The State of the Mental Health Crisis in America

By Tibni Valle

American college campuses are witnessing a mental health crisis, as reported by the Healthy Minds Network, which collected survey data on 350,000 students from over 300 campuses over an 8 year period. The study reported that 60% of students met the criteria for one or more mental issues for the 2020-2021 school year, a 50% increase from the year 2013 and it has continued to increase. Studies conducted by the World Health Organization reveal that mental health is now a global issue with one in seven young people aged 10-19 experiencing a mental disorder. Bowling Green High School is no exception.

Katie Woods, Bowling Green Independent School’s student family counselor and licensed social worker, reports seeing an average of 20-40 kids per week. Her coworker, Life Skills Therapist, Jessica Manicks, sees around 60+ kids. 

“Anxiety’s kinda had an uptick, especially after COVID, kids are a little more self aware,” says Woods. 

While COVID had a significant effect on people of all ages’ mental health, teachers, students, and counselors are identifying other factors as the most detrimental contributors to the mental health crisis. Being a teenager comes with its typical struggles. Merche Peret de Lema, a junior at BGHS, voices these struggles. 

“In high school, finding who you are, you have all this pressure, like school work and then the problems at home. But then you have to figure out who you are, and what kind of people you want to be with your hobbies, and all that,” she said. 

Adolescence has always been a difficult life stage because of the changes teenagers undergo in their switch from children to adults. However, modern generations are experiencing adolescence in an entirely new way due to advancements in technology and its strong implementation in schools. 

Technology has become a basic part of school life and seen in nearly every school in the US. The US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics reported that for the 2022-2023 school year, of the 900 public schools surveyed, 94% provided students with digital devices like laptops and tablets. Here at Bowling Green High School, nearly every classroom has a smartboard, all students are provided with a Chromebook, and Google Classroom has become a required medium for submitting and accessing assignments and materials. Furthermore, technology has not only become an important part of students' school life, but also personal lives. 

“There's a lot of complexities that come with TikTok and Instagram and posting your whole life on Instagram,” notes Woods. 

Technology is not the sole cause of teenagers' mental health issues, but it has the frightening power to amplify their struggles. Senior Zoe Lebedinsky acknowledges social media’s ability to provide global awareness and news, but she also describes social media as ultimately detrimental to teenagers’ health. 

“I don’t think social media is the biggest issue. We are able to see the gravity of the world's issues with climate change and with wars around the world, gun violence, discrimination against different genders, people of different sexualities, and different religions,” she said. 

“But, it’s a lot to deal with. On one hand we’re dealing with trying to keep up our grades and, for seniors, applying to colleges or sports or other extracurriculars. We’re also thinking about what's going on with this war. Like is there gonna be a World War III?”

“As teenagers, we have the habit of seeing the worst of things,” Zoe noted. Social media only worsens that habit along with robbing students of essential life skills. 

When asked about common issues seen in students, Ethan Graves, a math teacher at BGHS, admitted to noticing a, “lack of motivation, lack of organizational skills, time management skills, and being able to put dedicated time aside to accomplish whatever task they need to accomplish.” 

These skills are necessary for a student’s success and a lack of them only further destroys a teenager’s mental health. 

“You procrastinate one thing and then that leads to you procrastinating a second thing and eventually you've got a deadline where many things are due and you start to crumple under that kind of pressure,” says Graves. 

Students are already dealing with high levels of stress, which increases the anxiety students experience. 

 “Juniors and seniors will be in here anxious about their future, what they wanna do, family stress, family pressure, sports and academics, and extracurriculars,” notes Woods. 

Merche Peret de Lema further voices some of the struggles students experience as a result of lacking certain skills. 

“We are expected to grow up very quickly. I think we are expected to be perfect all the time and we are expected to know what we are going to do and to have everything figured out and to even know how to handle stressful situations when we haven't been given the tools to do so or given the experience,” she said. 

Even for students like Zoe who have well developed practices, the workload can be overwhelming. 

“By the end of the week, I’m just so ready to go home. I’m happy to see everyone [at school] but I also wish I didn’t have to be here for five days,” she said. 

