Lesson 24: Anxiety & Depression

Lesson 24: Anxiety & Depression

Lesson Resources

Learning Objectives

The purpose of this lesson is for teachers to discuss the impact of anxiety and depression on their students, colleagues, communities, and themselves. Teachers will define various emotional conditions, reflect on their own health, discuss mental health trends, research best practices, proactively problem-solve some issues at school, and learn about available resources.

Lesson Content

Depression and anxiety affect people’s work, well-being, and life satisfaction. Educators witness first-hand how mental health affects students, administrators, staff, and even themselves. These conditions can be complex to handle, so understanding what they are is a great place to start:

  • Anxiety: “an emotion characterized by apprehension and somatic symptoms of tension in which an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune. The body often mobilizes itself to meet the perceived threat: Muscles become tense, breathing is faster, and the heart beats more rapidly… Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat, whereas fear is an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat.” (APA Dictionary)
  • Depression: “a negative affective state, ranging from unhappiness and discontent to an extreme feeling of sadness, pessimism, and despondency, that interferes with daily life. Various physical, cognitive, and social changes also tend to co-occur, including altered eating or sleeping habits, lack of energy or motivation, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, and withdrawal from social activities.” (APA Dictionary)

Everyone experiences sadness and worry. That’s part of life. However, when sadness and worry turn into long-lasting emotions that affect daily life, it may be time to get some professional help. There are many resources within schools and communities that students and staff can utilize. Identifying signs and symptoms within ourselves and others can be the first step toward improving mental health.

Signs and symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder from the Mayo Clinic:

  • Persistent worrying or anxiety about a number of areas that are out of proportion to the impact of the events
  • Overthinking plans and solutions to all possible worst-case outcomes
  • Perceiving situations and events as threatening, even when they aren’t
  • Difficulty handling uncertainty
  • Indecisiveness and fear of making the wrong decision
  • Inability to set aside or let go of a worry
  • Inability to relax, feeling restless, and feeling keyed up or on edge
  • Difficulty concentrating, or the feeling that your mind “goes blank”
  • Fatigue
  • Trouble sleeping
  • Muscle tension or muscle aches
  • Trembling, feeling twitchy
  • Nervousness or being easily startled
  • Sweating
  • Nausea, diarrhea, or irritable bowel syndrome
  • Irritability

Signs and symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder from the Mayo Clinic:

  • Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness, or hopelessness
  • Angry outbursts, irritability, or frustration, even over small matters
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities, such as sex, hobbies, or sports
  • Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much
  • Tiredness and lack of energy, so even small tasks take extra effort
  • Reduced appetite and weight loss or increased cravings for food and weight gain
  • Anxiety, agitation, or restlessness
  • Slowed thinking, speaking, or body movements
  • Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or self-blame
  • Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions, and remembering things
  • Frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, or suicide
  • Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches
  • In younger children, symptoms of depression may include sadness, irritability, clinginess, worry, aches and pains, refusing to go to school, or being underweight.
  • In teens, symptoms may include sadness, irritability, feeling negative and worthless, anger, poor performance or poor attendance at school, feeling misunderstood and extremely sensitive, using recreational drugs or alcohol, eating or sleeping too much, self-harm, loss of interest in normal activities, and avoidance of social interaction.

Essential Terms

anxiety, depression

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: (20 minutes) MATCHING VOCABULARY

As a group, create a word cloud using either a whiteboard or an online anonymous poll website (e.g. Poll Everywhere) to answer the following question as a group: What word comes to mind when you hear anxiety and/or depression?

Divide participants into groups of 3–4. Then pass out the Matching Vocabulary cards to each group along with a pair of scissors. Invite them to sort the cards, matching the definition with the vocabulary word. After sufficient time, reveal the answers on the slideshow.

Next, invite groups to sort the vocabulary words into piles, based on similarities and differences that they find. Then groups should name a category for each of their piles. There are no correct answers for sorting or categorizing. The purpose of this activity is to compare and contrast various conditions, so answers may vary.

Have a discussion:

  • Did anything from the definitions surprise you?
  • What conditions were similar? In what ways?
  • What conditions were different? In what ways?
  • How might these conditions affect the well-being of students or staff?

Activity 2: (15 minutes) SPECTRUM

Have teachers think-pair-share using the following prompt:

How do you know when normal sadness or worrying has become a bigger problem?

Display the picture of the anxiety/depression spectrum. Invite teachers to privately journal for 5 minutes about the prompt: Where on the spectrum would you usually plot yourself? What personal clues or observations did you use to come to that conclusion?

Have a discussion:

  • Do you believe this spectrum is an accurate model for everyone? Why or why not?
  • What might someone’s life look like at different parts of the spectrum? (e.g., far left, center-left, direct center, center-right, far right)

Activity 3: (20 minutes) MENTAL HEALTH TRENDS

Analyze the statistics together, pulled from Mental Health America (MHA).

