Months before even knowing our teachers, even experiencing a Loyalty Day assembly or even entering the doors on the first day of school as a freshmen, we’re assigned a guidance counselor. Throughout our time in high school, we make regular trips to our guidance counselors. Some mandatory, others optional. While guidance counselors are definitely a crucial aspect of the planning process for high school and beyond, social workers are just as necessary and should be a required aspect of the high school process.

As an anxious, unhappy and stressed junior in high school last year, I took the initiative to go to therapy and seek help from a licensed clinical social worker. Weekly, I sort through my anxiety by discussing both school related topics, as well as family and friendships. At first, however, telling others about my social worker wasn’t easy.

Too often, a stigma is attached to the word “therapy.” Many times, people view those who seek counseling as “crazy” or “weak.” In reality, however, maintaining our mental health is just as important as obtaining our graduation requirements.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in 12 American teenagers is affected by depression, and three times as many will experience depression by age 18. Researchers have chosen to act upon this statistic, as illustrated in a 2009 study from the Journal of American Medical Association which demonstrates that a relatively modest intervention of therapy can prevent episodes of depression. The study goes further to recommend an interventionist model for schools to use therapy in hopes of providing advice to manage symptoms of mental illness. If our school implemented this strategy and required students to seek help from social workers, this would ultimately alleviate the stigma and improve the mental health of many students.

I’ve experienced the benefits of social work first-hand. While therapy isn’t necessarily a cure, it is a means of developing thoughts and actions to cope with different struggles. Maintaining our mental health is often lost in translation through the high expectations from society for us to succeed. When I see the sun rising before I even go to bed, guzzle my coffee for breakfast or feel nauseous from test anxiety, I am forgetting the importance of my well-being. Social work, however, acknowledges negative thoughts, feelings and actions and develops core values and principles to counteract such issues and put mental health at the forefront. Social workers are a support system to our mental health, and therefore we should be required to seek help from them in order to challenge the stigmas of society and manage ourselves properly.