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School depression is a psychological health issue that needs significant attention in today’s society.
School depression is one of the mental health issues that is not new to society, and it is the main cause of numerous suicide cases among students. In this period, students are easily influenced by negative lifestyles and pressures from academics and family, leading them to gradually feel worn out, exhausted, and develop dreadful thoughts in their minds.
What is school depression? Current situation
Depression is known as a complex and common mental disorder that affects people of all ages. Anyone can face this condition and sometimes suffer from its dangerous consequences.
Depression is characterized by a significant decline in emotions, thoughts, and behavior. The patient is always in a state of fatigue, despair, sadness, and lack of any belief, hope, or interest in life around them.
According to many specialized studies, every person has a risk of facing a mild depression phase in their life. Especially with the current hectic and stressful life, people are more likely to fall into despair and hopelessness for various reasons.
Statistics show that students are the common group often suffering from depression. A survey by the Central Mental Hospital on 5,000 people indicated that over 30% of those with psychological abnormalities and diagnosed with depression were students.
Additionally, the National Children’s Hospital conducted a survey among this group in several schools and found that over 20% of students showed signs of sadness, depression. Moreover, this number is still increasing significantly in the community, becoming a concerning issue for both families and society as a whole.
A survey conducted at a secondary school in Hanoi revealed that over 25% of students had mental health problems to varying degrees. This situation significantly affects the health, academic performance, and quality of life of students, leading many to develop negative thoughts and consider suicide as a solution.
School depression can affect various groups regardless of gender or education level. However, this mental disorder is usually more common among children under academic pressure from family and teachers or those who are victims of school violence.
If depression in students is not detected and intervened early, it can cause many negative impacts on their life, academic performance, and health. Parents and schools need to take timely preventive measures to help students minimize the adverse effects of school depression.
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School depression can be caused by various factors. Understanding the reasons behind a child’s depression is crucial in helping them quickly overcome psychological instability. Here are some common causes of depression in students:
1. Academic pressure
Academic pressure is considered the primary cause of most cases of school depression. Especially in today’s society, we often judge a child’s future based on their academic results and scores.
Many parents continuously push their children to achieve outstanding academic results to bring pride to the family. Moreover, the current curriculum for primary, secondary, high school, and university students is very dense, with numerous tests and exams causing stress and fatigue.
In reality, many students share that they have to study continuously for many hours, even after school. Besides absorbing knowledge in class, they also have to attend extra classes and talent classes to further their knowledge, study at night to review and prepare for the next day. Many students do not have time to rest, relax, and play as their age would typically allow. This situation makes them gradually feel tired, bored, stressed, pressured, leading to psychological instability and eventually forming depression symptoms.
School violence School violence is a serious issue of concern in most countries as it can lead to severe consequences, including the development of depression.
2. School Violence
School violence is an issue that warrants significant attention in nearly every country, as it can lead to severe consequences, including the development and progression of depression. Victims of school violence often feel fearful, confused, and stressed about attending school.
Moreover, if this situation persists without effective intervention, children can suffer serious psychological harm, leading to feelings of sadness and isolation, causing them to withdraw from the world around them. In reality, school violence isn’t limited to physical harm; it also includes verbal abuse, threats, and intimidation that can severely impact the victim’s mental well-being.
Moreover, most students who are victims of school violence tend to be fearful and do not dare to share their experiences with anyone because they fear further torment from their aggressors. These children often choose to remain silent and endure the suffering alone, which over time can lead to feelings of hopelessness, breakdowns, and depression.
3. Lack of family attention and support
No matter how old a child gets, family and parental love is something every child wishes to receive. Amid academic pressures, family care and attention provide children with the mental strength to face difficulties.
Experts share that children raised and developed in a loving and caring family environment have more opportunities for comprehensive development and prevention of dangerous psychological issues. Conversely, children lacking family affection or care from parents and relatives tend to form feelings of inferiority, hurt, and depression.
4. School depression caused by unhealthy habits
With the rapid development of society, students have more opportunities to learn and experience many new and interesting things in life. However, at this age, children do not fully understand and select appropriate information for themselves, making it hard to avoid adopting unhealthy habits.
Especially in the technology era, just with a smartphone, children can update and learn a lot of information from various life aspects. However, if they unintentionally access negative information and cannot eliminate it, children can lose direction and fall into negative, harmful behaviors.
