PSYCH! December 2016
A look into the complex workings of a teenager’s mind.
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Table of Contents Page 4 Contributors Letter From the Editor Page 6 Companion
Page 5
By: Ianna Engquist
“My feature is about different types of therapy animals and how interaction with them can benefit a person’s mental and sometimes physical health.”
What Animals Right for You?
Page 8
By: Ianna Engquist
Therapy Animals
Page 9
By: Ianna Engquist
Family Time
Page 10
By: Kassandra Martinez Leon “My future is about family time and how family time affects teens. It also has stories of two teens one freshman and a sophomore whose parents separated.”
Are You Spending Enough Family Time?
Page 12
By: Kassandra Martinez Leon
Teen Stress
Page 14
By: Simon Andersen
“My feature is about the causes and effects of high levels of stress in teens, as well as why it matters ,and what you can do about it.”
Symptoms of Stress In Teens
Page 16
By: Simon Andersen
Mental Health: Head On
Page 18
By: Abby Hotz
“My feature is about the effects of depression and anxiety on teenagers, how they handle it, and input from a therapist on other coping strategies for them and those around them.”
Do I Have Depression?
Page 24
By: Abby Hotz
Special Thanks To...
Page 26 Psych! 3
Contributors Ianna Engquist
Hello readers! My name is Ianna and my article is about the effects of animals on the human mind. I decided to write about this because of my interest in psychology. I was also inspired to write about this due to my fascination with animals, of which I have seven. 4 Psych!
Simon Andersen
In this magazine, I wrote a feature story about the causes and effects of stress on teens and high school students. I was inspired to write this story because throughout school, I have seen many people affected by extreme school related stress. I hope that my article will help these people become more educated about stress.
Kassandra Martinez
She enjoys quality time with her family. She lives with both her parents, has nine siblings six coming from the same parents and three adopted. She gets along with everyone in the family. They spend a good amount of family time. Her family eats dinner together they go to outings and play sports together.
Letter from the Editor By : Abby Hotz
Greetings, and it is my distinct pleasure to welcome you to the first edition of our magazine, Psych! Please take your time and enjoy the design of this magazine, the information provided, and the overall experience of reading a refreshing article or four. In this magazine, the main focus is mental health, such as external factors and their impact on someone’s mind, stress, and issues many people have with anxiety and depression. When I set out to create this magazine, I didn’t have a set idea on what exactly I wanted it to be about. I then talked with my colleagues and discovered that we all have a similar love of psychology and the things involving humans and their interactions with external and internal factors and how all of these things affect them. Then we picked something that interested us the most, one about animals and mental health, one about family time and mental health, one about stress, and one about anxiety and depression. We all decided that we wanted to show the most honest side of mental health that we Abigail Hotz, a student of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy. discovered, that the best way to educate By : Ianna Engquist the public is with the gritty truth, and while some of the things in the article may not be the happiest information, they’re what’s happening to many of our loved ones and I just hope that these articles can help people get a better understanding of what other people are going through. By getting an idea of what’s happening to other people, I’m hoping that maybe new solutions can be created to solve some of these problems, or someone may learn something that helps someone else. Education is key in solving problems, and in many of these problems the only way to get education is to get first hand experience, and that’s what we are bringing to you with this magazine In reading this magazine I hope that you find something that you didn’t know, and that you can apply to your life in hopes of making it or someone else’s better. Thank you for reading!