Another frightening quality of social media is its permanence. 

“Picture this: You're in school in 2007 and something really embarrassing happens to you. For weeks, people are laughing about it and they're making fun of you and it hurts really badly. But then after a couple of weeks, something else happens to somebody else and they start to forget, and then years from now, you might remember, but everybody else has forgotten,” said Sarah Angelle, another math teacher at BGHS. 

“Now in 2017 or maybe 2027, you do something really embarrassing and people record you and take pictures of you and it's permanent. It's shared on TikTok and suddenly millions of people have seen it. And it comes back when you're in high school, and it comes back when you're in college and it haunts you,” she continued.

Angelle’s example showcases how cyberbullying has evolved because of the platform social media has given it and the serious toll it takes on mental health. Technology has gotten to the point where anything you say, do, or text, can be recorded and ultimately used against you. 

“It's hard to be vulnerable because of that. You don't know what people are going to keep or share,” said Angelle. 

Teenagers are already self-conscious about their image and coping with the changes puberty brings. Social media and technology do not acknowledge that delicate stage, and carry the potential to shatter a teenager’s self-image. 

“From a teacher perspective, I see that lack of confidence in my students when I’m trying to work with them,” says Angelle. “I notice that there is a big problem on the student's side, of not knowing how to ask for help or not wanting to ask for help and I think that links to confidence,” she elaborates.

Many factors work against students and contribute to their hesitation and refusal to ask for help. One of these obstacles is the way our society is structured to shame those who ask for help. 

“I think there's a huge conformity issue where we have this idea of what ‘normal’ looks like and there's that perception that ‘normal people’ don't deal with these really heavy issues, so ‘normal people’ don't need therapy or don't need counseling,” says Angelle.

Society goes on to further attack certain groups. Woods said, “Particularly with boys, mental health can be seen as weak so they don’t wanna talk about their feelings. Girls are just on average a little more forthcoming.”

Teenagers are understandably most susceptible to societal pressure and caring about what other people think of them and asking for help can make them feel like they failed at something. 

“It’s also difficult for people to speak up for themselves because they don’t know where they’ll end up or they think they don’t have as much support as they really do. It’s hard to admit that you're struggling sometimes because I feel like the sense is as soon as you go to someone, you’re making that issue a reality,” says Zoe. 

Woods works towards providing students with a space where they feel comfortable talking to her while simultaneously fighting against factors that steer students away from asking for help. She identifies another factor that is particularly difficult to manage. 

“When you've got cultures and family members that think that mental health is not real or is a bad thing, that's something that I have to respect because religion and culture are very important so it's a delicate balance and something that I work with a lot of kids on, trying to help them navigate that with their families,” she said. 

When there are so many factors working against a certain cause, the effort can seem pointless. The current crisis emphasizes the need for action because it is an issue that affects everyone. 

“I see students from all races, all ages. I work across the whole district so I see kids in elementary school, at BGLC (Bowling Green Learning Center), in Teranga. I see boys and girls. Mental health does not discriminate and it's a problem for everybody,” says Woods. 

The nation’s mental health crisis requires efforts to be made from all levels. Administration, parents, teachers, staff, and students all need to be involved. Counselors are already working hard to address student’s needs, but they need the support from those who interact with them for extended periods of time every single day.

“During the school year, we spend so much time with them, whether they see it that way or not teachers feel a responsibility as caretakers for students. Most teachers go into teaching because they have compassion for kids and also not every student has that kind of support system at home so if we can provide that for a few hours a day, that's a great thing,” said Graves. 

The first thing teachers are already doing and can continue doing is identifying signs in students that hint at an unhealthy mental state. Teachers see students for so long that they can notice changes in a student's attendance, personality, behavior, work ethic, grades, and participation in the classroom. 

“If they usually participate and they're not participating, that's a big sign for me. Even if they are quiet, a lot of my quiet students are students are still nodding, mouthing answers, they're still trying the problems when I say you try so if I ever notice if a quieter student is suddenly not doing the you trys, looking out the window more, disengaging, I do pick up on that as well,” said Angelle. 