Children are naturally curious and want to experience attractive things. Therefore, without good guidance to form positive habits and distinguish bad influences, children are likely to adopt bad habits such as using alcohol, cigarettes, stimulants, frequently using violence, irregular eating and sleeping habits, and overuse of technological devices.
Experts share that most of these unhealthy habits can cause school depression. Prolonged negative lifestyles deplete both physical and mental health, gradually forming inappropriate and negative thoughts.
5. Psychological and social factors
School depression can relate to psychological and social factors. Especially during adolescence, children are easily negatively influenced by immature and inappropriate emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
In reality, while still in school, children do not have enough awareness and life experiences to fully develop themselves, make correct choices, and distinguish good and suitable things. Therefore, many students are easily swayed by negative influences, leading to distorted perceptions and gradually forming psychological instability.
If not properly guided and cared for, children can form distorted thoughts and exhibit inappropriate, negative behaviors and emotions. Therefore, parents and schools need to pay special attention to provide timely education and intervention, helping children develop strong mental and physical health.
Additionally, family or academic events can increase the risk of depression in many students. Facing the loss of a loved one, family unhappiness, serious accidents, or fires can psychologically affect children.
Moreover, academic setbacks such as poor grades, being reprimanded by teachers, declining academic performance, and failing university exams can also increase children’s mental instability and lead to depression.
Signs of school depression
Similar to general depression cases, school depression is characterized by significant emotional decline, with children seemingly losing interest in all activities around them. Parents and schools should pay special attention to promptly detect emotional, behavioral, and cognitive abnormalities in children to provide timely support and intervention.
To identify school depression, we can rely on the following specific symptoms:
- Depressed mood, sadness, hopelessness, and pessimism about life.
- Lack of interest in all external activities, including those previously loved.
- Emotional changes, sometimes crying and sad, other times irritable and angry without reason.
- Pessimistic, feeling useless, and self-blaming.
- Decreased concentration and attention.
- Poor memory, unable to remember well.
- Tendency to distance themselves from everyone, avoiding meeting and interacting with others.
- Frequently opposing and resisting, even exhibiting self-harming behaviors or harming others.
- Becoming extremely sensitive to criticism and judgment from others.
- Sleep disorders, mostly insomnia, poor sleep, frequent nightmares, or excessive sleepiness.
- Severe changes in eating habits, loss of appetite, poor eating, frequently skipping meals, or overeating.
- Constant physical fatigue, lethargy, lack of vitality, slow movement, tendency to stay in one place.
- Frequently experiencing health issues such as headaches, back pain, dizziness, stomachaches, digestive disorders, colds, etc.
- Negative thoughts, having suicidal thoughts to escape mental instability.
Depending on the severity of each case, school depression symptoms will appear with varying frequency. When noticing sudden and unusual changes in children’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, parents or teachers should consider having them undergo early psychological examinations and tests to promptly detect and address the condition.
Is school depression dangerous?
As mentioned, school depression is a serious health issue that requires early intervention. If depression is prolonged and not properly treated, it can lead to many hindrances to health, life, academics, and even endanger one’s life.
Specifically, some serious consequences often seen in depressed children include:
- Significant decline in academic performance: Depression causes a series of abnormal thoughts and emotions, making it difficult for children to focus on studying. They often feel bored, lack interest, distracted, and have poor memory, resulting in poor academic performance.
- Misguided perception: Prolonged depression leads to distorted perception, especially in students developing and maturing. Negative thoughts dominate their minds, causing them to form unhealthy habits.
- Impact on Relationships: School depression reduces students’ desire to interact and connect with those around them. Most children will withdraw, live in isolation from society, and sometimes feel irritable and angry with others without reason. This causes their relationships to gradually deteriorate and prevents them from maintaining long-term connections.
- Increase in Social Evils: Children suffering from depression constantly harbor negative, pessimistic, and hopeless feelings about life. To escape these feelings, they tend to turn to addictive substances, harmful stimulants, or easily fall into life’s temptations and become involved in social evils, resulting in extremely serious consequences.
- Hindrance to Development: The characteristic symptoms and disorders of depression significantly impact the overall development of children, both mentally and physically. School depression can affect a child’s weight, height, intellect, cognition, thinking, creativity, and the ability to develop other life skills.
- Decreased Sleep Quality: Statistics show that more than 80% of school depression cases experience insomnia, shallow sleep, frequent waking at night, and nightmares. Particularly for students, sleep plays a very important role in their health. Poor sleep can lead to decreased immunity, making children more susceptible to other illnesses.
