Raising awareness at AHS

It is no secret that High School students are currently dealing with mental concerns such as anxiety and depression. AHS and its students are not immune to these struggles, and members of the AHS community believe that there should be a newfound priority in raising awareness for the students and their mental health.

Students and school faculty members do not believe that AHS addresses the topic of mental health enough. Additionally, students have limited knowledge of the plethora of resources that exist within our valley, nor how they could access them. 

Mental health is not talked about enough at AHS

Lauren Fox, a senior at AHS and head girl, believes that mental health needs to be discussed more. 

 “I obviously think that mental health needs to be talked about more, it is talked about very little for the amount of people it affects,” said Fox.

Some students at AHS agree that mental health is not discussed enough at the school and should be addressed more. Counselors at AHS also believe that the recognition of mental health needs to be raised at AHS. Lauren Reiss, a counselor at AHS, also believes that mental health should be discussed more at the school.

 “I still think we need to do more in terms of awareness, education, and skills around mental health,” said Reiss.Helping one another with resources and support

Crichelle Brice, a graduate of AHS, thinks that residents of this town should know more about the resources this town.

“I think that we need to make people wary of the resources that are available to them in this town,” said Brice. 

Aspen has many mental health resources, but the stigma and culture surrounding it has prevented this topic from being more talked about 

“It’s hard because of the cultural problem,” said Brice. “We can do more for each other despite the stigma and cultural issues. Students can look out for one another and really check up on each other to make sure that they are doing okay.”

What we can do as students

“ If you guys come up with what you want to do to make it better your more likely to do it than if someone else tells you to,”.“The kids should come up with the ideas, We should start a kind of support group,”  Brice said.

Students can come together over the topic of mental health. Other students believe that we can work on stress management as well. Stress can play a major role in things such as depression and anxiety, and limiting stress can be very beneficial for students.

“I think a lot of that could be stress management, and there could be more accommodations for assignments. I know for IB a lot of things are piled on the same day, where it kinda builds up stress and that definitely affects mental health”. Said Fox. 

Mental health affects a multitude of students, not only at AHS but around the globe.

There is a major lack of discussion about mental health and the needs that go along with it at AHS. The student body itself can aid one another. The stigma that goes along with talking about mental health is very present at this school, but the students can do something about it. Students can break the stigma and shame around mental health, guide each other, and come together to lift one another up through these afflictions.