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C O M PA N I O N How do animals effect the human mind By Ianna Engquist
“Somehow it’s just easier to talk about difficult things when there’s a puppy in your lap,” Animals are helpful to people in countless different ways. They are everything to some people. They can act as our eyes and ears and can sometimes do for us what another person simply cannot simply because they are not a person. Many people never take the time to learn why humans choose to surround themselves with animals, but others, such as Marissa Rivera, are here to shed light on the real reason people take comfort in the company of their furry companions. Marissa Rivera is a wellness counselor at LASA high school who has a long background working in the education field and with kids alongside her therapy dog, Bruce Wayne. Through her experience, she can say that being around an
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animal, specifically a therapy animal, has a profound effect on the students who interact with them. A therapy animal is a welltrained animal, most commonly a dog or cat, that assists In a person’s mental well-being, whether that be comforting them in a stressful situation or simply making them happy. Many of the students at LASA who are experiencing a lot of stress seek out Bruce’s company and report that simply being with him eases some of the pressures of school. Research shows that the simple act of stroking a dog’s fur can stimulate the production of the anti-stress hormone, oxytocin. “A lot of it is the just act of petting something,” says Rivera “It’s something about the repetitive motion and the fact that there is really no pressure with an animal.” Animals are particularly good with people who have issues making connections with others. When confronted with another person many people feel pressured to make themselves look good to the other person. However, the same pressure does not exist with animals, making them fantastic company for antisocial people. It is easy, or at least easier, to make connections with something that you know will not judge you. Teenagers are particularly worried about how others perceive them which is
Counselor Marissa Rivera and her therapy dog Bruce Wayne.
Photo by: Ianna Engquist
why they tend to benefit from animal company so much. These connections are very beneficial to a person’s mental and social health. While most of the attention surrounding therapy animals is directed towards dogs there are many other species that serve as therapy animals such as birds, bunnies, and even reptiles. Horses, for example, are widely used as a form of therapy for people suffering from depression, anxiety, and various other ailments. Horses, when trained properly, are beautiful, gentle creatures that have proven to be very beneficial to such people. Most therapy horse organizations offer therapeutic riding sessions that not only help those suffering from the previously stated ailments but also with people suffering from mental issues such as autism and behavioral disorders. People, specifically children, with autism tend to have a hard time verbally expressing their feelings and with a therapy horse, there is no need to. Rather than talking about their feelings, as a usual therapy session might go, they get to express themselves by stroking, patting, hugging, brushing, and riding the horses. The lack of pressure when interacting with the horses rather than another person can encourage these people open up and be more compassionate. The interaction with the horse’s them not only help them to bond with the animal but also to learn how to bond with other people While there are many different kinds of therapy animals
they all provide a similar effect on the people who they help. These animals all provide some sort of comfort to the people who seek them out. This could be in many ways such as accompanying them in public so they don’t feel alone or comforting them in a stressful situation. On a more scientific level, these animals cause our brains to produce chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. These chemicals are produced when we are doing something that our bodies perceive as beneficial and that we should continue doing, in this case it is running your hands through the fur of a loving companion. Caring for animals can not only make a person happy, it can also inspire confidence in them. Taking care of an animal and seeing it grow up healthy and happy can have a profound effect on a person’s self confidence, and in the case of children, can teach very valuable lessons on responsibility and social skills. Studies show that people who spend time with animals tend to fare much better in social situations and be more empathetic than those who have not. While animals have a profound effect on a person’s mental state, they can also significantly affect someone’s physical well being. Research shows that people who spend time with animals tend to be healthier than those who do not. Many times dogs are brought to hospitals to spend time with patients recovering from various injuries because simply being in the presence of an animal has been proven to speed up the healing process. Animals are also often brought to retirement homes due to their capacity to drastically lower a person’s blood pressure and heart rate. Overall any animal can be beneficial to their owner. Animals have always been and will continue to be an extremely important part of human life. They provide support in countless ways and to countless numbers of people.
