STUDENT: DAVID ESTEBAN JIMENEZ CUDRIS

1. What are the most common causes of stress in students?

I would like to answer this question not only by what I researched but also by what I have
experienced because I had a little acquaintance with stress environments at the time I was
in school.
According to the Prestige Institute of Management and Research in India, academic
pressure is the queen of stress causes in students, it leads to other causes or stressors, for
instance:
1. Peer pressure: The article described it as when it comes to pressurizing another to
drink, smoke, cheat on test, lying etc. thus they could feel part in the socially
acceptable circle, basically it happens with introvert students who wants to show-
off in a social group, meeting new friends, going out, etc.

However, the kind of peer pressure I had contact with, was not like that, it came to
classmates who expected I was supposed to get always good grades because I was
a good student, so when I failed an exam, they came up to me and told me “It is
assumed that you’re a good student you should have a better grade” this kind of
statements burden more pressure upon shoulders.

2. Heavy academic workload: it is related to the feeling that you are constantly
racing to meet another deadline, so you think you are not going to complete it or
you are running out of time to wrap up tasks.

3. Parents who compel students to excel in their studies: Often prone to abuse, does
injure the morale and is one of the greatest causes of stress, failure, and
breakdown. The race amongst parents to prove that their child is an all-rounder
makes them end up as a victim rather than successful.

4. Teachers pressure: it happens very often when teachers burden students with lots
of works but it ends up creating more stress, even though they expect them to be
an all-rounder while participating in extracurricular activities.

I experienced something similar, I had a teacher who every single class gave us
homework, even though we knew homework is great to develop research abilities
as it is said anything in excess is opposed to nature, we counted more than 28
tasks in almost 15 days, so it leaded my partners and me to work relentlessly.
 2. What are the most common mental health problems suffered by people in the
educational community?

1. Depression: it is a mood disorder that involves continuous changes in the way we

feel like sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest in previously enjoyable
activities are some of them. People experiencing depressive episodes may also
experience mood swings, sleep disturbances, appetite changes, and headaches
and body pains that have no apparent physical cause.

2. Anxiety: When you experience anxiety it brings mounting, ongoing feelings of

worry, tension, and panic that can interfere with daily life. It happens when our
daily life is disrupted, when things aren’t going as we expected, it can become a
medical condition.
3. Suicide: Mental health professionals define suicidal ideations as of thinking about
or planning one's own death by one's own hand. Generally, experts consider
overwhelming or highly detailed suicidal thoughts a mental health crisis. From my
point of view suicide is one of the most extremely consequences of stress episodes
and scenarios that brings anxiety.
4. Eating disorders: It is a change Disorders can involve both food deprivation and
binge eating, because of preoccupation for one’s body, this can be resulted of
abuse in schools and other circumstances like bullying for example.

5. Addiction: It is related to a pattern of physical or physiological dependence and it

could end up with the frequently used of alcohol and drugs.

3. What are the signs and symptoms to recognize mental health problems in the
classmates and teachers around you?

According to the best colleges magazine the following are some of the ways to recognize
signs of mental health problems:

 They react negatively or with apathy to most things.

 They are not enjoying activities they once loved.
 Appear to live in constant fear of failure — academically or socially.
 Have trouble concentrating or seem to have a blank mind.
 Are uncomfortable and extremely anxious in social atmospheres.
 Seem plagued with guilt or stress.
 Have visible panic attacks.
 They no longer attend classes or social outings.
 4. How do you think you can do as future teacher to help your pupils manage the
pressures of life and society?

In order to create or lead a change I believe I have to change myself, I mean recognizing
that everybody can suffer mental health issues, and that is not something who allow us to
stigmatized that persons or to titled them, as a teacher I would argue discus in my class
that we are not alone, even at moments we feel desperate and we do not notice it, but
there is always going to be someone who we can trust, who we can tell things without
having the fear of feel criticized or judge. I always wanted a counseling channel in my
school, a place you can go and spill the tea with someone, so I think I could propose one
scenario like that if I become a teacher.

5. Do you think our universities and schools are ready to confront and deal with
mental health problems suffered by teachers and students?

It could say not, mental illness is still terrifying term, so first of all it is matter of
recognizing everybody can go through some changes, I think the term mental illness is
stigmatized, however, In my school for example when you go and tell how you feel in the
psychologist office where it was suppose to attend when you want a professional advice, if
you went there the entire school within the followed 30 seconds would know everything
you tell the psychologist, so it creates distrust, and it leads lacking of proper counseling
channels.