Middle School might be the hardest time in a young person’s life. Students are treated like young children but expected to act like adults. They are given a new difficult workload while told consistently that this is nothing compared to the workload in high school. Along with this, their minds and bodies are changing at different rates, which can cause many insecurities and comparisons amongst students.

Facts:
There are around 1300 Middle Schoolers at Rosemont, but only one psychologist.
Globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds suffer with their mental health (World Health Organization), meaning that around 186 students at Rosemont suffer with their mental health, which is still too much for one psychologist to handle.

Middle School might be the hardest time in a young person’s life. Students are treated like young children but expected to act like adults. They are given a new difficult workload while told consistently that this is nothing compared to the workload in high school. Along with this, their minds and bodies are changing at different rates, which can cause many insecurities and comparisons amongst students. A combination of this and a sudden surge of social media use can easily lead to mental health problems.

There are three main causes of the mental health crisis:

ACADEMIC STRESS

With schoolwork at an all-time high and students trying to juggle grades, extracurriculars, and their social life. There is bound to be quite a bit of academic-related stress. Stress is okay, and it can even be a motivator for students. But, high amounts of chronic stress can lead to more serious conditions such as anxiety or OCD. Some ways to cope with high amounts of stress are to:
Take slow, deep breaths to calm down
Organize your thoughts, plans, and to-dos in a journal or planner
Take a break by going on a walk, reading a leisure book, or drawing

SOCIAL GROUPS

Middle school is really when clicks start to form, which can cause some people to feel like they don’t fit in to any group, or that they shouldn’t fit in to certain groups. With negative connotations towards certain groups, and people feeling pressured to fit in to anywhere, this can lead to people feeling like they need to change parts of themselves, or their identity to “survive” in middle school. This can lead to insecurities such as body image issues, severe perfectionism, and overall poor self-esteem.

OTHER PERSONAL ISSUES

All of these school and social stresses can pile on top of home and family issues. When children get to a certain age, parents feel more comfortable sharing their personal problems with their kids. While this is reasonable since the children are maturing, hearing about their family’s personal problems, or even just starting to understand certain situations in their life can lead to high amounts of anxiety and stress unrelated to school

While it is important to learn about the causes of mental health issues in middle school, it is also important to learn about ways to prevent and deal with mental health problems.

Here are three ways to prevent or deal with mental health matters:

CONFIDING IN SOMEONE

Whether it’s a mental health professional, a trusted adult, or even a close friend, confiding with someone is better than bottling up formidable emotions and problems. While it may seem embarrassing, or overly revealing, or even useless, confiding in someone can do wonders for a person’s mental health. It can make them feel less alone, possibly understood, and like a weight is lifted off their chest. In more severe cases, confiding in someone can also get a struggling person the help they need.

HOBBIES

Finding hobbies that aren’t school-related can help relieve stress and distract students from their stressful daily lives. Relaxing hobbies can include leisure sports such as biking or skateboarding, drawing, learning an instrument, or cooking. Hobbies can do a wide variety of things. An easy, or leisure-like hobby such as knitting or biking can give someone time to think, process, or understand more about their life or themselves. A more difficult hobby such as learning an instrument or learning more about an academic field can give a student’s mind something to focus on besides their stressful school or home lives.

REST & RELAXATION

While students can feel pressured to stay up late after they study and get homework done to call friends, play video games, or watch TV, getting a satisfactory amount of sleep is vital for students’ mental health and well-being. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention recommends that middle schoolers get 8-10 hours of sleep per day.

Overall, while school may seem stressful and unmanageable, with your bodies and minds changing, and school work being at an all-time high, there are many resources and ways to diagnose the cause of your mental health problem, and treat it.