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What kind of animal will best fit your household
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by Ianna Engquist
Benefits What kind of therapy animals are there, and how do they help?
by Ianna Engquist
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Family Time
Divorced parents does not stop family time By Kassandra Martinez Leon
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Photo by Kassandra Martinez
Family
time is beneficial for everyone. Spending time with your family, being acknowledged, shown love, affection and caring makes teens and family members happy and tranquil. However, if family time becomes shorter and shorter or not even there. Will you still the same person? Have the same attitude and emotions? Can you or your family members stay happy and act as if nothing happened? Rudy Gutierrez’s a 19 year old has never actually experienced having one family consisting his parents together. His parents divorced when he was about 11 months to a year old. “They turn more mean, not against me but against each other” says Rudy about his parents. He is currently living with his dad. “I feel weird because i’m not really well blended in the family, but in other ways ... I feel kind of safe with them” says Rudy about his dad’s side of the family. When Rudy leaves out to go with his friends or girlfriend, his dad’s side of the family think that he does bad stuff, “they look at me weird after coming home from whenever I go see my girl or my friends”says Rudy. “ They sometimes make faces, like if they were trying to stare at me or watch me close,like concentrated on my actions on what I do.” Being with your family should make you feel welcomed and cared for, instead, “I feel
This is Rudy Gutierrez at 19 years of age.
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and a new wife. Although it has been hard, Rudy says it has made him stronger as a person. By the time he had to deal with which side he was gonna go with, he was able to make his own choice and understand things better than he did before. Also, whenever he needed them, they weren’t really there and didn’t show much support. From his parents he prefers his mom. Having spent his childhood with his mother and growing a stronger bond. There is also one person he doesn’t like, and that is his step mom. “She acts like she likes me, like she wants me to be in the family. But she acts different when my dad is not around she acts like she wants me to be kicked out, or he just looks at me in a mean way” says Rudy about his step-mom. “Sometimes when i’m around in the kitchen she mean mugs at me, she’ll snitch to my dad whenever I do something that doesn’t concern her she. like She also talks to me in a mean way like whenever I try to talk to her normally she shouts I’m or she’ll talk to me like if she doesn’t wanna talk to me” says Rudy. Although his famnot ilies haven’t met each other, his stepbrothers have told him that they also don’t like with his step-mom. He believes that she knows how he feels about her, but she tries to them act like she doesn’t know, He already tried talking to her with her father being whenever I’m present, but nothing has changed. Mostly when he spends time with his dad’s with all of them, side of the family it’s either going out to eat, or going to lakes. Most of the they’re talking time when he spends time with his mom’s side of the family, its going out to each other and to eat, or going to visit his uncle and aunt’s. When he is with his mom I’m alone I feel like if he would like his dad to be with them, and when he’s with his dad he I’m not needed there.” would like his mom to be there. When he is with them he feels left out and like an intruder, an alien on earth with his own family. Although he doesn’t like the looks and weird feelings he gets from his new family he still likes both families, “whenever I see one of the sides I miss the opposite” says Rudy. Sadly his parents don’t really like each other, and they talk bad about each other. “What I don’t like is having to go to war between one of them between one another” says Rudy. He believes their relationship can improve, but he has been told that the best way is for them to fix it themselves, and for him to not be involved. However, he has noticed that his family members are trying to improve family time. When he tells them that he is gonna go out with his friends or go to his girlfriend’s house, they tell him that it’ll be better if he stays with them and goes with them wherever they’re gonna go as a family. Although he didn’t like how things turned out, and would have liked to have one family, he has gotten attached to his stepbrothers and step sisters, mostly from his mom’s side. Having spent most of his childhood with his mom and step-brothers,”we developed attachment,and they got used to me being there with them,” Rudy says about his mom’s side of the family. Contrary to his mom’s side, “on the other side, I think they don’t really care abut me because I haven’t been able to spend time with them. It also feels kind of awkward to be with them because we don’t really get along” he says about his dad’s side of the family. He feels that his mom is not really happy with how things turned out and with her being a single mom. However, he does think that his dad is content, his dad has a nice family
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Are you needing your parents to help you do every single little thing? Do you go with your paents to their night out? It is good if you spend time with your parents but also let your parents have time to themselves.
