By Kinsley Clark, Rachel Spivey, Breonna Wheatley, Abigail Wilcox (Journalism 1 students)

Mental illness isn’t just common in women, despite stereotypes. 77% of men have mental health problems like anxiety, depression, and stress, and 40% of them never speak up about it.

With the added pressure of school, and sometimes sports, students often get overwhelmed, leading to long-term problems.

“Many things can affect my mental health like getting a bad grade on a test or even little mistakes that don’t mean much,” freshman Landon Vaziri said.

Men’s mental health does not seem to get the same attention that women’s mental health gets, and men are not treated the same as women. It is easier for girls to talk about their mental health issues because girls get more support and sometimes if men talk about their mental health they are known as not manly or weak.

“It’s way different because girls are more upfront about it and because I’m a guy so I would feel like I have to hide it,” junior Landen Smith said.

Some people get stressed out a lot easier than others and have different things that stress them out and affect their mental health.

“School, waking up super early, and the stress of doing all of the school work really affects my mental health,” junior Jakeb Hornbeak said.

Although mental health is a very prominent thing in society, there are ways to cope with it. Sometimes, people cope differently than others, and it just takes time to find out what works best.

“I cope with my mental health by keeping my mind busy and picking up new hobbies,” Vaziri said.