For an attempted, but failed, psychology project one of my friends and I put together and posted a survey onto Facebook, asking about the mental health of 14 - 19 year old's. We got over 50 responses in the first two days and the results were, sadly, not surprising. Our survey was mainly asking questions about school as our hypothesis was that school had a negative effect on mental heath - this was confirmed with the results of the survey.*

86% of the people who responded to the survey said that the pressure brought on by parents, teacher and themselves, was negatively effecting their mental health, making them stressed, anxious and even in some cases, depressed. In turn, it was effecting their ability to work at school, with 80% of the teenagers who answered saying that they had experienced symptoms of a panic or anxiety attack at school or because of their studies. We then asked if the stress effected any other aspects of their lives, here are some of the responses:

Female, 17: I barely sleep or eat any more which doesn't help with concentration in school, and makes me feel so tired constantly.

Female, 16: I often forget to eat, and then I binge. In terms of sleeping I rarely get more than 6 hours sleep a night.

Female, 18: I rarely sleep well and have developed depression and anxiety whilst at school.

These aren't even the saddest responses, many went into details about home lives and work hours and their lacking ability in balancing all aspects of being a healthy teenager. All of them seemed to be struggling, whether it was with a small mental health issue or something much bigger, it was effecting everyone. However, over 60% said that if and when they needed emotional/mental support, they feel they would not be able to talk to anyone at school.

 

Reading through the results and personal comments was heart-breaking, knowing that the people answering these questions were walking past me each day in the hall but I had no way of reaching out to them. The answers were anonymous, but sometimes I wished they weren't.

Mental health is a topic discussed regularly today, in most aspects of the media and in general conversations. But, this conversation needs to be made bigger. Teenagers need to feel like they have support, especially at school, where they should be being protected and cared for - not just pushed for the best results.

Of course grades are necessary, but good and stable mental health is much more important. It's just taking people not experiencing it along time to figure it out. 

*Only 14% of the responses were from males, this is also a huge issue that should be being addressed, but seems to be being missed: men's mental health. A huge and ever growing issue in the UK and all over the world. However, my survey did get the majority of it's responses from women so I will not be able to comment on how this issue presented itself in my results.