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TEEN STRESS What are the causes, effects, and history of teen stress? By: Simon Andersen
If
Photo by: Simon Andersen
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you’re a teen, chances are you’re stressed. “The American Psychological Association had a recent report that the top stressor of students from 13 to 17 years old is indeed school,” said Nancy Fitch, a guidance counselor at Garza High School. “Second to that is looking at colleges and looking at what to do, deciding what to do after high school. I know that sounds general, but a lot of what I do here at Garza is talking to students about school in the context of their lives.” There are different theories as to why teens are so stressed. A contributing factor may be an increased pressure to get into a high level university because students believe that will increase their chances of getting a high paying job in today’s increasingly competitive job market. According to Fitch, students feel the pressure that everybody in their lives, parents, friends, teachers puts on them, whether they mean to or not, because often parent do have good intention, but maybe just push their kids a little too hard. “The largest stressors in my life right now are homework, maintaining a good GPA, and good class averages” said Ben Valentino, who is a freshman and Bowie High School. “And I have two brothers and a three-year-old sister, so my family can also be stressful sometimes”. Overall, teen’s experiencing high levels of stress is a big problem. It is important to teach teens how to avoid and deal with stress when they do experience it. Teens currently have much higher stress levels than previous generations, and I think we need to make it a priority to try and destress teens because having
Ms. Nancy Fitch in her office at Garza High School.
high levels of stress when growing and developing may have horrendous, longlasting impacts. Can’t stress be a good thing? Stress has both mental and physical effects on you. “Looking at the emotional component, there is quite often anxiety, irritability, excessive worrying, insomnia and sleep difficulty are some of the physical symptoms of having too much stress” said Fitch. According to Dr. Sandra Aamodt, a neuroscientist most people’s brains are still developing until on average the age of 25, although it’s usually two years earlier for women. When you’re stressed your body releases a hormone called cortisol. Continuous elevated levels of cortisol have been linked to a weakened immune system, an increased risk for heart attacks and strokes, and even decreased number of brain cells. Yes, all of these very serious health side effects can result from simply stress. Lack of sleep is a much bigger problem than most people realize. “Insufficient sleep is a public health problem”, the Center for Disease Control said. and they recommend that school aged children get 9 to 10 hours of sleep per night. According to the sleep foundation, only 15 percent of teens get 8.5 hours of sleep or more on an average school night. Getting enough sleep when your body and brain are still developing is crucial to healthy development, as well as living a happy and healthy life. A deficit of sleep can lead to, a weakened immune system, irritability and general unhappiness. It’s a snowball effect being stressed can cause all of these symptoms, plus cause you to lose sleep, which causes more symptoms. Some people, parents and experts alike will claim that stress can be a good thing. “It can be a double edged sword, because by not having stress, sometimes the motivation to accomplish, or getting a task done,” said Fitch “It’s
kind of like having a deadline, by not feeling the stress of a deadline, sometimes motivation decreases. However, having too much stress quite often has physiological symptoms as well as emotional symptoms as well that are tied into that.” Small amounts of stress infrequently, can push you to perform better but it’s a very fine line, and you shouldn’t actively seek stress, because it will generally lead to lower performance. Ok, so you know the problem, but what about the solution? It is impossible to eliminate all stress from your life, but how can you limit your and deal with it? The first step is to accept that you are feeling stressed, and not dismiss it. “So a lot of times I’ll hear parents being dismissive of
“Q u anx ite o exc iety, ften t ins essiv irrita here b o i difi mni e wo ility, s cul a, a rryi n nd ty. sle g, ” ep children experiencing stress, because maybe it’s not the same thing as having a super difficult financial situation going on, and they think that is real stress, while a test is not stressful.” said Alex Anderson, a school social worker at Pflugerville and Westview Middle schools. “But that doesn’t matter because it’s how our brains and bodies perceive it, so I try to break it down in that way for them so that they can better understand it. But a lot of times people don’t get it.” It is important with any emotion you’re feeling, you must first acknowledge and accept what you’re feeling before you can work through it. Next, you have to find a method that works for