By: Kayla Madison

Depression affects school differently for everyone. Usually, lower grades are one the first noticeable signs. Sometimes though, unfortunately, it’s easier for parents/teachers/family members to miss this sign of mental illness. It’s a common thing to think that “It’s just a teenager thing/ it’s just a phase”, but a drop of grades can be a clear sign that there’s more that meets the eye.

The some possible symptoms of how depression can affect school are: difficulty concentrating – resulting in poor work on assignments and exams, trouble with organizing and time management, hypersensitivity – that could lead to emotions out of whack and not good interactions socially, forgetfulness, and decreased self esteem. These are just quick little signs that show how difficult school can be when depressed, because of these things they could significantly affect your school life.

Depression at school can affect your perception of yourself at school, failing an assignment could worsen the thought that you’re dumb, or can’t do anything right, and it becomes a self perpetuating cycle. Memory is also impaired, which becomes especially hard when taking tests or exams, affecting grades.

As someone who struggles with depression, my position is a lot like this: I become unmotivated to do anything and I end up having bad grades or attendance. I don’t want to do anything involving school, and I usually just wait it out because there are no methods out of that kind of thinking. That almost always sucks for me because then I have to end up making up credits, which is extremely hard when you’re depressed, and I’m almost a senior and it’s really messing a lot of things up for me. When you feel like this you should mainly talk to your teachers, or counselors, and see if there’s anything you can do to prevent things like credit recovery or summer school.