It’s finals week, and students at Middle College are already grinding their teeth and pulling their hair out with the huge amount of stress they are being exposed to. With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, we asked students how they typically deal with stress and any other similar issues as they push through to success.

But first, let’s point out some significant facts about stress. There is a multitude of ways stress can be expressed in teens. Things such as overeating/undereating, insomnia/narcoleptic behaviors, and hostile behaviors are fairly common in the age group. Sometimes, it can get so intense that it develops into harmful disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Furthermore, there are countless reasons as to why Wizards might find themselves between a hard place and a rock. These range from anything from midterms and quizzes to personal or financial reasons. Nevertheless, mental health for teens has been steadily decreasing for the past five years. The reasons for this are being debated, but the general consensus stems from two ideas: teens are sleep deprived and older generations do not understand how heavily stress is impacting teens.

We decided to conduct a student survey to see if the causes of stress are different per grade level.

After taking the survey, the Spellbinder dug around a student’s brains to get a sense of what stresses him out and how he feels about mental health in teens.

“Despite it being finals week, I find schedule making to be really stressing me out,” admits sophomore Brandon Garcia, “especially since my major is undecided.” When asking how he got a grasp on what classes he should take, he comedically said,  “To be honest, I just went semester by semester trying to fill up my general ed. But honestly, once you get the hang of it, the stress really melts away.”

On the subject of mental health, he opened up about the lack of genuine conversation that our generation struggles to have with those who are older. “I find it incredibly depressing how some think that mental health in teens is bad is due to us being more ‘fragile’ or ‘spoiled.’ It gets pretty hard hearing more and more about school shootings and sad stuff like that without it getting to you. Those are kids our age, and it’s stressful for me think that my friends could be in that danger.”

However, not all is grim in the fight against stress for teens. With this issue getting more public attention, the possibility of discussion opens up. And with that, a solution could sprout. “Like every issue, once we get talking about it, it can only get better,” said Garcia hopefully, “and perhaps one day, the next news story will be about how the health in mental teens is improving! I hope, anyway.”