you. “A big part of that is finding things that are satisfying to help alleviate some of the stress,” said Fitch “For example, you can take a look at my office. Music is a big component to what we do. We have sand tray therapy, there’s yoga. There’s a variety of things we do to try to create a healthy, motivating atmosphere here.” There are also the basics, deep breathing and meditation which are quite effective for most people, but everyone is different. Also, Exercise, and eating healthy are effective methods for dealing with stress.Whether it’s running, yoga, an organized sport, or anything that you enjoy and gets your body moving, exercising is great at relieving stress, not to mention all of the other health benefits. The key is to find a method that works for you and to stick with it, and use it whenever you
are feeling stressed. “I will go to tutoring if I don’t understand the homework or what’s happening in a class. Said Valentino, “I try to get at least three fourths of my homework that’s due the next day, that night and if I don’t finish something I will do it in the morning. I always try to go to bed at a reasonable time, because I wake up every morning at six, and I find that when I get enough sleep, I do better in school. I don’t do this as I should, but I also try and take breaks from homework, because I don’t want to overwork myself.” But you might be wondering if you’re the only person who feels this amount of stress, or how common it is. Well, today it is way too common for teens to experience more than their fair share of stress. According to the American Psychological Association, teens say that during the school year, on average they experience a 5.8 level of stress on a ten point scale. That number is much high than teens experienced in previous decades. There are many different theories as to why this might be. “In comparison to previous generations, your generation is much more... you all are much more global citizens than we ever were. The capacity to have information at your fingertips, you know you have this magic computer on your phone. I think that has definite benefits and drawbacks,” said Fitch. High school has become more challenging and overall pressure has increased to do extremely well in high school. But has high school actually gotten harder since our parents were there? “The National Center for Education Statistics studied high school transcripts from 2009 and found high school seniors took an average of 27.2 credits, a jump from the 23.6 credits high schoolers were taking in 1990”. Nowadays, students are putting more pressure on themselves, both in quantity and quality of their work, and for a lot of students that causes them an unhealthy, or even extremely unhealthy level of stress, that can have extreme effects, in the short and long term. First, we must start treating this as the serious issue that it is.Then we must educate, students, parents, and teachers about what causes stress, what effects it has, and how to manage it in a healthy way.
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SYMPTOMS OF S
A look at how stress can effect your body, mind, emotions, and behavior.
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• Increases muscle tension • Increased Blood pressure • Fuzzy brain • Increaed heart rate • Tight muscles • Increased breathing rate • Shallow • Increased blood flow to breathing our muscles • Fast breathing • Elevated metabolism • Hot face • Stomachache • Sweaty hands • Headache • Loneliness and isolation • Depression or • Other mental or emotional general unhappiness health problems • Anxiety and agitation • Moodiness • Irritability • Anger • Feeling overwhelmed
EM OT ION S 16 Psych!
STRESS IN TEENS • Memory problems • Inability to • Neglecting concentrate important • Poor judgment, things in life • Seeing only the • Experiencing negative mood changes • Anxious or racing • General thoughts negativity • Constant worrying • Racing mind Eating more or less Sleeping too much or too little Withdrawing from others, Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities, • Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax • Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)
By: Simon Andersen
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R O I V A H E B Psych! 17
Mental Health : Head On First-hand experiences with depression and anxiety By : Abby Hotz
You’re
in class,
minding your own business, looking out the window into the silvery abyss that is the sun shining through the thick winter fog in the early morning, when you hear your name being called. The teacher is asking you a question, but your mind is a blur, you can’t hear anything except static, your throat is closing, you can’t breathe, you can’t speak, and no one notices. You can feel your eyes start to close from lack of oxygen, you can feel the world pulsing against you, beating you down into a slumber that you may never awaken from. All because someone called on you to answer a question. When you have depression or anxiety, the whole world is against you, nothing works out right, nothing goes your way, no one loves you, and all you can think about is how much of a screw up you are. You