a year with anxiety it’s been a lot easier.” said Digan. “I haven’t learned to accept it because I really haven’t got an actual help for this. I understand what’s going on and why it happens sometimes, but I have had accepted the fact that I don’t actually get help from this.” said Emily Morales.