Taunton High School students produce TED Talk on mental health
TAUNTON - Lost in the thought of color and delicate brush strokes, for Caitlin Lincoln creating watercolor art has become a way to help manage her anxiety.
"I find that it is a really cathartic experience for me to have that time alone with myself without any distraction," she said while painting a Greek temple at the kitchen table of her Taunton home.
Like countless other teens, the Taunton High senior struggled over the past couple of years with mental health.
"After the pandemic, everyone's anxiety, especially mine, was really heightened," she told WBZ-TV.
That sentiment is confirmed by government statistics. Data from The Centers for Disease Control show in 2021 37% of high school students reported poor mental health and 44% said they often felt sad or hopeless.
"The pandemic really hit that age group hard," explained Massachusetts General Hospital child psychologist Ellen Braaten. "Adolescence is really a time of getting away from your parents and making lots of social connections and that was curtailed for adolescents."
Caitlin and classmate Charlotte Post thought sharing their experiences regarding mental health might help their classmates, so they decided their high school club, Taunton High Ted Talks, was the perfect way to do it.
"We chose mental health because the three of us that were in the club last year had had our own struggles with mental health and not many people were talking about it," Post said.
They spent months researching, writing, and preparing their talks.
"Honestly, it's just practice, practice, practice to the point where you are comfortable speaking in front of 100 people," Post told WBZ..
Last spring, they presented their experiences, struggles and advice to a lecture hall full of classmates and teachers.
Post and a student who graduated last year spoke about self-care and the importance of checking in with others. Lincoln shared strategies that worked for her including exercise, putting her feelings down on paper in daily journal entries, and her artwork.
"It can produce something of beauty in times of darkness and give you hope," Lincoln said. "It's something that doesn't create a lot of stress for me, it's just fun."
Both students say producing the talk helped them realize there is not one definition of mental health.
"It can look different for every single person no matter what, if they're diagnosed with a disorder or not," Post said.
The girls are now running the TED Talk club and are currently working on a new TED talk for this year. They may choose a related topic - the music industry and how it impacts the self-image of teenagers.