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CULTURE Batman: A review and analysis of a superhero’s epic trilogy. Page 19
standard.asl.org
THE STANDARD
October 2012 | Volume XXXVIII, Issue I
The American School in London | 1 Waverley Place | London NW8 0NP U.K.
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For this article, The Standard interviewed two members of the High School student body in an attempt to shed light on the seriousness of depression at ASL. The editorial decision was made to keep the names of these students anonymous. Those students whose identities remain anonymous are represented by aliases that will be used on pages 12-13.
“I just remember sitting on the floor and crying on my mom’s lap, and the window was open because I was going to jump.”
Fares CHehabi Editor-In-Chief | Clayton Marsh Lead Features Editor Photo by Jessica Haghani
W
hile many students are currently enjoying their high school experience, they tend to forget that there’s an opposite side to the scale. A poll conducted by The Standard in April 2012 found that approximately four percent of the High School student body selfidentify themselves with clinical depression. The figure, Counselor Liane Thakur says, is not abnormal. “In terms of depression, we’re probably on par with any other private day school and on par with teens in general,” she said. However, more than 27 percent of students think that clinical depression is a serious issue at ASL. The topic of depression and suicide was added to the High School Health curriculum last year in an attempt to educate students on the ACT (acknowledge, care,
and treatment) method of suicide prevention. “If we can start working with kids sooner rather than later when they’re feeling badly, then that does help,” Thakur said. Health Teacher Joy Marchese was glad to play up the depth of the school’s support system for discontented students. “I think that the school has a very good support system in place and each division of the school has a health counselor. That’s amazing,” she said. “Most schools do not have that.” Principal Paul Richards highlighted the fine line between stress and depression. “One of the most important things is to separate stress from depression, because they’re actually quite different,” he said. “If you think about depression as a condition, the culture at a place like ASL can either make it better or worse, and you could ar-
gue that the stress culture makes it worse. It’s not that [stress] causes depression, it exacerbates it.” Nonetheless, Richards is adamant that a change in mindset for stressed students can make the world of difference. “We can’t create a stress-free school, that’s impossible,” he said. “But we can try to empower kids to realize there is a lot more that they can control than they think. Once you make the student more assertive and more active in their own life, it makes a big difference with stress.” A subcommittee involving both administrators and faculty that discuss methods to decrease students’ stress meets once a cycle. According to the poll, students’ happiness takes a big dip in junior year. On a scale of one to 10 (with 10 being the hap-
piest), juniors’ average happiness rates remarkably low at 6.39, while every other grade’s averages rate above 7. Thakur is, however, already thinking about the issue. “We could do some work with the juniors on stress reduction and positive thinking at the very beginning of the year when they’re beginning to pick up on and think about [academic] pressures,” she said. The poll suggests that depression is hard to keep in the dark: Over 60 percent of students know someone that is or has been diagnosed with clinical depression. Marchese stressed that clinical depression is the easiest mental to disorder to treat, despite its commonness. “Although it can be common, it is the easiest mental illness to treat,” she said. “And that’s the important thing to know.”
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