Photo by Tom Tran.
Sam was a three-season athlete with a supportive family and a promising future. However, in her sophomore year, she experienced three concussions and was permanently sidelined from her hockey team. After losing what she believed to be a defining part of herself, Sam fell into a mental spiral and eventually depression. She began self-harming and cutting herself, avoiding help from her friends and family. Overtime, she came to terms with the fact she needed help and sought professional care to begin her recovery.
September marks Suicide Prevention Month, which aims to bring awareness to suicide prevention and provide resources to seek help.
Mental health issues can present themselves at any stage in life, including teenage years. In a 2023 survey, 40 percent of high school students claimed to have persistent thoughts of hopelessness and 29 percent experienced poor mental health.
“Last year, I consistently skipped school a lot because I did not want to attend (due to mental health). I think there were a lot of different factors, but I just remember feeling super unmotivated and anxious, ” junior Yadriel Colindres-Fonseca said.
Good mental health is an integral part of being able to cope with stress and make decisions. Having poor mental health presents challenges when completing daily tasks, including assignments and jobs.
“At my job, I can be really slow when I’m normally one of the faster workers. Sometimes it can cause me to slow down and cause (production) times to go up,” junior Mackenzie Tate said. “It can (also) cause me to play badly in volleyball.”
Various factors contribute to poor mental health. For many teenagers, the pressure to keep up with academic standards while also maintaining a high performance in activities becomes unbearable, causing mental health to deteriorate.
“I struggle with poor mental health all the time trying to balance different sports that I do, a job, musical productions for Ministry in Motion, and also trying to maintain good grades… It’s difficult because stress can build up,” Tate said.
Another factor that can affect one’s mental health is the people around a person. Being surrounded by poor attitudes contributes to creating a negative atmosphere that demotivates others overall.
“As somebody who was surrounded by an extremely negative person in the past which contributed to my poor mental health, it’s honestly better sometimes to cut your losses and let them go,” Colindres-Fonseca said.
Those who struggle with mental health can use different coping strategies to ease their mental burdens. Some find comfort through distractions and disengaging themselves from stressful aspects of life.
“I go to the gym because that’s ‘me time’ where I can focus on just myself and try to be a better version of myself without the stress of school and life,” Tate said. “Take a bath, work out… just take some time aside for yourself.”
Others choose to seek counsel and develop support systems to help process their mental health troubles.
“I go to talk therapy (and) surround myself with my friends and people who are not as (negative)… (Building support systems) really is important. You can’t just rely on yourself no matter what you think,” Colindres-Fonseca said.
Students struggling with mental health can seek counsel from school psychologist Kimberly Benorden or be connected to professionals with the help of one of the school counselors: Nicole Adams, Courtney Benscoter, Jeff Bittfield, and Lisa Boucher. In a mental health crisis, resources such as the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 988, are available.
“(Mental health is important because) it literally dictates your will to live. If you are not enjoying your life, you’re not actually going to put effort into your other types of health,” Colindres-Fonseca said.
