Mental Health Implications for High-Achieving Students

A student is at a table in a library
surrounded by a couple of piles of
books. The student, seemingly frustrated,
lays head down in arms on top of a
pile of books on the table. 

As mental health awareness grows, high achieving students are becoming a huge part of the conversation. These students seem to breeze through school, clubs, and other extra curriculars, but what many don't realize is the true cost of all of that pressure at such a young age. Many families and parents highly prioritize good grades for their children, especially those labeled as "gifted" or "high-achieving." Most parents place pressure on their children to do well in school with the good intentions of wanting a secure future for their children. However, with most of the children in these accelerated programs facing the same pressure to succeed, it creates a very competitive environment within the classroom as well. The combination of pressure from parents and peers, and seeking approval from authority figures makes these children more prone to chronic stress, which then negatively affects students' mental and physical wellbeing. While the effects of chronic stress in gifted students usually do not come to the surface until high school or college, the process starts very early. As many high-achieving elementary school students breeze through academic contests, and are praised for their intellectual abilities, when they face academic challenges and even failures later in their schooling, they tend to come unglued. Stress levels rise as students are not preforming as well and losing that much sought-after validation from teachers and parents, and this causes higher rates of anxiety, depression, and even substance abuse. For these reasons, it is important that these gifted students are identified early, and they receive the proper counseling and education, to ensure that they become healthy adults in terms of mental health.

The conversation about high-achieving students and mental health is very personal to me. As a "gifted"  student myself, I participated in accelerated instruction beginning in elementary school. I remember even being pulled out of classes to attend special classes with other high-achieving peers in my school's "Talented and Gifted Program." We would get to read and discuss advanced literature, complete special assignments and projects, and still spend the majority of our time in our general education classrooms. However, the high stakes and competitive atmosphere of these classes later proved to do more harm than good. In high school, taking almost exclusively honors and AP courses really took a toll on my mental health. Not only was I becoming more and more discouraged as the material in these courses was more challenging, I never had to learn how to struggle or study, and my grades were slipping. This caused an internal battle, as the perfectionist student that I had always been, could no longer exist so effortlessly. I began avoiding most of my school work, because if I didn't do it, I couldn't do it wrong. It was at this point in my life that I realized that I no longer enjoyed learning. My goal as an educator is to reduce the amount of stress that my students are experiencing in the classroom. I hope to make learning fun, and as stress-free as possible for all of my students. My own experiences with mental health as a student make me extremely passionate about mental health in education, and I will always emphasize the importance of this issue within my school and classroom.