get sucked into an abyss of stress and worry and once you’re in there, it’s nearly impossible to get out by yourself. That’s where your tools come in. The people around you in your life, be it friends, family, school counselor, or a therapist, give you your tools. They may not know it, but they do. They give you the strategies you use to cope with things you didn’t know how to cope with before, or give you healthier ways to cope than what you had previously been using. Anxiety is surprisingly common, affecting 18% of people over the age of 18, yet only ⅓ of those people are treated. A high-schooler at St. Andrews Episcopal school named Peyton Paulette is a sufferer of GAD and OCD. GAD stands for general anxiety disorder, and people diagnosed with it experience excessive unnecessary anxiety and worry over things that seem trivial to most people, and they often anticipate
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Peyton sits in Barnes and Noble by the Shakespeare section
Photo by : Abigail Hotz
Peyton checks her phone at a table in the local Barnes and Noble bookstore
Photo by : Abigail Hotz
disaster. OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder, and it occurs when someone gets stuck in a cycle of obsessions and compulsions, things they must do without fail or else they can’t rest. Peyton’s anxiety started when a friend of hers in sixth grade shoved her in between a set of lockers and began choking her against a wall. When Peyton told the principal about what happened and the news got out, everyone
supported the girl who choked her, instead of Peyton, leaving her with no one to rely on or come to for support. With Peyton’s specific brand of GAD even the smallest of things stress her out, and a lot of trivial everyday things freak her out, things that most people wouldn’t even notice when going about their day. When she gets these episodes and begins
getting panicked, she starts thinking that she looks crazy or is embarrassing herself, which furthers her panic, causing this vicious cycle to continue. Her OCD causes her to obsess over certain things she needs to do daily, and if she doesn’t do them she gets stressed and frustrated. For example, when she walks around her house she has to walk in a circle, and if someone interrupts her she gets spooked and has to finish her circle and then do another one for good measure and to satiate her need to complete this action. When she gets panicky, she thinks that she’s embarrassing herself, and when that happens it only increases her stress levels. Her anxiety has escalated to the point
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“The classic mask over your feelings, the facade over the destruction inside.” - LASA Student where she doesn’t like leaving her house anymore, in fear of embarrassing herself in front of other people. Her life has been fairly stressful, with anxiety or without, she recently switched ballet schools, as she is an avid ballerina and wishes only to strive for greatness. She now attends a Russian ballet school, which has increased her stress as her new teacher is extremely strict, and when you leave behind the things you know and step into a new world of harsh rules and lines and perfection, the internal pressure only increases. In leaving her old ballet school, Peyton says she has left behind her family. In a way, her anxiety is a cyclic thing.”It gives me anxiety to have anxiety,” Peyton says. Occasionally her anxiety causes her to feel sad or depressed, and when she feels that way, she says she thinks too much, causing her to not sleep well, and when she doesn’t sleep well, her grades fall, and when her grades fall, she gets stressed, and when she’s stressed she doesn’t do well in dance and this circle of stress and depression and anxiety and pressure just continues spiraling endlessly downward until she can finally get it under control. One time, Peyton says she didn’t even sleep for a week. When she goes without dance, sleeping becomes even more difficult, because she uses dance to tame all of her boundless energy, so when she doesn’t have that outlet, falling asleep is an almost impossibly task, she finds that she’s tired mentally, but not physically. Peyton’s anxiety developed so that she is so utterly terrified of embarrassing herself she has stopped doing things, like talking to people, or even leaving the house, because, she says if she doesn’t leave the house or talk to people, then she doesn’t have any risks. When she’s put in a situation she doesn’t know how to deal with, she freezes and goes into “ Fight, flight or run in circles. I run in circles.” Says Peyton. Peyton says she hates crying in front of people, because it makes her feel vulnerable, so she just goes into what she calls robot mode. Therapy has helped Peyton tremendously. “I don’t like talking to new people,” she says,”but I like talking.” She talks to her therapist once every two weeks on Thursdays, and once every week if her anxiety gets really bad. Her therapist generally starts with asking about her day, and then eventually turns to asking questions about her anxiety, and sometimes Peyton has a topic she wants to talk about but she’s too nervous to bring it up, but her therapist somehow always knows how to bring it around into conversation and they get it hashed out eventually. Depression is typically a more touchy subject than anxiety, but one student attending the Liberal Arts and Science
