Have you ever felt like you were somewhere other than where you were? Like you were physically there, but mentally not. Many teens nowadays, including myself, feel this way. At school is where it is most common for teens to put up a front for everyone, and can potentially be bottling things up inside. Unfortunately, we try to mask what we feel with smiles on our faces, which are typically fake. I’m not implying every teenager is faced with some type of mental illness, but a handful of us are. 

In an article, “Q: My Teen is Bottling Up His Emotions. How Can I Encourage Him to Share Them?” by Sharon Saline, Psy.D. The article explains a lot of the time when teens bottle up their emotions, it has to do with growing up believing being independent is how it should always be. Also, a large factor for mental illness in teens, as of right now,  is the long period of quarantining caused by Covid-19. Not being able to see friends and staying inside does more emotional damage than we thought. 

I have noticed when I am most “mentally gone” is when I’m tired. This most commonly happens to me when I don’t want to deal with anything anymore and find that most things exhaust me. Like, at school many students fall asleep, I am one of those students. I don’t sleep because I’m tired, I sleep because I’m mentally not there. Teachers can blame this on going to sleep too late, but there are other factors students could potentially have going on. 

When I’m mentally gone I feel lost, I feel as if I’m in my own world, It’s like I left reality. You can’t run away from the real world, but when I do want to, it is when I sleep. It’s not okay to feel like this all of the time, but there are stages that everyone goes through in life where they just feel down. They feel like nothing is going the way they want. Nobody’s life is perfect and that’s completely fine. So, if you are dealing with anything similar to this, you’re not alone. Please don’t be afraid to reach out.