Faith and Focus

A lot of us walk into school every day carrying way more than just a backpack. We’re dealing with anxiety, depression, ADHD, past trauma, or just constant stress that never lets up. But no one really talks about it. It’s like people think school and mental health are two totally different things — but they’re not. When your mind isn’t okay, showing up, paying attention, or getting stuff done feels almost impossible. Research shows that students with mental health issues are more likely to struggle with grades, repeat a year, or even drop out (“Does School Cause Mental Illness?”).

Mental health challenges is not just kids in really difficult life situations. Even students in rich neighborhoods or top schools deal with this. One study said kids in high-achieving schools can be just as mentally drained as kids in foster care or with parents in jail. Mental health doesn’t care who you are or where you’re from — it hits everyone. Kids spend so much of their time in school, making it so important for them to support mental health.

This and many other reasons are why schools need to be part of the solution. If teachers and counselors could recognize the signs earlier and actually make school a safe place to open up, it could seriously help people. Just knowing someone’s got your back makes a huge difference. I have been lucky enough to have many helpful teachers in my situation, but honestly it’s still really hard.

I know there are things we can all do that will help us in school. Things like using a planner, having a daily routine, practicing self-care, etc. (See blog post titled “Help you can actually use.” for more.) Having ADHD or other things on top of the anxiety and depression truly make it difficult to pull all of these things together, even with the best intentions. Getting enough sleep and taking care of your body is super important too. One article even said that sleep helps with memory, both short- and long-term (“How Students with ADHD Can Be Successful in College”). My school started a new schedule this year for high schoolers. We have 2 late starts per week, with the idea that we need more sleep. This has been really helpful in my opinion.

We know more information about this every year, so I hope that every school will do more and more each year to help their students. What do you think? Does your school do things to help with mental health? Is it enough?