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Whether you are a third grader or a university student – anxiety and stress are both part and parcel of being a student. In fact, both of these mental health concerns have been detected by almost every teacher in every school. That is how common mental health is yet sadly, not much is discussed about this tabooed topic.

Mental health has led to many people taking their lives or causing themselves voluntary pain. For this reason, it is of paramount importance teachers equip themselves about mental health to better help and support students who are suffering.

Here are the ways teachers can help:

1. One-on-one Meetings

Students who suffer from mental health are either not aware of their emotions and actions – or, they are aware but are too shy and scared to open up to someone about it. Many a time, students want to open up about their mental health but shy away from doing so in the fear that they will be judged and misunderstood.

This is why teachers are encouraged to conduct personal meetings with students and understand what the causes of these emotional outbursts are. What are the factors causing them stress and anxiety? What are the things that trigger their emotions from going to normal to haywire? What are the things they find useful in preventing mental health outbreaks?

These meetings should take place either before or after class to let the student know they are supported and their efforts are appreciated.

2. Creating Coping Strategies

Teachers and students are both required to sit down together and list down the strategies that will help students in combatting these withdrawals. This could be anything from taking a brief walk in the school park or practice breathing exercises when an anxiety attack seems to be approaching. More ideas can be suggested by the students themselves and can be adjusted to their routine at home and school. Similarly, many students are stressed because of their dissertations not getting approved because of weak dissertation proposals. Encourage them to take dissertation proposal writing help to eliminate stress.

3. Validation

Before jumping to problem-solving these concerns, it is always a good idea to first validate the student’s feelings. Students are already overwhelmed by their racing thoughts and anxiety attacks, and would rather be calmed down first with validation instead of jumping to problem-solving.

So saying things like “I have been in your shoes before” or “What you are feeling is relevant and valid” can easily calm the student down and may even halve their anxiety just by the use of some caring words.

The thing teachers should be careful of is shaming their students for feeling anxiety and/or depression. Rather, they should create an open and friendly space for them to voice their feelings and thoughts.

4. Providing Additional Help

In extreme cases, many students may still want to seek additional assistance and thus should be referred to student counselors or psychologists. This could be because students are experiencing major mental health symptoms which require assistance from mental health care professionals and not local student counselors.

For students whose mental health symptoms are severe and unmanageable, they may be suggested to undergo special education programs and receive additional support.