It’s time to state the obvious: students are under pressure. The American Psychological Association’s studies have shown that the anxiety levels of students in the 1980s are higher than those of a child patient in a mental asylum in the 50s. As the years have gone by, students’ anxiety levels have increased. Thus, more children and college students now are depressed than ever before. Children and young adults are shadowed by constant bedlam.
People wonder why this problem is occurring, but the answer is simple. Many students just feel “done” with everything. As one IHS student said, “Well, I wake up, go to school, get back home, go to practice, get back home, do homework until 3:00, and sleep… That’s basically all I’ve been doing for the past two years.” There is no variation, no excitement anymore in school life for most students anymore. Many people, myself included, feel that they rarely meet outside or exercise, either because there’s no time or because it’s just not currently something that is done regularly. Students are confined in their rooms, studying and living a schedule of going from home to school and vice versa.
What anxiety feels like is a million-dollar question that even psychologists have trouble explaining. Confusion and fear are two building factors of it, but no one knows for sure how it’s spiked in the human body. Many doctors believe that stress is also a major factor in anxiety, since kids and young adults who were overworked showed signs of stress, which led to anxiety. This raises the question of whether students are given too heavy of a workload at a young age when they’re supposed to get out in the fields and get physical exercise. School and schoolwork are definitely factors for stress, and all that children need is a break.
Students that have to stay in one enclosed room, usually just facing the wall and completing assignments, and restricting movement. With less movement in the body, one’s heart rate would also slow down, which brings a “downing” notion, allowing for more negative thoughts and worry.
Students, especially those in college, suffer from anxiety. Up to 50 percent of college students from 2012–13 have attended counseling for their mental health, according to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health; 33 percent of those people took medication.
Severe anxiety exists among the people we walk with or just pass by in IHS and other schools. It’s overlooked and seen as something one just has to deal with, but this is a world problem. The continuation of students with anxiety in such large numbers will result in more depression, which in turn will continue to negatively impact society on a large scale. It is important that such a huge problem is not overlooked.