Teachers recognize that students have off days and check in with them regarding the changes they've noticed, even if the situation isn’t serious. However, some cases require teachers to get the adequate professionals involved.

Graves detailed situations he has dealt with in the past by saying, “Sometimes there are physical signs of mental health issues or sometimes parents will contact me with concerns and I have to report those concerns. We all have our ups and downs academically so one poor grade or one missed assignment is to be expected, everybody has those days but when there's some sort of drop off where the expectation is starting to be lowered that's where I start to get concerned.”

These efforts are producing results and students are noticing. 

“Generally my teachers notice when I’m feeling down or they just care about what’s happening with me in general,” said Zoe. 

She recounted times when teachers noticed she was looking down or feeling sick, and made the effort to check in with her and make sure she was okay. She even noted that her teachers have demonstrated care in her personal life by coming to her speech competitions and staying updated on her college application process. 

“They’re very in tune when students don’t understand things and they don’t only care about school but also what’s happening in our general life,” she said. 

Another thing that teachers can do to prioritize their students' needs is offer flexibility. 

Angelle, like many other teachers, recognizes that students have lives outside of the classroom. 

“You guys have full lives, you have jobs, you have family situations happening for a million different reasons. You have sports, band, extracurriculars. All of this and 8 hours of school in a 24-hour period,” she said. 

“I teach honors and AP. Everybody in there already puts enough stress on themselves to succeed and you don't need that added stress so I always try to tell people, especially when they get sick, that your health is the most important thing and I mean that both physically and mentally.”

This level of understanding from teachers materializes itself in the form of leniency on late assignments, time in class to work on assignments, and small loads of homework, but also retakes on tests and quizzes and the opportunity for corrections.  

“Whenever I pass out a test, I always say good luck, do your best and you can retake this because I know that kind of eases the anxiety a little bit,” said Angelle. 

To decrease the amount of anxiety her students feel, Angelle offers corrections and retakes on all assessments, and even provides group assessments. Efforts such as these not only lower anxiety, but also promote communication, teamwork, and learning from mistakes. In addition, flexibility can also be demonstrated by allowing students the freedom to choose their seats. 

“I know how important that it is to have a person in class that you trust and feel comfortable asking for help if I'm busy,” said Angelle. 

While assigned seats limit distractions and talking during lessons, they can contribute to uncomfortable situations for students where they might feel judged or even bullied. Such decisions are ones teachers must calculate to determine how they want their students to feel. Ultimately, the decisions teachers make affect the way a classroom functions. 

Like Merche says, “A teacher can make the environment stressful but they can also make it fun and actually interesting.”

A teacher’s teaching method and behavior have a massive impact on their relationship with students and an effect on their mental health. For example, teachers have varying opinions on whether grades should be broadcasted or not. Zoe argues that they shouldn't. 

“Students' grades shouldn’t be broadcasted because that just, first of all, makes that student who maybe is doing better than others feel the need to maintain that, and also for the students who aren’t doing as well, it causes them to compare themselves to others and it makes them more insecure,” she said.

She believes teachers should work to create a cooperative environment, as opposed to one that is competitive and puts people down. To further combat the lack of confidence students are experiencing, teachers need to be attentive and listen during student discussions, specifically how students speak to one another. Teenagers disagree and are often rude when they do. Making efforts to cut certain comments that reflect negativity, reduces bullying and situations that could result in a student’s feelings being hurt.

“In my math class, if somebody says, ‘man your answer sucks,’ cutting that out because little things can be big to a person depending on how you look at it and it can really chip away at a person's feeling of safety and confidence,” said Angelle.

Additionally, positive feedback is essential to building confidence as well as giving students opportunities to work problems out privately, instead of in front of the entire class. 

A lot of teachers believe that their relationship with their students should be strictly academic, but that can limit how comfortable students feel and cause them to refrain from asking for help. Revealing that they too struggle with mental health and presenting their authentic selves is a first step towards normalizing and encouraging students to reach out.

