When someone asks you the question “How are you?” What is your normal response? I, for one, have constantly seen people respond with the same monotonous answers, “I’m fine” or “good”. But why do we say this? Are people truly always feeling good or is there a stigma surrounding the idea to express your feelings and your own internal emotions?
As Brené Brown once said, “Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It’s the fear that we’re not good enough.” Lives that could change the world are currently being lost to internal battles. More than 48,000 people have died by suicide in 2024 according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority of these people are teens, students who currently attend middle and high school.
I have seen countless classmates and friends who are unable to muster up the confidence to ask for help because they are ashamed of their own emotional state. Sure, they will bike to school, sit in their flimsy plastic chairs and raise their hands because it is what they are told to do, but inside their minds is where they are constantly tormented by their thoughts, fighting a never-ending battle in which they cannot see where they are headed because they are blinded by this necessity to be “normal”.
This is not their fault. It is not the fault of teachers or students, rather it is the education system and the policies that foster the model student, the one who’s perfect, the one who does not complain. You tell us we are our future leaders, but tell me, if we are the ones who will shape generations to come, how can we help others if we cannot even help ourselves?
I have seen the motto “strive for excellence” multiple times, plastered upon school walls and blue crinkled signs. Our schools target the idea of being the best of ourselves, but I often find the lines are blurred between becoming the best of yourself or becoming someone else entirely. In Junior high and high school, I had found myself becoming more aware of the differences between myself and others. In some cases, I felt isolated.
Although mental health can be ignored in some cases, emotions–especially in teens, are constantly building up, increasing stress at home and school. At one point, someone’s small problems can grow to be detrimental to their own well-being.
I feel like the most efficient solution to these problems is implementing more mental health courses into the curriculums of our schools. This includes what teachers are taught as well. Students should know that it is okay to not be okay, and it is okay to feel different from everyone else around them.
Mental health has been a leading factor of death in our country. We can narrow down this mortality rate through prioritizing the education system of our teens. In the near future, when I ask someone “how are you?” I would want them to be comfortable enough to be able to say “awful” or “sad”. With so much emphasis on core subjects such as math and science, isn’t our mental health the most important?
