The screen of an

unhealthy life.
JUAN PABLO BARBERENA & JERONIMO CORDERO

a DO YOU KNOW THE

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
n WHAT'S BEING SAD AND
S.A.D?
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Today, teenagers live in a social environment they have to be
cautious with what they say around each other. No matter how
has society improved at paying attention to adolescents, their

e
mental health is still an issue up to the discussion, as within it
there´s the often diminished topic of anxiety.

Most relate anxiety to exaggerating daily situations or to tension

t
itself, and they are wrong to do so. Today’s society recognizes
the depths of the importance of anxiety. Due to the factit is a
problem that can get to anyone anytime, it is one of the
broadest mental health issues around, and it is also usually

y
caused by the sum of edginess and restlessness which can lead
to compulsive behaviour presented by unreasonable fear
towards daily situations and can be followed by hypervigilance,
depression, tension, insomnia and/or panic attacks on a daily
basis.
 According to Donald Black M.D., Director and Vice
Chairman for Education in Department of Psychiatry
at the University of Iowa, everyone experiences anxiety
"I don't have
from to time in stressful situations, however, a person
that suffers from a social anxiety disorder experiences
pressure
a persistent feeling of anxiety that prevents them from
a full participation in their own life , so, anxiety can
from my
range from relatively mild to severe (frequent,
disabling panic attacks). Severe anxiety disorders can
parents. I'm
lead the person to alter his lifestyle to accommodate
the anxiety, for example not leaving home. (Black,
the one
2018) putting
1 OUT OF 3 STUDENTS SUFFER FROM ANXIETY DISSORDERS
pressure on
myself,"
Says Nora Carden, 17 years old, Brooklyn in Time
magazine´s article Why the Kids Are Not Alright by
Susanna Schrobsdorff

There are many common misconceptions revolving

mental problems like Social Anxiety Disorder
somewhat exposing that the victim only reacts to
things this way to look upon for attention. It is not the
victim’s fault and it can even be a disorder passed on
by genetics.
Nora Carden who started college in upstate New York
this fall, suffers from school pressure and recurrent
stress, Nora got counseling for her anxiety, which
became crushing as the college-application process
ramped up. She'd fear getting an answer wrong when
a teacher called on her, and often felt she was not
qualified to be in a particular class. Schrobsdorff (2016)
Lots of other situations where
anxiety can push a young
individual to exist, among them
there is peer pressure, it is a big
issue in teenagers society because
of the threat it represents to the
health of all teenagers. Anxiety
can revolve around forcing
teenagers to do stuff they don’t
want to do, they do it only to
impress those in their peer group.
Peer pressure exists because of
insecure teens that feel anxious
so they seek advice with their
friends, then they end up doing
what their friends tell them to do.
 From the research conducted about anxiety
and its impact on the high school students of
Tomas Moro community the results
encountered over 70% of interviewees have
suffered from anxiety, here, the graph had the
highest common result from all 30
interviewees. From those answers found that
the results halved, as roughly 50% have

74%
suffered from social phobia, the results
showed that these teenagers have been in
situations where they have felt socially
uncomfortable usually tending to do activities
they don't want to do, or otherwise
encouraging others to perform activities they
are not comfortable with, which sometimes
can lead to turning to alcohol or drugs or other
similar situations.

The results also showed a third of the students

agreed upon the word mostly related to
OF YOUR CLASSMATES anxiety was tension, from the other teenagers

HAVE SUFFERED FROM it was a common misconception that

decreased to 22.2% on an agreement ratio
ANXIETY being that the second most related word was
overreaction. This showed that in the school,
two out of ten students diminish anxiety
disorders as being an exaggeration from the
victims part.

An oral interview was conducted where a

couple of students were asked, if they had
ever experienced anxiety, also most of the
interviewed answered that they have all
experienced anxiety at least once in their
lives, also they were asked if the school
environment had affected their mental
health, the average answer among all 15
interviewed, was that their skills were
decreased because of frustration, stress, and
anxiety.
 Teenager's have had a very different
upbringing relating their mental health,
so that’s why they feel the need to rely on
someone other than their parents, so it
might seem like if school and social
relationships worsen the emotional
stability, where someone who suffers
from anxiety disorders, can always
escape them eventually, As Time
Magazine’s article about mental health
called Teen Depression and Anxiety: Why
the Kids Are Not Alright explains, that is
not the case:

“It's hard for many adults to understand how

much of teenagers' emotional life is lived
within the small screens on their phones, but
a CNN special report in 2015 conducted with
researchers at the University of California,
Davis, and the University of Texas at Dallas
examined the social-media use of more than
200 13-year-olds. Their analysis found that
"there is no firm line between their real and
online worlds," according to the
researchers.”[Susanna Schrobsdorff, 2016]

This shows teenagers how modern

technology has made such an
aggravating impact on society,
making teenagers more fragile and
susceptible to unrealistic
expectations. moreover, the heavy
stigmatization on mental health
produces a fear of vulnerability. As
the cite shows, parents can
misinterpret as well, or they might
feel it’s their fault their kid suffers
from anxiety or depression.
 It's important to start a conversation about this subject
because no one really knows what's happening inside
their classmates heads. Opening the matter can be a
way to raise awareness around teenagers in order to
make their society a little more comprehensive about
the subject; People that suffer from anxiety disorders
have a real condition and it is not something they can
just snap out off. All is needed to do is to not only try to
be supportive but also to start the conversation so we
encourage each other to be a little better day by day.

Otherwisewe the lack of conciense not only becomes

part of the problem part of the prblem bu t also puts a
step back on todays society

Let's stop and think, please think about how

someone usually doesn't minimize psychological
disorders like anxiety in a malevolent intention or
to be mean, usually, they do it because they don't
actually understand it. You might also want to
consider the fact you might´ve probably done so
too, and probably you didn't even notice but do
try to be more empathetic around your friends
and classmates because you never know what
someone else is going through.

References
Schrobsdorff, S. (2016) Teen Depression and Anxiety: Why the Kids Are Not Alright. Times. Retrieved
February 2019 from http://time.com/4547322/american-teens-anxious-depressed-overwhelmed/

Black, D. (2018) Expert Q & A: Anxiety Disorders. American Psychiatric Association. Retrieved February
2019 from
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/anxiety-disorders/expert-q-and-a