Anxiety and Depression on the Rise By: Cora Myers
It feels like...you’re almost having a heart attack. With a fast-pumping heart, sweating, flushing and a sore chest... For someone who has never felt a panic attack before, it can easily feel like a heart attack to them. Feelings of anxiety are very common in adolescence. Average high school students today have the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s. According to researchers who looked at mental health data for high school and college students from 1938 to 2007, more and more young people report symptoms of mental illness in general, and anxiety in particular.
It’s proven that more girls are open to talk about their feelings, that they’re more willing to admit that they have a problem and try to get help than boys. Boys can absolutely have an eating disorder, or have self harmed before. It’s not just a ‘girl problem’. Mrs. Leibowitz, DHS Student Assistance Counselor says, “Girls are more susceptible to depression during adolescence, and being good at something isn’t good enough anymore and for some kids, it creates a real anxiety. Boys are not immune to self harm, suicidal thoughts, ideations, attempts, and eating disorders; things that are often attributed to be a ‘girl problem can affect boys too.”
Anxiety can often lead to depression. Most people who are diagnosed with anxiety also have a co-diagnosis of depression. More young people are becoming anxious because of expectations from society and family. “Young people are susceptible to depression and anxiety because of biological changes, and the way society views us all. Peer relations definitely play a role in anxiety as well,” Mrs. Leibowitz states. The way people view each other plays a very important part in someone’s life.
More girls are open to talking, but more often it’s much more complicated with two girls fighting. It’s hardly ever just one on one with a girl; it’s often a girl and her friends versus another girl and her friends. The friends have to navigate through the web of things that have happened and decide which side to go with. As Mrs. Leibowitz states, “With girls, if they’re fighting with another girl it can affect their daily life. Girls can be vicious and mean, tearing each other down with just looks, changing seats, and changing their body positions. It can really affect girls in their daily lives because the drama seems to drag out for much longer than needed.” Often in high school, girl drama definitely seems to drag out longer and also seems to be taken more seriously with the girls involved. With most boys, if the two boys don’t like each other they’ll say it and might punch each other. But then that’s the end of it. It doesn’t drag out for any longer than needed.
Treatments for anxiety always vary depending on the severeness of the anxiety. A combination of medication and therapy usually helps a person very much. “Treatments are extremely effective. The desire to get better is what truly helps the person. Therapy can help a person learn to go through their anxiety walls they’ve built, not around them,” adds Mrs. Leibowitz.
Students who are diagnosed with anxiety tend to do poorly in school. Being good isn’t good enough, you have to be the best. A person can achieve their goal of being the best maybe for only a minute, like getting straight A's for one marking period, but the need for the straight A’s to continue can cause much unneeded anxiety. According to Mrs. Liebowitz, “Students can either perform well in school and have resulting anxiety because they do so well, or they can’t perform because of existing anxiety and that results in doing poorly.” Doing poorly in school isn’t always addressed properly. Some teachers and parents might simply brush it off their shoulder and say that the student isn’t ready to take school seriously, or isn’t the right type of person to be in school.
More young people today are becoming anxious because of expectations from society, family, and academics. The idea of perfection, but they can’t accomplish that goal. No one is perfect. “The majority of students coming through my office are dealing with anxiety and depression. And many times it’s both at the same time. Expectations is the big umbrella word for it and then all the subcategories underneath that, academic, physical (the way you look, the way you dress) abilities…” Mrs. Leibowitz adds. Society and everyone around us are always adding and changing the views it has, whether it’s about today’s fashion trends or who’s cool today.
Students here at DHS may have felt anxiety in their lives already, and they need to know of a place where they can go and talk to an expert and feel comfortable enough to tell the truth and all their feelings. Anxiety and depression are real, can happen to anyone, and have the potential to destroy lives.