Skip to main content

School and Mental Health

Do school prioritise grades over mental health?
On one hand, I would say no. When I was suffering badly with depression and anxiety, I was helped greatly by my teachers.
On the other hand, I would say yes, of course. For example, I had my mocks a few weeks ago. It's a known fact that the mocks are marked unnecessarily hard, in order to frighten people into studying. This doesn't take into account the people with frail mental health, like myself. My mock results hit me like a tidal wave, and it made me feel like giving up. I stayed in bed most of the time for days. Granted, now I feel motivated to study again, but was that mental struggle worth it? Doesn't it have the capacity to be even more damaging for someone else?
 
School is something we're told to be grateful for. We have access to an education when millions of other kids don't. So why is this miracle like a hell? I know multiple people who've had severe mental breakdowns regarding school, including myself. I know people who've dropped out if school because they simply can't cope with it anymore. For something that is supposed to be so beautiful, why does it cause such harm to our youth?
All this being said, I am not against education. I think it opens up many pathways. But it doesn't open our minds, it shrinks us with fear. Education, at least in some countries, is just not dealt with in the right way.
So what can we do to change this?
 
~~
I post a new blog every Wednesday ^-^
Twitter: @justaoifethings
Facebook: justaoifethings
Instagram: @justaoifethings
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unusual Coping Method

If you've read recent blog posts, you'll know I've recently finished my Leaving Cert (hence the erratic upload schedule). During it, I was surprising calm, and only cried over two exams. History failed me, unfortunately. But, I couldn't understand why I was so calm. Why wasn't Becky rearing her ugly head? When I thought about it, I realised something strange. All the exams I had done were a blur. I felt like I hadn't even done them. When I came out of an exam and was asked a question about the paper, I blanked. I just didn't remember. I was forgetting a lot of things in day to day life, and feeling numb. That's when I realised what I was doing, I wasn't being present. Feeling as if you're not present is a major symptom of anxiety, so I suppose it has become an unintentional coping method for me. I'd look in the mirror and think, Wow, I'm actually that person. That reflection is me! It's really hard to explain what this feeli...
Post a Comment
Read more

Medication

I have always been the one who advocates for medication for mental health and its usefullness, but what happens when your medication doesn't work for you anymore? That is what had been happening to me recently (hence the complete lack of a schedule on this blog). I had been dealing with it until a point, until depression hit me hard, and for more than a couple of days this time. I had avoided going to the doctor because I didn't want to go back to switching between medications all the time, incase they made everything worse. When I was eventually forced to go, only my contraceptive pill was changed, at first. The doctor told me that she never would take me off my medcation, and for that, I was relieved. So many people ask when I'm coming off it, or are surprised when I'm still on it. People don't seem to realise that disorders and illnesses don't just go away (I wish they did, though). As I changed contraceptive pill, the low feeling of depression went away, b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Feeling Anxious

Having anxiety, I regularly tend to feel anxious. I've been asked if it's excessive or extreme worry or stress, but no, it's not. It's anxiety, it's very different. Right now, I'm feeling particularly anxious. When I say this to a person without anxiety, they assume I'm feeling worried or stressed, which isn't the case. I feel like there's something massive weighing my chest down. I'm making a conscious effort to breathe, because if I don't, I will forget to do so. I feel as if a snake is making its way up my throat, trying to twist my oesophagus while its head rests on the back of my tongue. My head is spinning. It goes from one thought to the next and back again in a couple of seconds. My mind is transfixed on one thing that I'm anxious on, and I know that anxiety is making me think it's worse than it is. (Or is it? I don't know.) My senses are heightened. Every noise is irratating, and I can feel things through just a bru...
2 comments
Read more