By: Liliana Rodriguez, David Lopez, Esmeralda Reyes, and Jose Mendoza

High school can be stressful and it can be full of problems. High school can also cause depression.
Freshman: What is Depression? Depression is a very serious illness that affects how you feel. Depression causes you sadness and affects your daily life in a negative way. It is something that many people do not want to talk about but it is a very important topic. Freshmen do not seem as much depressed as compared to the other grade levels. When asked on a scale from 1-10, how depressed you feel, 1 being the least depressed and 10 being the most depressed, the common answer was 0 or 1.

“1, I am a very happy person and I do not have time to be depressed” says freshman Judah Orellana.

“0, I am not depressed I’m always positive and never let anything get to me” says freshman Kevin Lopez.

“1 I do not care, and I am not depressed, my family keeps me motivated and happy” says Victor Guzman.

Based on these responses, freshmans were not depressed. Maybe because they are barely starting high school or they want to ignore the topic and not speak up about it. Freshman is just the start but for the other upper levels you can actually see the impact.

Sophomores:
There are different types of levels of depression that student face in grade now that they’re getting closer to graduation. There’s thing to worry about such as grades and getting high scores on tests. There were a few students who were not stressed about school but others were stressed for those reasons.

When asked, on a scale from 1-10, how depressed would you say you are and if , their answers were a 3,5, and 0

3“Sometimes there are problems at home and sometimes in school because of the test”(Esther Diaz)

5“School could have contributed to it by stressing me with work and overall caring about getting good grades by any means possible”(Elias Patino)

0“There’s really nothing that I stress about in school since I am able to keep up with my work”(Miguel Diaz)

Juniors: Through the years many the students have been through many problems outside and inside of school. They have been in school for 2 years and have been through stressful positions in school. Many of the students say they have been feeling more stress and because of that they say they feel more depressed than as a freshman.
When asked on a scale from 1-10, how depressed, How would you consider yourself?

“I think i’m a 5 because things happen in school”
“I think i’m a 6 because some has to do with family and a lot of stress like AP classes and honors classes like you always have to do well in those classes and has got me really stressed and depressed”
“I think i am a 7 because of school cuz a lot of people here are terrible and annoying people here. CLasses also stress me out cuz they give me a lot of homework”

Seniors:
Three years down and one more to go, seniors at APB have been through a lot of change and a lot of challenges. Applying to college and deciding what they will do for probably the rest of their life is a scary prospect to most. Because of this, many students near the end of their high school career might have more unanswered questions than they did when they first started during their freshman year.

“When you’re a freshman, everything is important, but now I just wonder how am I important?” says senior Alexis Muñoz.

When asked, on a scale from 1-10, how depressed would you say you are, his answer was 9.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the cause for his depression is school, but Muñoz describes how he feels like “a pawn in someone else’s game” which could be a result of the strict schedule and deadlines students must abide by.

But is does this apply to all seniors at APB? In some ways yes, but in others no
When asked about what he ranks himself, senior Jessy Alvardo states, “I’m like a 2 since I’m not that depressed, but I’ve just been thinking about things lately” referring to more personal matters, “But looking back at freshman year, the workload increases over time in order to prepare you for college and that’s what stresses me out”

And according to WebMD, “Too much stress, or chronic stress may lead to major depression in susceptible people” So it is reasonable to assume that those who do not know how to deal with the stress that school brings in a healthy way will more than likely end up slightly or even fully more depressed.