Why am I having a mental breakdown at school?

This article will explain why young people are experiencing so many mental breakdowns in school. It will discuss what is happening in the teaching system that might be causing that, and also how the relationship with their peers can impact a student’s mental health.

Aside from that, the article will offer some coping strategies for people dealing with this, and how school, peers, and parents can help.

Why am I having a mental breakdown at school?

People can experience mental breakdowns for many reasons. Having it in school, or related to school can be caused by your sense of being too overwhelmed with school work, grades, and expectations for the future.

Nowadays, people are extremely focused on reaching perfect grades, so they can enter a well-known university, or find a successful job. This may cause them to constantly feel pressured, and consider themselves a huge failure with every setback they might experience. 

When all this pressure pile up, students may start to feel like they are at a breaking point, and if nothing is done about it, they can come to experience a mental breakdown.

It can also be connected to how a student relates to their peers. Experiencing bullying, being iced out, meaning being ignored by their colleagues, can have a huge emotional impact on the life of the student.

People in school years, especially teens and young adults, take from school not only their learning but also the first experiences of being in the social world. Having those attempts turn out in a negative form, can cause them to feel alone, unable to connect, and even like they are not worthy of being liked. 

If parents or teachers don’t realize how isolated they are, and if the students don’t find a way to cope with this loneliness, such as looking for other social places they might belong in, it can be that they experience a mental breakdown.

Having a mental breakdown related to school can cause many negatives and lifelong effects in a person’s life. It can cause students to avoid going to school, which can lower their attendance, and maybe sometimes even make them quit school.

What is an emotional breakdown?

The emotional breakdown is not a clinical term, but it is a term used to describe a period of intense stress, in which the person is unable to do their activities as they normally would.

The emotional breakdown, even if school-related, can happen anywhere. It is something that will come all of the sudden, that feels pretty similar to a panic attack. It might be triggered by something, a sound, a person’s action, a smell, or even a memory.

In it, the person can have physical, emotional, and behavioral reactions. It can be that they appear as depressive symptoms, such as persistent sadness, guilt, or a decreased sense of self-esteem and self-worth. Along with the loss of interest in activities that used to give them pleasure, getting to a point of even considering suicide.

Other people might experience a mental breakdown more anxiously. Which can be similar to having a panic attack. It can cause them to feel shortness of breath, irritability. They can also feel edgy or dizzy, as well as sweaty and agitated, shaking, with an accelerated heartbeat.

People going through mental breakdowns can also have insomnia, extreme mood swings, and even have hallucinations or paranoid thoughts.

Having a mental breakdown can also happen to people dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They can be triggered by something, and start to have intrusive thoughts. 

They might feel the need to avoid places or people that can trigger them, and because of their intense suffering, they can come to take part in impulsive and reckless behavior.

How can people tell if I am having a mental breakdown?

Aside from the symptoms listed above, people that are experiencing mental breakdowns can start to distance themselves from other people. In the school situation, they might look for motives to avoid going to school or school events.

They can also realize you are going through an emotional breakdown because you change your eating and sleeping patterns. Your sense of self-care can also be altered, meaning you can start to display poor hygiene habits.

How can I cope with my mental health condition in school?

When going through an emotional breakdown, it might be important to figure out what is causing it. If it is related to how they are experiencing school work, and school relationships. 

For that, being in therapy might help you reach the root of the problem. Understand what has had this intense emotional impact on you, and maybe discover new ways to look at this.

Along with that, some lifestyle changes can be done to manage the symptoms of the emotional breakdowns. The first thing is to avoid ingesting too much caffeine and alcohol. 

They tend to alter your mood, causing you to feel more agitated at times, impacting your sleeping patterns as well. Putting the exercise in your routine can also improve your well-being. It can help combat stress and improve your sleep.

Bringing into your life stress-relieving techniques, such as yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, or acupuncture can help you center yourself when it feels like the mental breakdown is getting closer.

