Teachers of Reddit, when can you tell if a student is going through depression or self-loathing? If so, what do you try to do to help?

Most of the time yes. In high school kids aren’t as good as they think they are at hiding it. I can usually tell pretty quickly. They wear their hearts on their sleeves and can manifest in a lot of ways. Whether it’s a lot of inappropriate joking about it, a lot of overcompensating, being distant, or inconsistencies in academic performance.

What I do about it depends on the situation. I always tell the counselor just so it’s on their radar. I keep that in mind while I teach. And if I have a good enough relationship with the student I’ll pull them out of a class during my prep and ask them how they’re doing and see if they open up. They usually do they want to talk. I tell them I care about them, that we as a school have their back, that my doors always open, and that our counselor is trained to talk through stuff like this and would love to talk. If the situation calls for it I’ll tell them I’ve gone through that stuff and you’re not alone and there are ways out.

I’m also trained in Suicide prevention, talking people through those thoughts and try to get them to a safe place with support. So if it calls for it which it has a couple times, I do that.

/r/AskReddit Thread