Did you know that February is Black History Month? Of course you did; you heard it on the announcements every day in February. However, did you know that May is Mental Health Awareness Month? Probably not. Mental Health Awareness Month is not found among the special months that CHS celebrates. While the recognition of these other months is important, honoring May as Mental Health Awareness is crucial to students who need help handling their mental health defects.

Despite what most people think, mental illness is not rare. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), approximately one in five children ages 13 to 18 have a serious mental illness. In a school of just over 5,000 students, this means approximately 1,000 of them suffer from a serious mental illness. However, this still does not seem like an issue to administrator. If a student recognizes that he or she has a mental illness, then the student can seek help. However, it isn’t that simple. Most people don’t initially recognize their symptoms as mental health disorders. In fact, according to NAMI, the period between the onset of symptoms of a mental health disorder and the treatment of it is about eight to 10 years. Without help, many students may go years without treating their mental illness. The school should be a source of help for those who may be suffering. If the school could put greater emphasis on metal health awareness, many students could become aware of their disorder earlier and be far more proactive in seeking treatment, sparing them eight to 10 years of going without treatment.

Also, the school is only hurting itself by not raising  awareness and increase treatment among students. As a person who went several years with untreated depression, anxiety and social anxiety, I can tell you that having an untreated mental disorder definitely affects you academically. There were days when I would come home feeling so hopeless that I would go straight to bed and skip on homework and studying. Completing any school work felt absolutely draining, yet skipping schoolwork made me anxious about my grades. Basically, before I got treatment, I was an anxious mess, and my grades weren’t where I wanted them to be. If more students were aware of mental health disorders and their common symptoms, they would be able to seek treatment sooner and get their grades and their lives back on track, as I did. This wouldn’t only be beneficial to the students, but also to the school. Just making this effort that the school already makes for months like Black History Month could drastically affect the life of a student.

Graduation rates are another factor that determine the school’s reputation and something that could be improved by simply reaching out to students NAMI says that approximately 50 percent of students ages 14 and above who have a mental illness drop out of high school. For CHS, that would be approximately 500 students dropping out. However, many of the students used in this survey were not undergoing treatment for their mental disorder at the time when they dropped out of high school. For students who are being treated for their disorder, the likelihood of dropping out is much lower since they have coping mechanisms that can get them through school much better than if they were trying to go it alone, without any treatment. Increased awareness and increased treatment would raise the graduation rate, which would be a definite reputation boost for CHS.
But honestly, recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month shouldn’t be about better appearances or improving CHS’s ranking. It should be recognized for the sake of the students. CHS always claims to put its students first, and this is a perfect opportunity for it to show it. I cannot guarantee that administration will decide to recognize Mental Health Awareness Month in the future, but to anyone struggling with a mental disorder or anyone who even thinks he or she may have a mental disorder, please remember: you are not alone. There are people who care about you, and you can get better. Do not push away your feelings or dismiss them as “typical teen angst.” Your feelings are real and deserve recognition, which is why CHS should recognize them by honoring Mental Health Awareness Month every May.