By Jackson Chadwick | Photo courtesy of “Depression” by shattered.art66
“My Mental Health” is a new Suffolk Voice opinion series exploring how the pandemic and online learning has affected students’ mental health by giving students a unique platform to voice their thoughts
I’ve often heard older generations speak to how Gen Z hasn’t endured much throughout their lives, so far. That is simply untrue.
9/11. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The housing market crash and the Great Recession. The Boston Marathon Bombing. The school shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland. The massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The countless murders of unarmed black men caught on phone video or body cams. The “Me Too” movement. The separation of children from their parents at the Southern border. The seemingly never-ending COVID-19 pandemic. Two impeachments of a President within a year. An insurrection in our nation’s Capital just last month.
The sad thing is, so much more could be added to that list.
We’ve endured a lot. Why do you think our generation is more depressed, sad, lonely, anxious, and isolated than every other generation? While we may not have experienced all those events directly, they sure as hell have impacted our lives in one way or another.
Not only are we in the middle of a pandemic, but we’re enduring extremely tough mental health issues and crises simultaneously. It truly is a health crisis — of the body and the mind. No one talks about that enough. There’s still so much social stigma around mental health issues. People are afraid to talk about it, to bring it up with their loved ones and friends, and to seek help. And, rightfully so. Those feelings are absolutely valid. It is scary.
We often put fake smiles on our faces. When people ask how we’re doing, we say, “Oh, I’m good, how are you?” It’s terrifying expressing our vulnerabilities to others, especially right now. Even turning your camera on during a Zoom class can be absolutely nerve-wracking and anxiety-provoking.
I was never taught in school how to cope or how to process such events, thoughts, and feelings. It’s almost as if we — as a society — are simply expected to move on and go about our life. Well, unfortunately, that’s impossible. We have to find some way to cope.
And on top of everything, we’re just expected to put in the same amount of effort, time, and energy into our school work? Are you serious? Many of us also work part or full-time jobs in addition to taking classes. The expectations we put on ourselves are too high. So are the expectations that school can place upon us. How we can lower that bar and create a more understanding and introspective reality for ourselves is the ultimate challenge.
But it’s okay to take a mental health day; it’s great to get outside and go for a walk; to take a shower, brush your teeth, and make yourself a meal; to chill and watch Netflix. Even if we can only do one or two of those actions a day, we should be proud of ourselves. We can’t expect ourselves to go above and beyond during such a tumultuous time. And people need to stop expecting us to go above and beyond in our day-to-day lives right now. However, being accepting of all of that is much easier said than done.
As the Editor-in-Chief of The Voice, I invite all Suffolk students to voice their concerns, thoughts, anger, and frustrations. Your voice needs to be heard. What we need now more than ever is a sense of community, and writing and sharing our stories is one of the best ways to do that.
You are always welcome to submit your writing to thesuvoice@gmail.com. We are happy to read it over, offer editorial corrections, and publish it. And if you’d like for your name to be anonymous, we’ll respect that. As mentioned previously, being vulnerable is hard. But we truly encourage you to write and share your stories.