Navigating The Challenges Of High School: Mental Health, Friendship, And Growth

My friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, has shared the struggles she faced adjusting to high school, which eventually played a key role in shaping her college major choice.

For many teens, high school can be a challenging transition. When my friend was a sophomore, school had suddenly picked up the pace- much faster than her freshman year. 

“It led me to just go into a hole, which I kept going deeper in,” she expressed. “It was like I was a ball of anxiety and depression and it really impacted my friendships and schoolwork.”

The transition to high school can be disruptive for many adolescents, as they face new environments, social pressures, and rising expectations—all during a critical period of self-development. In fact, anxiety and depression are the leading problems teens see among their peers (Horowitz & Graft, 2019). Sometimes, the cause of poor mental health can be bundled with many different factors. However, a main source of my friend’s struggles became clearer over time.

By the end of her sophomore year, she felt like she was “free from a bad situation,” but it wasn’t until the end of her junior year that she realized the root cause: one of her friends had been toxic and spreading rumors about her. This severely impacted her at the time, even costing her one of her closest friendships.

Something many of us either know firsthand or will eventually learn is that friendships change during the teen years. These changes can be painful, leading to a loss of confidence, lowered self-esteem, and feelings of isolation.

Despite these challenges, my friend has found strength in her experiences, and has decided to pursue a degree in psychology with the hope of helping others who are struggling to navigate the various pressures of adolescence, especially when transitioning to high school. It is important to not just raise awareness about these struggles, but to practically offer tools so that teens don’t feel alone, and we can better support them and lead them towards personal growth and success as they navigate the challenges of adolescence.

References

Horowitz, Juliana Menasce, and Nikki Graf. “Most U.S. Teens See Anxiety and Depression as a Major Problem among Their Peers.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, Pew Research Center, 2019, www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/20/most-u-s-teens-see-anxiety-and-depression-as-a-major-problem-among-their-peers/.

Written By Manjusha Pandian