Teens are feeling more stress and battling more depression compared to other years in the past. Here’s a great story to explain that Meelany was a typical 16 year old teenage girl. She always tried her hardest in school and had all A’s to show for it.  She was involved in four different clubs, played tennis, and was on the basketball team. She was a popular girl who everyone thought lived the perfect life. However, one thing that almost nobody was aware of is that she suffered from severe depression. Even her own parents were unable to see the sadness that flooded her still developing mind. Meelany reached a  point where she felt that she couldn’t keep fighting the stress that seemed to endlessly come her way. Meelany ended up taking her own young life. While her story is tragic, it’s something that takes place on a regular basis in our world today.

Interesting facts 

• 80 percent of students report school as there highest stressor
• It is shown that students have higher stress levels during the school year
• Over 50 percent of students are told they looked stress once a month 
• Over half of the student population is worried about what to do after high school
  Almost 30 percent of teens report constant feelings of anxiousness 
• Over 40 percent express feelings of being overwhelmed

I believe there are many reasons for depression but there are the ones that stick out to me the most:

School: Teens are putting an overwhelming amount of work into school for the sack of their futures. Children are facing an academic demand that makes some feel they have to please the adults in their lives such as teachers and parents. 

Covid: When you are stripped of your teenage years that are crucial to forming your adult self, it causes struggles. Skipping parts of the school year, online classes, not allowed to leave are homes and form social connections, and so much more. It was shown that the pandemic was another major stressor and caused an academic fall amongst students overall. 

Overwhelming futures- students are worried about their life after school. How they will afford living on their own, where they will go to school, their future careers, and so much more. : Many students are also living with the feeling of uncertainty that the pandemic caused.

Major life changes- If we think of all the events that have taken place in this palace in this generation, mass shootings, covid pandemic, stock market crashes, society discourse,  Ukraine invasion, and so much more. We can even mention the groups we had to create such as the me too movement and black life matter to ensure our basic rights. Us questioning safety when all these major life changes are happening leads to a rise in stress numbers. 

Social Media- The last one I will talk about today’s teenagers obsession with social media. Social media has a negative impact on mental health, Many students spend a majority of their time on these platforms. When we are investing all of our time on a screen, we start lack basic in person connections. We substitute the reaction that our species of social creatures need and communicate through a phone. This leads to a rise in loneliness when you only communicate with people through a screen. 

I decided to see what a couple students at our high school had to say about the rise in depression. I asked them each a  series of questions and here were some of the results. The first student I talked with was Joseph Andrulis. I Asked him how he thinks teens’ mental health has been affected by covid and he replied with it “kept people from being at school, being able to participate in sports, and seeing their friends”. When I asked him his biggest source of stress, he told me it was a test. I also talked with Isaiah smith. He believes the covid pandemic has isolated several teens, He said this leads to a lack of communication which leads to depression which leads to a higher rate of suicide and death. His biggest source of stress is living up to the expectation of being the first to go to college. When I asked him if he believes teens are spending too much time on social media he said “I most definitely think they are and I am guilty of it”.