Oct.
23, 2019 The Pulse
Should schools offer mental health counseling?
Kaden West
Staff Writer
Whether students should be provided with mental health counseling in schools is a
new and rising topic in the media. Many parents would argue that their children don’t
need therapy or say it would be a waste of time. Thus, the stress students are under often
goes unnoticed.
Students in general have a large workload on their plates. They are expected to bal-
ance school, homework, extracurriculars, a social life, a job, time with their families, and
somehow still have downtime for themselves.
In the chaos of all of this, it’s easy for students to fall into a spiral of struggle and nega-
tive emotions. According to Children’s Mental Health, 7.1 percent of children ages 3-17
(about 4.4 million) have diagnosed anxiety, and 3.2 percent of children ages 3-17 (about
1.9 million) have diagnosed depression. While the percentages seem small, the impact is
huge. Millions of adolescents silently struggle while they attempt to maintain balance and
also be successful in their lives.
Students struggling with their mental health often go unnoticed and untreated. They
are often viewed by adults as being overly dramatic or hormonal because of their age.
Parents don’t understand the real mental overload students are experiencing and how
Overworked students suffer
stress in drive to succeed
Alyssa Solis
Staff Writer
There’s an unspoken issue among teens not only at Indian Trail, but at schools across
the nation. Something is very wrong with our education system. Until recently, I couldn’t
pinpoint exactly what was wrong. Then, we all took the AP Language exam last spring.
After the exam, AP Language teacher Allison Walton shared what most kids talked
about for the argumentative portion of the essay, which prompted students to write about
what was overrated. Of course, this was around the time that the James Charles and Tati
drama came out, and all the memes on Twitter were about the students writing about it.
When Walton came back from grading AP exams, she informed us that the over-
whelming majority of the students wrote about school-related themes. Walton could tell
what we were all trying to get at: we are overworked, and something needs to be done
about it.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, students are reporting stress lev-
els that are topping adult stress levels. Teens now report becoming depressed, feeling
tired, and skipping meals.
I’m sure many students reading this can relate. Most probably believe that it’s par for
the course. It’s normal in today’s world to be sleep deprived, as shown through many
memes online making it normalized. After all, in order to get into a good college, you
must take multiple AP classes a year, have a job, do volunteer work, and be highly in-
volved in a club all while maintaining outstanding grades.
There is simply not enough time in the day to accomplish all of that and have time to
take care of yourself in the end. So obviously, one must be sacrificed. Unfortunately, it
happens to be the latter.
We’ve all accepted this as normal, especially since we compare ourselves to others.
“If so-and-so is taking five AP classes, than I should be too,” is the common thought
among students, especially those who are college bound. Since college is so competitive
now, most students overload their schedules and sacrifice their sleep and mental health
to maintain this rigorous schedule.
This, however, can be very dangerous and lead to the brain not developing properly,
resulting in long term problems such as depression, which, according to the APA, 30
percent of teens report having due to stress.
We don’t discuss these important topics in school, nor do we have adequate profes-
sional help offered to students. In fact, we have one school psychologist to service over
2,000 students, a psychologist that most students don’t know exists.
Although there is only one psychologist, there are many people you can talk to here
in our building. Teachers are often open to listen to students’ problems as well as coun-
selors and many other staff members.
If you don’t feel like you can talk to anyone here, there’s always the hotline for the
National Alliance on Mental Illness, which is 1-800-950-6264. They are equipped to
handle a variety of mental health questions. Additionally, there is the national suicide
hotline, 1-800-273-8255.
It’s very important to talk with someone about your feelings. Bottling it up is never
healthy and often leads to breakdown. So make sure you talk to someone, and if they
don’t listen, keep looking. You’ll find someone that will listen to you. If you really can’t
talk to someone, journaling is also a very efficient way to let your feelings out.
Make sure you fit time into your schedule to be yourself. If you can’t set aside enough
time, then your schedule is overloaded and you need to get rid of something. After all,
your health is more important than taking on an extra club to impress colleges.
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much risk their children are at when their struggle goes unnoticed. Medical professionals
warn that untreated depression can ruin relationships, cause problems at work, and make
it difficult to overcome serious illnesses.
Depression should not be seen as such a controversial topic. Students should be able
to talk about it with their parents and see professionals without shame so they can under-
stand their feelings and find healthy ways to cope.
Through therapy in school, the controversy of mental health can be abolished, and
students can find guidance towards achieving their goals while keeping their lives bal-
anced. Therapy in schools would also help families that struggle financially. Not every
family can afford to help their child by sending them through therapy. The average one-
hour therapy session can range from $60 to $200 or more, and most therapists see their
patients at least once a month.
If schools provide therapists for students to reach out to, they will be helping their
students strive towards success and help teach them real life coping skills.
Students need a space to be able to take a step back from all the chaos, and we need to
continue to work towards helping them lead successful and functional lives.
Why setting goals is important
Naomi Viesca
Staff Writer
The definition of a goal is the object of a person’s ambition or effort: an aim or
desired result.
Some people set goals for themselves and others do not. Setting goals is for peo-
ple to look forward to something or to make themselves better. Everyone should try
to have goals because otherwise they won’t know what they would like to achieve
in their life.
About 14 percent of the population have a plan in mind that they would like to
achieve, according to a recent Harvard University business study. Meanwhile, about
83 percent of the population do not have goals. These people choose to not set any
because in the past they might have failed to meet them, are lazy, or may not have
set the right goals.
You can make anything a goal. Make it a short-term motivation or a long-term
vision. It could be about the future such as what school to attend, what kind of
house to save for, or what job you would like to have. It could improve your life.
For instance, eating better, giving up something like smoking or drinking, or even
achieving personal growth. It could even be as simple as getting a good grade on a
test or waking up every morning at a certain time.
Once you achieve that target, make another goal and keep growing. It can be
beneficial for you in the future because not only does it lead you to make yourself a
better you, but you will also break bad habits and it will teach you how to stay with
something and to work for something you really want or need.
In order to proceed with a set plan, there has to be effort and persistence. Write
your goals out if it helps. Make a list of the pros and cons on why you should or
shouldn’t do something. Make sure your goals are realistic. Having a target can help
you in school or teach you to be aware of actions that you might have not been as
aware of in the past. Also, for those who have more important goals, it will give you
motivation to finish and achieve it.
Setting goals can be beneficial to anyone’s life. All that has to happen is to set
attainable targets and commit to achieving them daily.
Illustration by Jacob Kielan