Mental Health Awareness

Mental+Health+Awareness

Sam Lopez

Mental health has become more and more of an open-spoken conversation. With more people communicating about their mental health, more people have chimed into the discussion. Individuals find themselves relating to more people everyday. Like many others, high school students all face various mental health issues. Some have stress, anxiety, depresion, and other forms of mental health. These all take a big toll on everyday life. For some, their stress might be due to classes and grades. Some students have jobs and bills to pay. Then, there are some that have kids or at least help raise them. For others, it might be college or not knowing rather if they are going to graduate or not. Everyone has stressors. Along with stressors, there are internal conflicts. For many it may be appearances, regarding one’s body, looks, or features. Many of these problems lead to further negative paths, and start to take on physical forms. With so much occurring in a student’s life, in so little time, one can’t help but feel overwhelmed. With September being Mental Health Awareness month, Central handed out stickers to put on the back of the students IDs. These stickers act as a precaution, with a phone number present and accessible to any students who feel the urge to pursue any negative thoughts. It’s purpose is to act in any case if one wants to talk to someone, or to report any worry they might have for a peer. There is also a new club called Mindfulness(name), in which students come together (day) and talk to one another about what they are going through and find a way to cope with it. Many teachers have now taken on doing Mindfulness Mondays to discuss mental health and partake in a simple 3- minute video on meditation.