Second semester at Preuss presents more stressful challenges like CAASPP testing, AP exams, finals which cover material taught throughout the entire year, Spring Learning Showcase, and a heavier workload than the first semester, so making sure that our mental health is taken care of is important in order to keep up with all of this. Mental health sums up a person’s psychological, social, and emotional well being and it can affect them in many ways, so it should be taken seriously.

At Preuss, the mission is to help students be able to get into a college and this cannot be fully achieved if a student’s mental health isn’t well taken care of, which is why it is very important to make sure it is.

Good mental health helps us focus, keep up with our work, and also makes us keep up good academic performances. If someone’s mental health isn’t properly taken care of, it can highly affect them and cause grades to drop, quality of assignments to worsen, and shorten their attention span. This primarily occurs due to factors like lowering concentration and having low optimism, both being signs of a deteriorating mental health. 

Mental health doesn’t just affect academic performance. It can also affect someone physically if it isn’t taken seriously. Usually, someone with good mental health is happy and is able to manage day to day tasks easily. On the other hand, people with poorer mental health can experience symptoms like anxiety, depression, stress, and are even at higher risk for chronic diseases. Making sure that someone’s mental health is well helps to prevent those effects and generally just helps in day to day life. Preuss provides an environment where students are challenged in order to prepare them for college, so if mental health is a factor which doesn’t allow students to take advantage of this opportunity then they won’t be prepared for college. 

Even though many effects of bad mental health manifest themselves as physical problems and academic performance, it is important to know that they can also greatly impact relationships with peers and family members. Problems like anxiety, stress, and depression, can cause someone to begin distancing themselves from their peers and family members, which stresses those relationships and affects their quality, further affecting the person. 

Mental health is incredibly important; however, it carries stigmas which prevent some people from reaching out to get help. The stigmas can show themselves in many ways. Sometimes people judge someone for trying to reach to get help and have negative thoughts or beliefs about those who do get help. This can result in poor mental health since they are already dealing with a problem and adding judgemental thoughts from other people makes the problem even worse. Additionally, some people might even judge themselves for getting help believing that they are weak and making a bad choice; however, understanding that getting help is important and ignoring those stigmas is key to getting better mental health . 

So what can someone do in order to better their mental health? There are many activities that someone can do, but it is important to do activities which are enjoyable since those are the types of activities which help. A few examples might be going on a run, exercising, playing video games, and sometimes even just talking to someone else. Engaging in activities that are enjoyable help to improve mental health and to feel good in general. 

Preuss provides ways to get help if someone is dealing with mental health issues like talking to a counselor, advisory teacher, or even just a trusted friend are all ways to help improve mental health. In addition to counselors, we have many specialists who all contribute to helping students in case they are dealing with mental health issues. We have a school psychologist as well as two family support specialists whose contact information can all be found on the Preuss website. Even if students aren’t inclined towards talking with a counselor or a specialist, the students services page on the Preuss website also has a number of different mental health resources and organizations as well as hotlines which can also be found on the back of every student’s ID card. Not only that, but Preuss also has a club called TSU NAMI which helps students to better their mental health and learn about the resources and support systems found around campus.

Mental health is something highly important for everyone; it strengthens our bonds with people and keeps us physically and emotionally healthy. Making sure that our mental health is properly taken care of should be a big priority for all students and should be taken very seriously.