Promotions of Mental Health Reflection 1

12/23/23

As a person with anxiety and ADHD, this week's reading was incredibly validating for me. While I understand that mental health and mental illness are not the same thing to me, they go hand in hand. While my background knowledge was reaffirmed, reading the statistics was powerful and shocking. The most surprising was that “less than one-third of the children under age 18 who have a serious mental health problem receive any mental health services,” (NIH, 2023). As educators, our job is to support students in and out of the classroom. It makes me sad but angry that not all kids are getting the help they need, especially with how, over the past couple of years, there have been more and more conversations about mental health and mental illness.

In my building, I have worked with a majority of students with anxiety and ADHD, like myself. Many mental illnesses and disorders do not go away. I often think of my students' future and how they will fare after high school. The National Institute of Mental Health wrote, “The anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. The symptoms can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, schoolwork, and relationships,” (NIMH, 2023). And regarding ADHD, they wrote, “One researcher estimated that as many as two-thirds of the children he evaluated with ADHD continued to have the disorder in their twenties, and that many of those who no longer fit the clinical description of ADHD nonetheless had significant problems at work or in other social settings,” (NIMH, 2023). My anxiety and ADHD have affected my daily life in both positive and negative ways. For example, I have severe test anxiety. But this also helps me better relate to my students and understand their feelings in school. When I was a student from elementary school to undergraduate in college, I wished my teachers were more understanding of what I was going through or ways to help me succeed better, especially when I was younger. Because of my own experiences as a student, my goal as a teacher is to better understand mental health, mental illness, and ways to support students struggling or not. I want to use this class as a way to better my understanding of mental health and mental illness, as it is so important to me as a person and as an educator. 

At my job now as a Physical Education teacher, I do my best to support all students. Physical education classes can be a significant source of anxiety for children, especially in adolescence. Students are worried about impressing their peers, going through more challenging family or friend situations like bullying, or they might not enjoy sports and have other hobbies. I have noticed that playing team sports makes students feel more anxious than doing independent activities. I find this interesting, as feelings of connection to school and family help students with their mental health. However, students do not feel connected to their peers on a team, and it makes them feel more anxious. I have been striving to help students in my physical education classes who struggle with anxiety by providing these students with opportunities to implement personal strategies to prevent further stress. For example, I have allowed students to advocate for themselves and talk to me when overwhelmed. In some cases, I have sent students to the help zone, a new room in our building where students can go when feeling overwhelmed. I have also worked with students on breathing exercises, implementing mindfulness and differentiated activities to reduce stress for specific students. Finally, I have introduced new units, such as orienteering, which are less anxiety-inducing because of a lack of competition or skill-related movements while still promoting physical activity. 

In the future, when I have my own health classroom, I want to raise awareness for mental health and provide students with resources to get help if they need it. Students may not understand what mental illnesses are and signs that they or someone they know might have one. There is also often a negative connotation surrounding mental illness that students may pick up from people around them. An example of this is the idea that someone with depression is considered weak. These stigmas need to be broken by teachers empowering students to truly understand what mental illnesses are and how to treat them. When I become a health teacher, I will strive to de-stigmatize mental illness and provide resources for students to get help if needed. There is a wide variety of resources available to people with mental health concerns, so students could find one that best suits them or makes them the most comfortable. Some of these resources include various behavioral therapies, talking to your doctor about medication, and personal strategies or exercises.

References

Mental health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, December 6). https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/mental-health/index.htm  

National Institutes of Health (US); Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. NIH Curriculum Supplement Series [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Institutes of Health (US); 2007. Information about Mental Illness and the Brain. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK20369/  

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.-a). Anxiety disorders. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Substance use and co-occurring mental disorders. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/substance-use-and-mental-health#part_152565