“I try to be myself,” said Graves. “I could come up here and just be super serious all the time and be all about work. But then I would feel like there would be this rigid almost authoritarian relationship and that's not what I want. It works better when we all feel a lot closer to each other and we're all a little more comfortable.”

Another thing Graves does to make his students feel comfortable is talking to them about things unrelated to math in order to show them that he truly cares about them. His care is evident in the fact that he stays up late answering remind messages at 10 or 11 at night to make sure that students who need help are getting it. Similarly, Angelle starts and ends every class with genuine greetings and farewells. She noted that at one point last year, she even told her classes she loved them, after losing a student. In order to truly get her message across, she's written notes and included check ins on quizzes. 

“I am constantly trying to think about ways to communicate that I see people. Even if they're quiet, they are doing great things and I really appreciate them and who they are,” she said. 

Actions such as these create a relationship with students where they feel comfortable confiding in their teachers about any situations that are affecting them. 

Woods stated, “I'm constantly getting calls, texts, and emails from teachers that have concerns. It'll be small things like, ‘hey this student seemed a little off today, could you check in on them,’ or ‘this happened, can you check in on them.’ Our teachers are really honed in on their students' needs.”

However, teachers are only one part of the solution. Even at the student level, efforts can be made to combat the crisis. Teaching empathy to kids is essential to reducing the anxiety and pressure that students feel. 

Merche stated that “Knowing that you're being judged 24/7, can really add to the stress of school. Just mean people in general that make you feel like you're not as good as they are for whatever reason. If everyone would just be a little bit nicer we would all be a lot happier.”

Teenagers seek the validation of their peers and are constantly looking to fit in and make friends. One comment or one action can have a heavy effect on a student who is already dealing with problems at home or who is already suffering from low self-esteem. 

As Angelle stated, “You can't see the symptoms of anxiety and depression. It's not like a runny nose, it's not written all over their face.”

So teaching students to realize the impact of their words and actions, promotes positive mental health. 

In addition, students don't always know when they need help or don't know how or who to ask for it. 

To students who are debating whether to tell an adult about a fellow classmate or friend they are worried about, Woods says, “As students, as friends, you're not trained to look for those signs. You're not trained to know how to talk to people, but we are. That's why we're here, that's why we have jobs. That's why we pour our life into helping students because we want to help them and do everything we can to make sure that everybody is safe and healthy and happy.”

At the end of the day, both students come out negatively affected. So although the friendship might be interrupted, the best decision is to speak up. 

In regards to a situation where she had to speak up for a friend, Zoe said, “Even though there was distance, telling someone helped them more than not saying anything would’ve and I eventually was able to be friends with those people again so it wasn’t the end all be all.”

Lastly, no one understands better the issues current teenagers deal with than teenagers themselves. 

Woods stated, “I remember what it's like to be a teenager, but teenagers today are much different than when I was in school so letting us know, telling us, advocating for yourself, that's one of the biggest things that I think of in anything.”

Woods and her team are constantly asking themselves what they need to support their students and families. They maintain communication with administration and have upper level support that is willing to hear them out and do whatever they can to support their students. They work with the school to track attendance and identify any potential issues associated with students skipping class and being tardy. Teachers are being provided with mandatory training sessions that teach them how to deal with students who suffer from depression or suicidal thoughts and the steps to take to refer students to counselors. 

“Compared to when I was in school, kids are much more willing to advocate for themselves when it comes to their mental health. It would never have even crossed my mind to talk to a guidance counselor when I was in high school. Now I will advocate for you if you need help, go see a guidance counselor,” said Graves. 

However, there is still much work to be done seeing as Woods is in her second year as a mental health therapist at BGHS and many students are unaware of her position. Efforts are being made and the results are evident. As long as mental health continues to be a priority for all teachers and school staff, students will benefit greatly academically and emotionally. 

As Merche said, “It's our first time living and it's our first time experiencing most things. Figuring out what you want to do in the future, trying to fulfill everyone's expectations of you but they all have different expectations, doing your best and it's never enough. We feel like we are alone but we are not. Just give us grace to figure it out but also let us know when we’re wrong and teach us to correct it.”