Mental Health in the Tahoma School District

Sarah Clayton, Staff

Mental health has brought such a huge impact to today’s society. Everyone knows someone who deals with it and if they don’t, they know about it. As a senior in highschool I have seen so many of my peers fail their education due to their mental health. Whether it’s anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD…etc there are so many mental illnesses that affect people’s everyday lives.

Mental health has been a big thing specifically in my school. In the past four years of going to THS from being a freshman to a senior i’ve experienced 5 suicides from students that go to my school. For me personally 5 is far too many and our school needs to do something about it. Yes, some may say it’s not the school’s fault but what happens when students go to our conuclers and try to get help and don’t receive any.

How can we make a change? Our school counselors are not trained to help with mental health. They are there for small help and can give you advice but they are nothing compared to a real counselor or therapist. As Tahoma has tried supporting mental health and showing that its okay and that everyone is loved it only seems to happen when a tragedy happens. Our school can help change this by getting real therapists or a psychologist to help with the students who need serious help. 

Masyn Wood a senior at Tahoma Highschool deals with anxiety on a day to day basis, she herself has never gone to a school counselor because she feels they aren’t as welcoming and can’t truly help her as well as her other options. “When it comes to my anxiety I choose to get help from outside of the school because I feel that they won’t be able to actually help me they will only be able to just talk to me about it which won’t do much”. 

Mental health needs to become normalized, it’s gotten to a point where we can normalize it because so many people deal with it. You are loved, you are worthy. Take the time you need to fix your mental state. There are always ways to help, even if you’re at your lowest point, never give up because there is always an option. People have suffered for far too long, let’s make a change in this world and accept mental health in each and every high school.