Your Mental Health Matters

Article by Royale Kalu-Oji ‘23

Mental health affects a person’s emotions, ability to interact with others, and stress levels. Managing these health factors is essential, particularly as a high school student, for getting through each day. Here are a few things that might help one to maintain a healthy mental state of mind.

Allow yourself to feel emotions, even the “negative” ones. Teens often overlook our emotions to stop ourselves from feeling them. Ignoring one’s feelings will only cause students to bottle everything up and, eventually, take it out residual frustration on the wrong person. Healthy ways to express emotions include writing them down, giving yourself space, and accepting how you feel. One’s emotions are valid.

Be kind to yourself. Individuals self-criticize and almost effortlessly belittle themselves. Constant self-criticism leads to poor peer interactions due to the anxiety of oself-criticism. It is necessary to realize that we are our own harshest critics. Our peers do not criticize us as harshly or as often as we do ourselves. The key to conquering self-criticism is to be oneself and love who you are. You are perfect the way you are.

Finally, plan out your work. As the school year progresses, students experience increased academic pressure, which causes heightened stress. A common reason for school-induced stress is procrastination in homework, papers, and projects. Doing things such as organizing your tasks and setting small goals toward work completion can lessen academic tension.

Continue putting forth your best effort. You are seen, appreciated, and valid!