Research Log #2 - Solutionary Project 2020

 
Date: 10 January 2020
Name: Micah Watanabe
Essential Question: How does depression affect society?
 
Three Points to Prove: #1: Depression reduces productivity in student’s classes.
                                        #2: Depression encourages substance abuse in students.
#3: Depression makes them more likely to act out, making them bullies.
 
Point that this Source Proves: #2 Depression makes students likely to abuse drugs
 
 
Excerpts (These should provide insight into the Point to Prove): 
 
 John Curry of Duke University in the start of the video states, “If they had responded to the
depression treatment, they were far less likely to develop a substance use disorder.”

John Curry also exclaims, “At the end of our study, they were between 17-23, so they were
college age, so that is the highest age range for alcohol abuse disorders. So it is more frequent,
more common at that age, as oppose to older ages.”

Towards the end of the video, Curry says, “If you had or your child has had depression during
adolescence, it is really important not to get into an alcohol problem, because that raises the risk
that they will have another depression.”
 
Analysis (How does this source support the Point to Prove?): 
 
This video gives insight on from a professional psychological doctor who has done studies. One
of the first quotes he states talks about how many teens will cope with the depression. They either turn to
drugs or alcohol rather than getting proper treatment, overall setting them up for failure and a breakdown
in the future. The study Duke University held was a 5 year follow of teens with depression who got
treatment. These teens who got treatment were far less likely to abuse substances. Many school faculties
ignore their obvious signs of depression, adding to the problem causing a snowball effect.
At the teen age, drug and alcohol peer pressure is higher than any age range which also
contributes to the problem. When depressed, teens have no direction and find the closest solution which at
most times are unfortunately substances. Curry goes into more detail in the video addressing parents on
how much of a serious issue this is in teen students. The start of the snowball is a student vaping a little to
get a small high to get rid of test anxiety and turns into scraping by due their cigarette addiction. The
statistic shows that majority of substance abuse start at a young age around high school, where peer
pressure it at its highest. At an older age, adults have more experience and wisdom, as opposed to being
young you barely have any idea of when your emotions are a problem.
Many young adults think that once their depression is over, it is gone forever. Depression can
come from a lot of things, a bad test score, an error at their school sport game, or bullying. Curry
purposely talked about depression coming back, because it is so easy for a student teen to feel like their
life isn’t worth it. Substance abuse can occur even after a teen has overcome depression, because if the
depression was long enough, their body will become accustom to this sort of high. A temporary way out
of reality that can affect their grades and future is what many teens around America face. Yet the board of
education sees this as a minor problem that will be resolved on its own. Schools put too much pressure on
students, giving them another reason to abuse drugs to cope with it.
 

Work Cited (correct MLA format): 

Duke University. “Depression Treatment and Adolescent Drug Abuse.” YouTube, 4 June 2012,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckSQbk9wDqI. Web. 12 February 2020.

This is a reputable and reliable article because the Duke University is a prestigious school that has had
many accomplishments. Additionally, John Curry who stared in this YouTube video has a PhD and gives
statistics on depression in teens.

Journal on next page

 Journal 2

As a group, we collaboratively created the idea to help temporarily reduce student’s stress

and hopefully depression. We want to post funny memes that are popular between teens among

the country that many of our classmates find humorous. IF the student laughs, serotonin will be

released into the brain calming and improving their mood. We are still debating whether to create

a scavenger hunt with food at the end of the tunnel by having QR codes to scan that gives a hint

to the next meme. So far, we have created both a written proposal and proposal video. The

written proposal highlights what we hope to accomplish with our project and how we aim to get

there. Since stress has become more and more common within schools especially, our idea to

post memes around school is aimed around making students laugh. In our video, we talked about

how common depression has become in our society and how we plan to combat it with laughter

within our school. 

Individually (Micah), I helped with the overall idea of the meme around school. I came

up with the idea since I was a former victim of depression, so I wanted to help others that are

going through what I went through. I am still debating whether to create a scavenger hunt in

addition to the meme, but as a group we are still debating. I also helped on the proposal by

coming up with the title to our project, and with the central solutionary idea which was number

1. The group and I are still trying to find school appropriate memes that will make people laugh

and reduce anxiety. This is difficult because many things today are considered offensive so we

might have to run it through Mr. Madriaga to be sure it is school appropriate. As a single person,
I haven’t done much other than the research log alone. As a group we have collaboratively

bounced ideas off of each other to be sure this project is the best it can be. We are still finding

locations to put the memes up around the school. Lastly, I have done research log 1 on

depression in students, and just have completed research log 2.