ANNOTATED BIB FRESH

Depression is a serious mental health issue that affects people worldwide, including a
significant number of students. The impact of depression on students’ ability to learn is well-
studied, showing that students struggling with depression and or anxiety often perform on low
academic levels, attendance and motivation. Often teachers and even parents overlook students
struggling, classifying them as lazy and unmotivated without recognizing the underlying issue.
There needs to be a better understanding of the difficulty of everyday life for students, the
[ routine of school can be draining and arduous. Both society and schools should be more aware
and conscience of students struggling with mental health issues in order to create a more
effective plan or strategies to help students improve in school.
Depression is a mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of
interest in activities, causing significant impairment of daily life. This type of depression is
defined as clinical depression but the severity of one’s mental health can vary in either direction.
Being able to first recognize what depression is and the daily effects it has on a student is the
first step in trying to make people aware. “It can impair your attention and memory, as well as
your information processing and decision-making skills. It can also lower your cognitive
flexibility (the ability to adapt your goals and strategies to changing situations) and executive
functioning (the ability to take all the steps to get something done).” (Carterine) James Carterine
is a clinical psychologist who instructs at Harvard University, Carterine explains the affects
depression has on one’s way of thinking, the hinder it takes on processing information and then
decision making from there. He expands on the fact that depression is more than just being sad,
not eating or sleeping too much but that there is a cognitive displace as well. Depression is hard
enough as it is, especially as a student, to then compete with all the other aspects of life as a
student makes it feel nearly impossible to achieve anything.

The inability to complete “simple” task school or teachers require is often brushed off or looked
down upon. School faculty needs to be knowledgeable to some extent about the negative impacts
of depression including the mental, emotional and physical influences it has on a student.
Another major aspect that can affect students’ ability to learn effectively is the social support
received by family and or friends an article “The role of sources of social support on depression”
(Alusbare) took a survey from students that measured depression symptoms and social support.
It was found that 33% of depressive symptoms indicated a lack of social support from
community around an individual.
People who are depressed often deal with symptoms such as lack of motivation, fatigue,
rage and irritability, lack of concentration and eating habits. All of which are factors that affect a
student's ability to learn effectively in school. It is more than essential for school faculty to
understand the detrimental effect depression has on academic performance and social
relationships. The fatigue, either a 3-hour night of sleep or 8 hours night the individual will still
wake up utterly exhausted, depressed or not everyone knows how it feels to be completely burnt
out. “In total sample, sleep difficulties were positively associated with perceived stress, negative
affect, RNT and cognitive emotional strategies (rumination, self-blaming, catastrophizing, and
acceptance).” (Amaral) A study done showing what lack of sleep can cause to one’s wellbeing
and cognitive mindset. It plays into so many aspects of ones life and causes a negative outlook
on ones own life leading into harmful thoughts .Depressed children lose interest in all things they
care about, school is most likely never top of the list either way. Motivation for schoolwork goes
down along with grades. Concentration, whether during a class assignment or a test is
significantly harder to focus on for a student with this diagnosis. A painting entitled “Mind
Vomit” (Jones) depicts the image of how someone's mind looks and feels daily. It represents the
thoughts that scatter one’s brain so far apart it's hard to remember where the start was. How one
simple thought leads to a million others and it’s like a never-ending rollercoaster with all sorts of
twists and turns. Jones states “This represents the daily conversation within my mind. Anxious
thoughts, depressive thoughts, sub thoughts, thoughts about the thoughts, a constant critical
commentary and a tornado of thoughts, darkness, numbness and complete inner turmoil.” It is
not always easy to put into words but both Jones art and quote perfectly depict the daily
whirlwind of emotions and thoughts people with depression experience.
Depression is growing common and due to that fact; It is only necessary to educate
society about the negative effect it has on students. COVID-19 was no stranger to us and during
that year society experienced a lot of mental illness issue and a lot of people spoke out about it
and made it aware but now that world is back to “normal” it's as if it all went away. Now that
students are back in the classroom and having that face-to-face connection does not mean their
mental health went back to normal too. It is not certain that something like a virus shutting down
the world won't happen again and it should not take something as big as COVID-19 for people to
address the impact depression has on them and their ability to learn. This is a battle students fight
on a day-to-day basis, and it is more than necessary for people to be aware of it for it will only
worsen for future generations.
Cartreine, James. “More than Sad: Depression Affects Your Ability to Think.” Harvard Health,
6 May 2016, https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/sad-depression-affects-ability-think-
201605069551#:~:text=It%20can%20impair%20your%20attention,steps%20to%20get
%20something%20done).
Jones, Saria. “Mind Vomit: Mental Health Art.” PP New, PP New, 8 Oct. 2020,
https://www.theperspectiveproject.co.uk/post/2017/11/26/mind-vomit.
Alsubaie, M. M., et al. “The Role of Sources of Social Support on Depression and Quality of Life for
University Students.” International Journal of Adolescence & Youth, vol. 24, no. 4, Dec. 2019, pp. 484–
96. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1568887.
Amaral, Ana Paula, et al. “Sleep Difficulties in College Students: The Role of Stress, Affect and
Cognitive Processes.” Psychiatry Research, vol. 260, Feb. 2018, pp. 331–37. EBSCOhost,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.11.072.

ANNOTATED BIB FRESH

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

ANNOTATED BIB FRESH

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

ANNOTATED BIB FRESH

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Depression is a serious mental health issue that affects people worldwide, including a

effective plan or strategies to help students improve in school.

Depression is a mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of

student makes it feel nearly impossible to achieve anything.

community around an individual.

whirlwind of emotions and thoughts people with depression experience.

worsen for future generations.

You might also like