Have a discussion:

  • What anecdotal observations have you made about depression and anxiety in schools from your vantage point?
  • What have you noticed about mental health amongst adults at school and in your communities?
  • What are some factors that may contribute to mental health trends?

Watch the following videos. As participants watch, have them pay attention to the differences between everyday sadness or worry compared with clinical depression and anxiety. Invite teachers to share their thoughts.

Have a discussion:

  • What signs of depression or anxiety have you observed in your students?
  • How does depression or anxiety affect your students in school? socially? emotionally?
  • Have you discovered any ways to support or differentiate your teaching for students who are suffering from mental illnesses? If so, what has worked?

Activity 4: (30 minutes) BEST PRACTICES

Divide the teachers into 6 groups. Teachers will use reputable sources (e.g., “.org” “.edu” “.gov”) to research their assigned group topic. Provide the list of recommended websites on the slideshow.

Group 1: Best Practices for Students with Anxiety

Group 2: Best Practices for Students with Depression

Group 3: Best Practices for Adults with Anxiety

Group 4: Best Practices for Adults with Depression

Group 5: Best Practices for Personal Anxiety

Group 6: Best Practices for Personal Depression

Next, pass out a Best Practices for Anxiety and Depression handout to each teacher. As each group presents the information that they researched (citing each source that they used), invite educators to take notes on the best practices that they learn about during the presentations.

Extension: For a deeper dive, invite teachers to read through a historic timeline of how people with mental illnesses were treated through the ages, written by PBS. Discuss what advances we have made and where you think treatments of mental illnesses are headed.

Have a discussion:

  • What do you think inspires emotional resilience in your students?
  • What are the challenges of implementing these best practices?
  • How does the teaching profession affect your own mental health?

Activity 5: (20 minutes) PROACTIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING

Invite teachers to call out answers to this question while they are listed on the board:

What are the elements of your job that most influence feelings of worry/anxiety or sadness/depression?

Explain that the lesson will come back to this list later. Next, read the quotes about building resilience:

  • Resilience means being able to adapt to life’s misfortunes and setbacks… Resilience won’t make your problems go away—but resilience can give you the ability to see past them, find enjoyment in life and better handle stress. If you aren’t as resilient as you’d like to be, you can develop and learn skills to become more resilient.” (Mayo Clinic)
  • “Resilience can help protect you from various mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety. Resilience can also help offset factors that increase the risk of mental health conditions, such as being bullied or previous trauma. If you have an existing mental health condition, being resilient can improve your coping ability.” (Mayo Clinic)
  • One tip to improve your resilience is to be proactive. “Don’t ignore your problems. Instead, figure out what needs to be done, make a plan and take action. Although it can take time to recover from a major setback, traumatic event or loss, know that your situation can improve if you work at it.” (Mayo Clinic)

Educators will now get to proactively problem solve based on one or more of the elements listed on the board. Pass out the Creative Problem Solving handout to each teacher. Walk through the 2 examples on the slideshow together. Invite teachers to fill out their form and collaborate with people around them. Encourage them to discuss their simple solutions with anyone that they would like to involve, reminding everyone not to take on too much.

Have several people share their problems and solutions, if they are comfortable.

Extension: Repeat this lesson with students in your class.

  1. List things from school that cause worry or sadness.
  2. Pass out the Creative Problem Solving handout to each student and have them fill it out based on something that could help them personally.
  3. Encourage students to talk to others or the people that they plan to reach out to.
  4. Invite some students to share their plan, if they feel comfortable.
  5. Debrief after a week and have students write and reflect on how their plan went.

Have a discussion:

  • How can systems both add and eliminate problems?
  • How can we create a school atmosphere where people feel supported?
  • What are some simple adaptations that we can make as a school to help students and staff with their worry/anxiety or sadness/depression?

Activity 6: (45+ minutes) AVAILABLE RESOURCES

Invite a school psychologist, district specialist, or community expert to come and speak to the staff about mental health resources that are available for students and staff. They can also share their thoughts on best practices for school settings. Ask teachers to come prepared with any questions that they have for these experts.

Discussion/Journal Prompts

  • How can mental health shift and change? Is there anything specific that triggers those shifts/changes?
  • What are some of the top concerning symptoms of anxiety or depression that you see within your students?
  • What is one simple practice that you believe would help increase our collective sensitivity to mental health issues in our school/community?
  • How can mindset affect clinical anxiety or depression? Any limitations?
  • What kinds of mental health resources would you like to see available?

Strategies

  • Pay attention to concerning signs and symptoms.
  • Build positive relationships with loved ones and colleagues.
  • Find meaning and purpose in work, play, and rest.
  • Reflect on the success of past coping strategies.
  • Surround yourself with hopeful content and people.
  • Keep up with your healthy routines and habits.
  • Be proactive and take action.

References

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