tom scott (top) & vicki griffin (bottom)

TOM SCOTT

LICENSED THERAPIST TOM SCOTT BELIEVES IT IS IMPORTANT FOR KIDS TO HAVE AN EDUCATION REGARDING MENTAL HEALTH, AS WELL AS RESOURCES TO OUTLET THEIR EMOTIONS.

Licensed Kansas City therapist Tom Scott knows the importance of mental health for teens — and how often this importance is overlooked. The number of teenagers undergoing severe mental health struggles is growing rapidly, according to Scott. There’s a wide variety of factors that spark struggle, often rooting from immense pressure, harsh self-comparison through social media, difficulty managing their time and bottled-up emotions.

“When you’re young you have a tendency to compare your insides to other people’s outsides. But sometimes people’s outsides look so happy and fun, and your insides feel like a bombed-out village,” Scott said. “But then you have to pretend everything’s fine, and I think some kids are really good actors and actresses and some are horrible, and it shows.”

According to a study by the National Institute of Health, nearly one in three teenagers will experience an anxiety disorder. The study also found that between 2007 and 2012, anxiety disorders among children and teens have risen approximately 20%.

As these numbers rise, it’s a no-brainer to Scott that the generation most affected by these disorders should be educated on how to prevent or withhold from them.

Scott believes kids need a place to let all the good and bad emotions spill out — as opposed to cognitive therapy, a surface-level form of treatment focused on present thinking and finding the positive side of situations. It isn’t healthy for teens to continually denounce their problems as “fine” and “all good”.

“Sometimes, it’s really important to allow ourselves to cry. To be as mad or as sad as we really are and that way we can start changing the brain chemistry so you can start cleaning the past,” Scott said. “If you keep everything inside, all the feelings and emotions, life’s like a never-ending pregnancy. You can feel that stuff inside you, that pressure,”

Hearing about the swath of teenagers juggling school, extracurriculars, family life, work and any other seemingly-impossible daily lives has always been difficult for Scott. He finds it dangerous that so many kids are struggling with issues that carry such great magnitude — only to turn around and post a heavily-edited brunch pic to their 846 followers, deceptively broadcasting that their life is all sunshine and rainbows.

Advertisement of in-school emotional counselors or possible classroom courses focusing on emotional education are ways the school could promote education of the mind and a steady mental hygiene, Scott said.

“We all want to transform and shift and get to better places inside, but how do you do that?” Scott said. “How do you get unstuck from mindsets or beliefs or other people’s external point of view about your internal makeup.”

Schools have clubs, sports and other extracurriculars, but a confidential place for students to go with a guarantee of a judgment-free atmosphere to let their feelings spill out is a necessity.

VICKI GRIFFIN

EAST MOM, VICKI GRIFFIN BELIEVES THE BEST WAY TO IMPLEMENT MENTAL EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM IS TO SWITCH TO A FULL BLOCK SCHEDULE, CREATING MORE TIME FOR ADVISORIES IN WHICH THE TEACHING WOULD TAKE PLACE.

East mom and former high school principal, Vicki Griffin, is a firm believer that more can be done for the mental health of high schoolers. Her idea for a step in the right direction? Replacing seminar with a mandatory time for students to learn how to deal with everyday stressors and handle emotional issues. According to Griffin, not all students are comfortable discussing mental health, and every teenager should have at least one adult they can talk to.

Griffin believes switching the schedule to two even block days a week, two odd and one seven-period day would allow more time to educate students about mental health. The extra advisories would be used to facilitate class discussions about how to deal with emotions, with an emphasis on expressing student opinions.

“I think it should involve the effects from social media and I think it should involve the greater expectations that have been put on you,” Griffin said. “All of the pressure that’s put on you and how to deal with it and giving you some coping skills as well as time management and how to manage social media.”

In Griffin’s idealized plan, teachers would be trained to conduct discussions about mental health, bringing in guest speakers such as licensed therapists or people who have struggled with severe mental health issues.

According to Griffin, the mental health issues stem from the pressure that parents put on students’ shoulders — from doing well in class to acing the ACT to even finding a date for homecoming. The juggling act between the work that students take on and extracurriculars can be so immense that doing it without help seems impossible — something Griffin feels is borderline crazy.

It’s not the direct fault of the schools that students take on heavy workloads, but Griffin thinks they feel pressure from parents, peers and the anxiety of prepping for college.

Griffin believes that the East staff should be trying their best to calm students, reassuring them that simply experiencing high school should be a priority — while still reinforcing that adequate grades and a strong resume are important.

“We aren’t doing you any favors by not teaching you how to navigate through it,” Griffin said. “I don't think that your typical high school or middle school student is going to seek [school counselors] out, so I think [the school should] have a seminar that you go to on a daily basis.”