20 Psych!Anonymous LASA student studying Photo by : Abigail Hotz
Anonymous LASA student smelling flowers
Anonymous LASA student observing passerby
Photo by : Abigail Hotz
Photo by : Abigail Hotz
Academy, also known as LASA, was willing to talk about it, as long as they were left anonymous. They described anxiety like a vacuum or a vampire, sucking all the energy and motivation out of you, and at times it doesn’t even seem real. They say it takes away all the happiness from your memories, it affects how you view yourself, and what you think you deserve in terms of friends and in quality of living. “Like the classic mask over your feelings,” they say,”the facade over the destruction inside.” Most people live their lives focusing on what impact they can have on the world, like how they can make great leaps in medicine, or bring happiness to many people, but depression is the little voice in your head saying “no you can’t do that”. Besides taking away all your motivation, depression causes you to procrastinate, and you don’t have to be depressed to procrastinate, but you don’t do things until they absolutely have to get done, and you don’t do them because you genuinely couldn’t care less. On a daily basis, especially as a student, having depression is stressful. The person interviewed said it all really started in seventh grade, when the school work started getting harder, and they started doubting themself, and all of that combined with a difficult social situation caused everything to go downhill really fast. Now in high-school, “with the amount of pressure there is academically and the amount of pressure I put on myself emotionally and all that it clashes or mixes, one of the two, and it combines into this huge ball of worry and stress and depression that kinda just forces itself down upon you.” they say,”Depression and school do not mix very well.” They mentioned that another thing that generally comes along with depression is a lot of self loathing. They described having depression on a really bad day as wanting to curl up in a ball and pretend you don’t exist because you don’t want to deal with the world at that moment. I asked therapist Claire Flynn for some of her insight on depression and anxiety, how they work, and what they mean for the people suffering from them. She started out by talking the spectrum of personality types. Most people can be grouped as either spirited or sensitive, or somewhere in between. Around 25% of the population is spirited, another 25% is sensitive, and the rest is a mix of both. Spirited kids are the kids who are wired to be alphas, and as a spirited person herself she says,”We’re gonna win, probably at your expense, unless we learn better.” She describes the kids as the kind who, when they’re little, if they see a truck and they want that truck, they’re going to get the truck and everybody else better move out of their way or else they’ll get plowed over. They’re very task oriented, and she says that plowing right through people isn’t the best coping mechanism, so you have to give them anger management. If they don’t then they’ll get the truck through intimidation, and when everyone is scared of you it’s hard to have any friends. You can see what kind of temperament kids are going to have from two days after birth, and we see it in infants, if they’re overstimulated then they’re going to bite and kick and screams. That response is something that mother nature wired into them, and they’re just have to unlearn that response. They are wired to win, but to win at what cost? The other side of the spectrum are the sensitive kids, and they’re wired to be much more gentle, people used to call them shy, but that’s not really an accurate term, so it’s not used anymore. These are the people who are cautious about new things, they
“It gives me anxiety to have anxiety.” - Peyton Paulette
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Claire Flynn in her office
Photo by : Abigail Hotz
don’t want to join the soccer team, forget about camp, and they’re very slow to warm up. Once they warm up it’s a different story, once they feel safe, often times they’re going to be long term leaders, but they don’t trust anything until it’s proven to them that they can trust it. Their friendship styles tend to be having one or two deep, longterm friends, they don’t need fifteen friends to be happy, but if one of their friends breaks that trust they’re gone to the sensitive kid. Sensitive kids are very internalized and thoughtful, which isn’t a good or a bad thing necessarily. The spirited kids can get stuck in anger and anxiety, and the sensitive kids can get stuck in worry and depression. The sensitive kids are wired to go into fight flight or fright. If the child is sensitive or spirited can be measured around two days after birth. The child is put in a room where their senses are mostly deprived, no sound,
“Depression and anxiety are two sides of the same coin.”
