Notes From My Knapsack 6-21-18

Notes From My Knapsack 6-21-18

Jeff Gill

 

Depression, Anxiety, and Community

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If I were to tell you that 30% of our school children had head lice, you'd definitely read the rest of this column.

 

I did say "if" and I am glad this is well into the summer so no one can glance across this and get the wrong idea. They don't.

 

But if I said 30% or more of Granville Schools kids had head lice, I think I'm not getting too far out on a limb to say that the school administration would have a head lice task force, and also the families and parent associations and community as a whole would be responding in a variety of ways (the CVS would be selling out of certain products, I'm sure). Our local culture would respond somehow: maybe head shaving would come into fashion, or folks would compare recipes of mayonnaise and olive oil hair treatments and buy shower caps with hip, cool logos and colors. It would be the talk of Broadway.

 

A district in Connecticut has been in the news lately, Wilton High School. You can look up more online by searching them, but the upshot is that a survey done their found high levels of sadness, anxiety, and depression, at or higher than those found in . . . wait for it . . . war zones or inner city schools with major social and economic issues.

 

And Wilton, Connecticut sounds an awful lot like Granville.

 

Meanwhile, we hear from the CDC that the national suicide rate is up some 30%, with Ohio up around 36%. Suicide is the tenth most common cause of death in the United States, and on the increase; among young people it's more like second place.

 

Granville Schools have been putting a priority on mental and social health in recent years; they have a Wellness Committee, and the school counselors at all levels, but especially in the high school, have been working on promoting mental health and positive coping skills for years. Alongside of county initiatives like "Our Futures" which is sponsored by the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Licking & Knox Counties, and Licking Memorial Health Systems, the school staff and teachers are all aware of the pressure our students are under. Some self-imposed, not a little of it imposed by our general expectations as a community. We're a high achieving kind of place, and we have many unspoken as well as obvious expectations about doing well, and doing better than that.

 

Wilton took it on themselves to look honestly at the levels of anxiety and stress in their high school, and found out that 30% of their students had head lice. Wait, no, strike that.

 

If that many students had lead lice, we'd all know pretty much exactly what to do. If our youth have documentable, measurable levels of anxiety and stress well above the norm, there's no simple prescription shampoo or designer shower camp we can purchase. It takes – as does fighting head lice, actually, or bed bugs – changes in behavior, in assumptions, in actions.

 

As a community, I'd love to give us a place to talk about some of those changes and adjustments we need. And for those who find the pressures of life and the impact of depression hurting more and more, as well as for those who love them, there's help a phone call away: the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255, and our local 2-1-1 operated by Pathways is there to advise or help.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's not sure you caught it the first time, so: the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Or you can email him for the number at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter. Or call 2-1-1!