People tend to not talk about their feelings when experiencing SAD because the stigma is high. Making people aware that SAD existing in our school can help eliminate that stigma. It’s time to strike on opening up the conversation.  

Six out of 100 teens, adults, and children experience SAD. Among those teens are students like  Kiley Butcher ’22.

“Seasonal Affective Disorder is something I dread every winter. When I’m not doing too well, it feels like there is no one that really cares,” Butcher said. 

Nearly half of the American population feels alone when struggling with mental health. Around 55,000 people ranging from 16- 24 feel that people don’t care about the loneliness and SAD.

 “I think this school, especially now with all the construction, it’s very cold and gloomy,” said Alyssa Skala ’21.  “I think that a lot of the kids in the school are struggling with depression and anxiety. We don’t really give enough awareness to that as a school.” 

West High does provide two social workers, student family advocates and guidance counselors but students may feel ashamed or embarrassed because they think no one else feels the same way they do.  Only 50% of teens in the US feel the need to reach out to a trusted adult about their problems. 

¨It’s easy to get kind of busy in your own world and lose sight of, you know, something somebody else might be going through something so I think just for all of us to be more aware of is important, ̈ said guidance counselor Paul Breitbach. 

Even if the vocalization is not used throughout the whole school small acts are happening in the classroom.  For example, Brendon Aitken, an AP human geography teacher, understands the relevance of mental health and students at school. 

¨I feel like as a teacher, the more students let me know about things like that, the more I can try to connect with them and make them not feel like they’re isolated or stuck, ̈ Aitken said.

Teachers here at West always have open doors for students to be able to go talk to them. There is also a lot that happens out of school with SAD. 

̈ ̈ When you’re depressed or have SAD you just really don’t want to do anything, you just want to lay down and that makes you not do homework,” Skala said. “It makes you do worse on tests because you didn’t do your homework and so it’s just kind of like a spiral. ̈

When students are at home they have different strategies to help with SAD, including light therapy, talk therapy and self care.

Light Therapy  

What is it? 

Light therapy is a form of therapy to help treat people with seasonal affective disorder. These are also known as Happy Lights

What does it do? 

During the fall and winter it can get very cold, gloomy, and the sun may make little appearances. People with SAD often struggle because of the loss of sunlight and lack of vitamin D, so by using this it provides them with this artificial light making them in a better mood. 

How does it work?

Your brain respond to light in many ways. This light is used to mimic the sunlight, when using it it can release chemicals in your brain that are connected to serotonin, that chemical that helps release happy moods. 

 Talk Therapy 

What is it? 

Talk therapy is going to a therapist to talk about the feelings that you may be experiencing with any mental health issue like SAD

What does it do? 

This provides you with a comfortable outlet that helps you feel not alone and gives you advice on how you should solve those problems that you may be experiencing. 

Where could you go in school? 

There are many forms of talking that could happen among teachers or guidance counselors. Each are available either in the office or the guidance office.  If you need more time to talk and want more help getting into more deep conversations the Student Advocates in the guidance office can help you as well. 

 Self- Care

There is no direct definition for self care besides doing something that will benefit yourself and make you feel better. Some of the things that can help are. 

-Doing something with a group of people that make you feel good about yourself

-Participating in an after school activity 

-Listening to music that you love

-Talking to someone you trust

”I try to tell them to do something nice for themselves like, get the food they want or take a break from whatever’s stressing them out. And that can help to just feel a little bit better, and then always knowing that it will get better and eventually it’ll be sunny outside, ̈ said Olivia Barker ́20. Barker tries to help her friends with advice when they are feeling down. 

Each student is unique in their own way. We all have different fingerprints, identifies, and thoughts. The one thing that could bring us all together is talking about the importance of mental health in the classroom.

Mental health has a stigma that hangs over the world around us today. It weakens relationships with what is more important, like family or most importantly yourself. Talk to someone if you are struggling behind the mask of stigma. 

 ̈ ̈The strongest people are those who win battles we know nothing about. ¨ -Unknown.