Mental and Emotional Health Rapid Decline

The 2024–2025 academic year has begun, and as is often, students are up against many obstacles. Students, who rarely have extra time for themselves, struggle with a variety of issues. I personally find the current HAMLit book “Billy Budd” to be extremely difficult to understand, so I spend a lot of time on it every night. Other challenges include multiple exams, a ton of homework, and a lot of studying.

When it comes to upperclassmen who are enrolled in more difficult programs, such as honors or AP courses, they struggle considerably more due to the heavy workload and challenging or accelerated curriculum.

Since there is typically one test each week, stress levels rise quickly throughout the year. Students’ happiness levels decline as exams get closer since they have to dedicate most of their time to studying in order to pass as well as normal assessments and assignments. As a result, they have little free time and can’t engage in stress-free activities since they are focused on just one thing.

The stress and challenges of school can quickly lead to a decline in mental and emotional well-being. In their daily lives, teenagers worry about many factors, such as maintaining good grades, seeking part-time jobs, gaining enough credits to graduate, participating in extracurricular activities, applying to universities, and so on.

 But when they’re only concentrating on their studies, do they really have time to manage other significant aspects of society and life in the future, including friendships, life skills, health, etc.?

As a teenager currently enrolled in their junior year of high school, I am able to say that there are numerous challenges that I have encountered, and many numerous significant hardships during my time in high school. 

Getting good grades is my top priority because I want to do well on tests, submit assignments on time, and so on. However, as finals approach, I frequently find myself extremely exhausted and without motivation to even try. Not even an attempt to study. I hope to pass each class’s final exam. I found it incredibly challenging because there was a lot of material that I had to learn and remember over a very short period of time.  

Friendships are another obstacle I face in addition to academics. Maintaining friendships can be challenging, as there are various difficulties that may arise such as miscommunication, envy, and so on. 

I can speak from personal experience when I say that two of my friendships ended due to miscommunication. I have encountered a great deal of envy and backstabbing remarks. In addition to the enormous quantity of academic work I must devote my attention to, this is difficult for me to maintain and resolve.

Overall, since the majority of time is spent on school, there should be more balance between personal and academic lives. There should be more spaced-out assessments and fewer homework assignments or time spent on homework every night because many teenagers’ mental and emotional health are decreasing rapidly.