By Dr. Anthony Policastro

I have been to several reunions. I attended the 50th reunion of my high school class. I attended the 50th reunion of my college class. The 50th reunion of my medical school class was canceled due to COVID.

One of the things that many of us fail to recognize when we are in school is that the future is not yet written. For example, I was two years behind Rudy Giuliani in both high school and college. We did not know that he was going to be the future mayor of New York City.

I was two years ahead of the actor, Vincent Schiavelli. He is an easily recognizable movie star. One of his more famous roles was as the subway spirit in the movie, Ghost. “Get off my train.” He was in the drama club, but we did not see the fame he would attain.

I was one year ahead of James Patterson in college. We did not anticipate the heights to which he would rise as an author.

Many of us attended school years ago, and we have somehow lost sight of the pressure that a school puts on the average student.

The academic pressure is a given. The need to study and pass exams is expected. However, there are often comparisons to other students. The impact of not being as good as those students can lead to symptoms of depression.

Social skills are an important part of the transition to adulthood. Developing them has always been a challenge. However, the challenge has increased dramatically with the advent of social media. Selfies are photoshopped to make one look better than the actual photo. Criticism on social media takes on the form of cyberbullying. Many students feel that their lives are not good enough in comparison. It is easy to see how this too can lead to the symptoms of depression.

Over-scheduling is an issue. School activities are important. However, sports activities take up an inordinate amount of time. Other extracurricular activities can be demanding. Some students have part time jobs. The end result often is chronic fatigue and sleep deprivation.

There is a tendency for parents to not have their children cope with failure. Everyone gets a participation trophy. Disappointment is not acceptable. This leads to a failure to develop appropriate coping skills for later failures which are a definite part of life. This too can cause depression symptoms later in life.

School is not only about academics. It is also about friendships and relationships. Isolation from others both physically and on social media can lead to symptoms of depression.

All of this is compounded by the physical changes that students go through. They may be normal adolescent changes. They may be intellectual changes. We sometimes forget that the brain does not really reach maturity until age 25.

The obvious question is how bad are all these effects. The answer is supported by statistics. Almost 40 percent of high school students report feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Over 20 percent have considered suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 10 and 34 years. About 10 percent of high school students have attempted suicide.

Sometimes these individuals are difficult to identify. However, that is the challenge for parents, teachers and classmates. There are always challenges. This is just once more.

When we were in school we could not have predicted the future fame of individuals like Rudy Giuliani, Vincent Schiavelli and James Patterson. We could also not always predict the depression that is around us. 

I started medical school with 200 students in my class. Of that group, 199 graduated. The other one threw himself off the top of the hospital. It was a surprise to us. Perhaps we were not as perceptive as we all should have been.