But if at some point it feels like it is impossible to cope with your condition, it might be time to look for a doctor. Maybe some medication might be needed as a way to reduce your symptoms, so you can have a better chance to cope with it.

How can teachers and parents help?

Parents and teachers are extremely important in this situation. Being aware of how the student is feeling can help them cope, or even prevent a mental breakdown. The first thing to do is to keep an eye on the students, and as soon as you notice any signs, try and have an honest conversation with them.

It might be hard for them to open up, but leave the door open, for whenever they feel like it. This will make them feel less alone. And when they turn to you to talk, be understanding, don’t judge how they are feeling, and propose for you to think of a way of dealing with the situation together. 

At this point, contact between parents and teachers is extremely important. It will allow both parties to assist the student. While teachers can help them with their school load, or help them interact better with their colleagues. 

At home, the parents can validate their feelings, show them that it is not necessary to expect so much of themselves and that they will be loved no matter what grades they get, or how many friends they have.

With this joint effort, it might be possible to not only keep the kids in school but to make this time in their lives a more enjoyable experience, and even prevent them from doing something negative with their lives.

Frequently Asked Question(FAQ): Why am I having a mental breakdown in school?

Is crying a sign of a mental breakdown? 

Crying can be a sign of a mental breakdown. It can happen that as you feel overwhelmed by your emotions, they find a way out through tears. When that is the case, try to let them out. 

Holding it back will be no good. And once they stop, you can think about what has caused you to feel the way you were feeling, and how can you deal with such emotions. 

Is it normal to have a mental breakdown in college? 

It has been increasingly normal to experience a mental breakdown in college. College students have been through so much pressure, be it to have good grades, so they can have a bright future, or because they need to fit in at the institution and with their friends.

Colleges need to have better mental health attention programs so students feel comfortable in looking for help. Not only that, but teachers can also be more open to listening, and pay attention to signs students might show during classes. All that can make it easier to prevent a mental breakdown of a student.

How does school affect my mental health? 

School can have positive and negative influences on your mental health. It can be a place where you can feel part of a group, making you feel connected and belonging. It can also be a place where learning and discovering new things and feelings take place.

But unfortunately, it is not like that for everyone. Some people might feel disconnected from their peers, and experience bullying, which can only make it worse. It might also be that students feel overwhelmed about the school work, and this can cause them to develop anxiety.  

With that said, it is important to notice how the school has been impacting your mental health, and what people and ways you can find to take care of yourself. 

Can school cause depression? 

It can be, depending on a person’s school life, and their mental health condition, that they come to develop depression. School itself won’t make a person depressed. But if they experience a traumatic situation in it or something that causes them to feel constantly anxious, at some point it can turn into depression. 

If you are dealing with a situation that is demanding too much of you emotionally, try to get in touch with your parents, friends, or teachers. They might listen and support you, and through that, you can all find a way to deal with what is causing you suffering before it turns into a more serious condition such as depression.

Why am I scared of going to school?

Many reasons can cause a child to be scared of going to school. It can be related, mostly in their younger years, to separation anxiety. A type of anxiety that causes a kid to be scared that they will be abandoned by their loved ones when they are in school. That usually causes young kids to cry when they are arriving at school.

It can also be related to the relationships they have in school, with their colleagues, or their teachers. It can be because they don’t feel supported, or maybe pressured to succeed. It can be that they are experiencing bullying, and feel alone in school. 

If these situations go on for a long time, it can affect their school attendance, and even cause more serious mental health issues. 

To deal with that, it might be important to get in touch with parents and teachers to discover a way to deal with the situation.

Conclusion

This article explained why so many young people, nowadays, are experiencing mental breakdowns in school, how the relationship with their peers and the expectations on learning and their future can cause it to become more and more frequent.

The article also showed how peers, teachers, and parents have important roles in helping them, and what are ways for the students to cope with their mental health matters.

If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to write it in the section below.

Reference

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/nervous-breakdown#contact-a-doctor

https://medium.com/the-break-down-wake-up-journal/i-had-a-breakdown-in-high-school-82ad7d486c36