Cass County students open up about mental health

Mar. 21—The following is the first in a three-part series about mental health among teenagers. Students interviewed in this story are being identified only by an initial to protect their privacy. Coming Friday, students open up about their school workload and the role it plays in their depression and anxiety.

F recalled the first time she experienced depression and anxiety.

It was winter. She was in the sixth grade at Lewis Cass. Her father was fighting a lot with his now ex. Her brother was also struggling with his mental health.

"It was a really rough winter and that's when I remember starting to have issues," she said. "I got really disinterested in everything. And everything really made me anxious and stressed me out. My stomach was hurting all the time. I was always nauseous, had a headache."

Mental health has been an up and down issue for F. The isolation of COVID was difficult. A break-up. The anxiety symptoms are often the same each time—stomachaches and headaches—while the depression made it difficult to do anything.

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 to 24.

During the 2023-24 school year, Cass County has lost two young men to suicide, both Lewis Cass Students.

Gavin Griffin died Aug. 31, 2023. He was 16. Dalton Eades died Jan. 22, 2024. He was 14. Before them was Parker Abbott, a 14-year-old Lewis Cass student, who died in 2022.

Cass County teens are stressed about many things these days. The Tribune surveyed 52 high school students from Cass County schools and interviewed eight of them. Stress from school was often one of the top reasons they attributed to their poor mental health. From trying to stay on top of their grades to overwhelming themselves with extracurricular activities, many of the teens felt both mentally and physically exhausted.

Many worried about the future and the world they will inherit from Baby Boomers and Gen-X. Some were predisposed to having depression and anxiety. Social media, often blamed for young people's mental health, was mentioned at times but hardly ever pointed at as the primary culprit.

This story isn't meant to solve the Cass County mental health problem. While the Tribune hoped to provide some insight into the problem, ultimately, it became an opportunity for local students to talk about what was troubling them.

The stats

The Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse and Suicide reported that, beginning in 1999, Indiana had a higher suicide rate among young people between the ages of 10-19.

The Indiana suicide rate for those aged 10-24 jumped 60% between 2008-2018.

In 2021, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention ranked Indiana 17th in the nation with a total of 1,129 suicides, including children and adults.

To begin research for this story, a simple survey was sent to approximately 30 high school students from Logansport and Pioneer on Instagram.

By the time the survey was closed, 52 local students had responded thanks to the survey being shared by the students with their friends and help from Nikki Malott, project coordinator for Stand UP Cass County and founder of Project HOPE 929 Inc.

Nearly 27% of respondents were 16, the largest age group. The youngest of the 52 students were 13, making up 2% of the survey responses.

When it came to depression, 78.8% of the students said they had experienced some form of short-term depression. Forty-six percent of the students were coping with long-term depression.

Forty-six percent of the students were seeing a therapist. 19% of the students were using medication to help treat their mental health symptoms.

Over 93% of the respondents said they had experienced some form of anxiety and nearly 85% said anxiety had kept them from doing something they wanted to do.

Seventy-one percent of students who responded said they had thought of hurting themselves. Forty percent followed through with those thoughts of self-harm. That rounds up to 21 of the 52 students.

Nearly 60% had experienced suicidal thoughts. Twenty-one percent, 11 of the 52 students, said they had acted on those thoughts.

Approximately 27% of the students said they would be embarrassed if people found out if they were being treated for mental health issues.

The students

When it came to interviews, students had the option to include their email on the survey. Thirty-five percent of the students supplied an email and female students were more willing to talk about their experiences compared to their male counterparts. Students who gave their email but answered they would feel embarrassed if people found out they were being treated for mental health were not included in the interviews. In the end, seven female students and one male were interviewed. The student was eventually removed as his story did not quite fit with the article.

Along with F, the students interviewed included:

* M, a Logansport senior.

M was considered an overly-emotional child by their parents when they was younger. They recalled getting so anxious they would pull their hair out, leaving bald spots.

"Ninth and 10th grade were the worst," they said. "I didn't know if I could see myself in the future. Now, it's more anxiety, but I can see myself with a life."

M said a lot of their anxiety stemmed from the many activities they are involved with at school, along with a part-time job to help their family out.

* C, a Logansport senior.

C said they experienced seasonal depression in January and February, but also pointed out those months hold traumatic anniversaries for them.

They described their anxiety as feeling as if they can't catch their breath. They also experienced fainting episodes.

"It's weird because a lot of people who haven't experienced panic attacks don't understand that I'm not crying because I'm anxious," they said. "I'm crying because I feel like I can't breathe. It feels like I'm running a million miles a minute in my head but my body is moving in slow motion. It feels like I can't catch up to what I need to be doing."

* C, a Pioneer junior.

Mental health is a priority in C's family. They recalled a relative dying from suicide when they were very young. Much like F, depression and anxiety hit them in the sixth grade.

"I could sense there were some feelings I was having that weren't probably normal for a lot of kids my age," they said. "There were things that I acted on, thoughts of self-harming. My depression, I still have it to this day. There's a lot of anxiety. But I have been helped for that. Some of that never goes away but it's something you learn to deal with."

For C, anxiety often involves difficulty breathing. They will feel clammy and cold and often begin crying.

* M, a Pioneer sophomore.

M said a lot of their anxiety stems from the need for academic validation. They remembered their parents talking about the importance of doing well in school and they took it to heart.

"For me, it's gone a lot deeper," they said. "I took the advice as a kindergartner and was like, ok, I'm running with this. It's become a thing where I have to do well. I have to be the best. I have to get the highest grade. I have to do the best on this project. I have to understand this or I feel like I'm failing. And then I feel like that's going to throw my path off."

* E, a Logansport senior.

E said they have never felt any depression before, but first experienced anxiety two years ago.

"I had this really bad panic attack to the point where I couldn't breathe," they said. "I just remember being on my floor, just — it sounds stupid — but I was curled up and I just wanted it to end. I didn't want to feel like that anymore. I felt like my chest was going to collapse. I was crying. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even talk."

E thought anxiety was a thing of the past for them but said they recently began experiencing attacks again.

* J, a Logansport senior.

J called their depression a shape-shifter, after a poem called "Explaining My Depression to My Mother: A Conversation," by Sabrina Benaim.

"One day it is genuinely so small that I don't even think about it and I'm not sad at all," they said. "I just go throughout my day. Other days, it's just weighing down on me. You can just tell I'm weighed down. My anxiety is definitely very noticeable. I'm a shaky person and everyone notices it."

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