Have you ever wondered why so many people struggle with depression and anxiety? Whether this thought has crossed your mind or not, anxiety and depression have a huge impact on the people living in this world with us.  Even if you don’t see it, it’s there. Sometimes it’s harder for more people then it is others but most people manage to get through it. You may be wondering if it’s so hard then how are so many people living with it everyday and i didnt know about it. 

Sadie taylor said, “It affects the way people socialize with others, not being able to keep a conversation going.” I do agree this can be a pretty big thing students or people in general have to deal with but I think it goes way deeper than just a simple conversation. It’s having the energy and courage to even go up to people and try to have these conversations.

“It makes them second guess everything they are doing and feeling, and making you scared about the decisions they are making. Then make you second guess your own personality.” said Maximus Montoya. This one i could agree with 100%. As somebody who suffers from anxiety and depression I feel this was one of the best ways to explain it in once sentence. 

 40 million adults in the US suffer from anxiety alone. It is the most common mental illness in the US. yes, it is highly treatable with medication and other methods but only 37% of people receive help.  This also affects 25.1% of children between the ages of 13 and 18. If this goes untreated it has proven that these kids have a lower performance in school, they could miss out on important social experiences and there is a higher risk of substance abuse.

I asked a few students at my highschool if they think kids with anxiety or depression have a higher chance of having substance abuse problems. Denver Murray (12) said, “I believe so, because they want to find something that helps them cope with their pain.” in my opinion i think everybody will always have a little bit of curiosity towards things like this, whether they act on it or not. But when you are in such a deep, dark place that curiosity grows. Making you wonder will this help me feel something more than numbness, will this make me happy even for a short period of time, or will this make me feel more then nothing.

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A lot of people think kids that are still in school have more of a chance of getting depression and anxiety. Everybody I asked did agree that it adds to the problem but it does not create the problem. This could be related to the stress of studying for tests or the endless amounts of homework. “Many students experience some amount of stress and anxiety before and during exams. However, test anxiety is more severe, and can actually impair learning and hurt test performance.” (oxford learning, what is test anxiety) ”students who struggle with test anxiety typically fall a half a letter grade below their peers. In addition to academic impacts, test anxiety can affect a student’s mental health, including lowered self-esteem, confidence, and motivation.”

It could even be related to the social aspect of school as well. Some kids don’t have friends or they are getting bullied. Not only is this on the curriculum and teachers, it’s on the kids around the school not standing up for each other. On the other hand, kids can just have social anxiety. This means, people or students fear and have anxiety of being negatively judged and evaluated by other people.

People have to deal with this kind of stuff on a daily basis. Sometimes it doesn’t feel fair. And other times people have no idea how to explain what they are feeling. Austin Staley says “This is because when you are depressed you don’t have feelings you feel nothing and empty, nobody can explain that” but Sadie taylor says “they can’t explain it because they don’t think they really know what they are feeling in the moment. It’s brought on by feelings that you can’t figure out in the moment. But later on they can clarify them.”

People think that the anxiety and depression rates have gone up a lot in the last few years, doctors at the mailman school of public health said “The results show that depression increased significantly among persons in the U.S. from 2005 to 2015, from 6.6 percent to 7.3 percent. Notably, the rise was most rapid among those ages 12 to 17, increasing from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 12.7 percent in 2015.” people say the older generations are reflecting on the younger generations making it harder to be happy. Children are out there thinking they have meaningless lives when they don’t! Remember always be nice to people, you have no clue what they are going through.