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Claire Flynn’s seating area in her upstairs area
Photo by : Abigail Hotz
- Claire Flynn
Claire Flynn in the upstairs part of her office were she sees most kids
Photo by : Abigail Hotz
no light, no smells. Then they’re introduced to a bright light and a disgusting smell and then the doctor sees how they react. Spirited kids with arch their back and burst into tears, they’re fighting and it’s visible, they have a fight response, and no one has showed them how to do it, it’s something that is wired into them since the day they came into this earth. The sensitive kids will break eye contact, pull their body in, and stay as still as a stone until they feel like they’re safe. Now how do these temperaments relate to anxiety and depression? Depression and anxiety usually happen because of a chemical imbalance, which means that family history can be a factor in whether or not you have one of these illnesses. Most of the time they happen because you have too much of a chemical in your brain. In this case, serotonin, an inhibitory chemical, which makes you feel all the emotions you feel. Generally sensitive children are more prone to depression and anxiety than spirited children, due to how mother nature has wired them. Sensitive children are wired to evaluate things and see danger, and spirited kids are wired to be aggressive alphas, and leaders, making each more prone to certain mental illnesses than the other. People used to think that medication could fix it, and medication is definitely a tool that can help make these things easier to deal with, but it’s not the only way to help. There are a lot of other tools now, and some people say that exercise is just as good as medication, and so is a good diet. The best thing to do if you have depression or anxiety is to see a therapist or someone who can give you tools to cope. The tools might be medication, it might be mindset, it might be diet, it might be exercise, or it might be a combination of all of those things. If you think you could have depression or anxiety please see a professional and keep yourself safe.
Claire Flynn’s office from upstairs in her “treehouse”
Photo by : Abigail Hotz
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DO I HAVE DEPRESSION? A quick quiz to give you an idea on whether or not you could have depression. By : Abigail Hotz
Do you have unexplained aches and pains in your body? a) Most of the time b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never
Do you feel restless? a) Most of the time b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never
Do you have continued trouble sleeping? a) Most of the time b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never
Do you have problems concentrating or focusing? a) Most of the time b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never
Do you feel tired? a) Most of the time b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never
Has your appetite changed? a) Yes, I have gained weight b) Yes, I have lost weight c) Yes but I haven’t gained or lost weight d) No, it hasn’t
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Have you lost interest in things you once enjoyed? a) Yes b) A little c) My interests have changed d) No
Do you feel sad? a) Most of the time b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never
Do you feel irritable? a) Most of the time b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never Do you feel guilty over things you probably shouldn’t? a) Yes, often b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never
Mostly A’s : There is a high possibility that you have depression. We recommend you speak to a doctor, psychiatrist, therapist. If you are a minor, try talking to your parents or counselors before looking for a therapist.
Mostly B’s : There is a possibility of you having depression. If these thoughts you have been having continue, we recommend you speak to a doctor, psychiatrist, therapist. If you are a minor, try talking to your parents or counselors before looking for a therapist.
Mostly C’s : You most likely do not have depression, but if these thoughts and feelings you have been having ocassionaly continue, please seek help via a doctor, psychiatrist, therapist. If you are a minor, try talking to your parents or counselors before looking for a therapist.
Do you feel worthless? a) Most of the time b) Some of the time c) Rarely d) Never
Mostly D’s : You do not have depression. If you do begin to recognize yourself feeling the things mentioned in the quiz, please seek help via a doctor, psychiatrist, therapist. Keep yourself safe, happy, and well. Have you found yourself withdrawing from your life? a) Yes, a lot b) Yes, but not extremely c) Rarely d) No
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A Special thanks to Marissa Riverra, Claire Flynn, Peyton Paulette, Nancy Fitch, Alex Anderson, Ben Valentino, and any other interviewees. We couldn’t have done it without you!
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