Depression, anxiety, and eating disorders are on a rise in teenagers everywhere, including right here at Coronado High School. According to Suicide.org, 20% of young people ages 15-24 suffer from depression and anxiety and 3% struggle with an eating disorder.

Depression can include dangerous and unhealthy self-inflicted harm, disinterest in activities and social events that used to be enjoyable, not feeling like eating anything or over- eating, hatred of self or others, and many more symptoms affecting teenagers. Anxiety can cause people to become so stressed that it results in self-harm and more extreme mental states. Eating disorders include anorexia, which is a refusal to eat and extreme exercising, bulimia, the act of self-induced vomiting and binge-eating, eating excessive amounts of food in a short period of time.

These life-threating mental disorders mainly affect teenagers, mostly due to the immense amount of pressure to meet social standards and the raging hormones in teens. T.V. shows, movies, music, video games and social media are all promoting a certain way to look and act, resulting in teenagers in feeling like they do not meet those impossible “requirements” and leading them to a disorder. Triggering messages are being sent everywhere on the internet and in everyday life.

“The biggest change I see is our ability to when tell when kids are depressed.” Said Mr. Edmund, an English teacher at Coronado.

Organizations everywhere are working rigorously to stop this in youth by creating messages to love who they are, do not compare themselves to others and to be comfortable with being unique. Here at school, students can make an effort to watch what they say to people, because the person sitting right next to them could be a victim of a mental disorder.

“I see about 10% of students at Coronado [affected by a disorder]” said Mrs. Emerson, a Coronado counselor.

If someone is struggling, they should get help right away by telling an authority figure, or if they want to seek help anonymously, they should call Lifeline Crisis Chat 1-800-273 TALK to discuss ways they can free themselves.