With the end of the fall approaching, the school year brings the deadline of college applications, the beginning of SAT testing, and the first nine weeks report cards. The fall season also brings stress, anxiety, and school induced depression. Now, it is very common for students to have stress and anxiety over school, however, it is starting to become a more serious problem than what most people make it out to be.

Many students are becoming very stressed out about school, because they are trying to ensure that they have a bright future. For most students, doing good on the standardized testing and maintaining good grades will decide whether or not they will go to  a good college.

“I’m very stressed about the deadlines. Everything is all happening right now and even though teachers are telling us to calm down, senior year is going to go by in the blink of an eye,” senior Kamberlin Gallardo said.

As students become stressed out with school work, they become easily influenced to do things that they aren’t supposed to  do, in order to do well. According to CNN, 75% of high school students, especially AP and Honor students, have been shown to cheat more on their tests and exams than regular students. The undeniable want to be successful and do well for either themselves, or their parents, is the main cause for student stress in school.

“It can be overwhelming,” psychiatrist Dr.Hall told Web MD. “Students are put in a position where they feel that they must not stop. They are put in an environment where they are not accepted for themselves but only for what they are going to achieve. All of this builds stress.”

Although students becoming stressed about school does not seem like a major problem, it is very serious. The stress over work can often result in health related problems like depression. MHA (Mental Health in America)say that 1 in 5 teenagers are depressed due to school related activities. Of this 20%, recent studies show that  70% of them commit self harm as well, doing things such as cutting, burning, or scratching themselves as a way to relieve stress. The overwhelming stress caused by a  large amounts of senior work, and the pressure for underclassman to soon follow in their footsteps, is what can cause many stress induced illnesses such as depression and anxiety. It is suggested that if any students are showing any signs of overzealous stress or harmful thoughts that they talk to a guidance counselor or children’s psychiatrist.

“I’ve been trying to use my time wisely, so that I can enjoy my senior year. However, its difficult to manage many things at once, so I lose some hours of rest,” said Senior, Elizabeth Graves. “I guess you could say I’m a tad bit stressed.”

And as important as it is for students to try to relax, it is also important for parents to try to reduce the amount of stress they put on their children.

“Parents are too often very preoccupied with seeing their children succeed and intolerant of anything other than excellence,” Hall said. “We as schools and we as parents need to remind ourselves that sustained excellence is not natural. It is not how we, ourselves, operate.”