- Increased Risk of Dangerous Mental Disorders: Prolonged depression, if not properly treated, increases the risk of developing other mental disorders such as anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder.
- Suicide: This is considered the most serious consequence that can occur in cases of school depression. Negative thoughts that are not eliminated and well-controlled can cause children to fall into a state of despair and see death as a way to free themselves. In reality, many losses have occurred due to the influence of depression.
School depression causes many serious consequences for the health, life, learning, and even the lives of students. Therefore, as soon as any unusual signs are detected or suspected in children, families and schools need to quickly check their mental health and have them examined directly at hospitals or specialized facilities for the best support.
Solutions to Overcome School Depression
School depression is a common condition today, significantly affecting students. However, if it is detected early and interventions are appropriately applied, depression symptoms can still be effectively controlled and reduced.
With the outstanding development of modern medicine, depression can be effectively and safely treated using various methods. Depending on each case, doctors and specialists will consider the most suitable intervention method to help children quickly control and overcome mental instability.
Here are some commonly prioritized methods for treating school depression:
1.Psychotherapy:
Psychotherapy is highly valued for its effectiveness and safety in improving mental disorders, especially depression. Patients will meet directly with specialists to discuss and share their emotions, behaviors, and thoughts.
Specialists, with their experience and expertise, will help patients untangle their inner knots and gradually change their negative thoughts to a more positive, healthier direction. Depending on each case, psychologists will consider applying suitable therapeutic interventions to help patients gradually overcome dangerous symptoms and eliminate bad feelings caused by depression.
Additionally, psychological specialists will guide patients on necessary skills such as emotion control, handling difficult situations, overcoming challenges, etc. This helps patients easily escape depression and gain resilience against its future impacts.
2. Medication Treatment:
In cases of severe school depression where children exhibit dangerous symptoms, self-harm, or suicidal tendencies, some medications may be needed. Antidepressants, though not a cure for the root cause of the disorder, can control and reduce symptoms and prevent dangerous consequences.
Medication also greatly supports psychotherapy, helping patients respond well to therapy and achieve desired treatment results. However, most antidepressants can cause side effects such as dry mouth, dizziness, nausea, and headaches. Therefore, caution is necessary when using these medications.
The best advice for children suffering from school depression is to use medication strictly according to the specialist’s instructions. Parents need to closely monitor the medication treatment process to ensure safety and promptly detect any abnormal signs in their children while on medication.
3. Home Improvement Support:
Besides following the specialist’s treatment methods, depression patients need to quickly change daily habits and build a healthy, positive lifestyle to counteract the effects of this dangerous mental disorder. For school depression cases, students should pay attention to the following:
- Arrange and dedicate time for rest and relaxation after stressful study and exams. Children need space to engage in activities they love or simply lie down and listen to music or read to relax their minds.
- Improving sleep quality is crucial for depression patients. Parents should create conditions for their children to rest, ensuring they get 8 hours of sleep each day, and should build a cool, quiet bedroom environment for the best sleep.
- Nutrition is also essential for depressed children. They should be provided with enough nutrients, minerals, and vitamins from fresh foods while avoiding canned and processed foods containing harmful substances.
- Parents should create opportunities for their children to communicate and interact with the outside environment more. Outdoor relaxation and entertainment activities can help them stay positive and reduce stress and anxiety.
- Exercising for 30 minutes daily can strengthen both physical and mental health. According to experts, healthy physical activity helps produce happiness hormones, reducing fatigue, stress, and anxiety.
- Families and schools should communicate thoroughly about appropriate education and learning programs for children. Each child has different abilities and development, so avoid creating excessive pressure or stressing achievements and grades to prevent them from becoming exhausted.
- Parents need to spend more time caring for and sharing with their children, especially those going through puberty with rapid psychological changes. Parents should learn how to talk and share with their children to timely detect any distorted thoughts and help them resolve issues.
School depression is a health issue that needs attention in today’s society. Hopefully, through this article, readers will understand and effectively identify and intervene in cases of depression in children, helping them prevent and mitigate the negative impacts of this devastating illness.
For more information about Vschool’s curriculum and teaching methods, parents can visit the school at:
- Address: No. 1, Street No. 1, An Lac A Ward, Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City
- Phone number: 0976 898 726
- Website: https://vschoolsg.vn/
