Academic Success DOES NOT EQUATE Lack of Problem

Today I heard a story about a student dealing with anxiety. She doesn't generally have problems at school, but a meeting was called to create a plan in case she does have problems at school. Most of the teachers saw the meeting as pointless because the student hasn't had problems at school. Upon hearing the story, one of my peers immediately blurted that since the student was having problems at home, it was the parents' problem to figure out. The attitudes implicated were that the parents had no right to call such a meeting. It was a waste of the teachers' time. It wasn't their problem to deal with. It makes me both sad and angry to know that this happened and that these attitudes exist. Because treating a mental health issue this way doesn't work. I'm living proof.
I was always academically successful in school. And most any issues I had that could have been early warning signs of depression and social anxiety, I was often able to bottle up until I got home. Because home was my comfort zone. Because I knew whatever I said or did at home, my parents would still love me. I wasn't so sure about the outside world. I'm still not sure about the outside world most days, in fact. But that's my social anxiety talking, and I'm working on it.
Things for me didn't really become an issue until I started high school. My sophomore year of high school was difficult. After years of loving and trusting almost all of my teachers, one teacher's disrespect for anyone different from him left me in fear of all my teachers. I entered my junior year that way and was also met with an intensely difficult course load. In addition, my greatest rock at school had gone off to college, and I was facing a dark epiphany about the inner-workings of my church. Then in the midst of this already difficult year, the only teacher I wasn't at all leery of at the time, committed suicide. I wasn't as close with him as other students were, but the event still hit me hard and sent my year into a deeper spiral.
The school had encouraged students to talk to the counselor to work through the grieving process. Since I wasn't ever in that inner choir circle, I felt like I didn't have the right to get help, or even express my emotions around students who had known our choir director better. Furthermore, I had been convinced for a year that I was never going to have depression. I threw myself into schoolwork, and let everything out when I was at home
I've known for a while that my parents had tried talking to my school counselor about getting help for me, and that my parents had been frustrated at the response of my counselor and later my principal. I didn't learn until a few days ago that my parents went as far as to schedule an appointment for me with my school counselor; she later canceled the appointment for unknown reasons. My parents tried to reschedule said appointment, and she never got back to them. Later, my parents discussed this occurrence with my principal who listened intently and proceeded to do nothing. Suddenly the term "failing school" has new meaning in my mind.
I don't know why what happened to me did, but I've always suspected that since I was doing fine academically and I never disrupted the class, I must be okay. Maybe a little sensitive, but I'd grow out of it eventually. I think, at least to some extent, I believed that for a long time.
But there seems to be this general attitude that if a student is doing fine in school and doesn't get into any trouble, then they must not have any problems. Because students with problems exhibit poor grades. Students with problems get into trouble. But that's not true. I'm living proof.
When I heard the story about a student with anxiety, I saw a piece of myself in her. But she's luckier than I was. Because someone at the school determined that her anxiety was important enough to schedule a meeting to plan how to deal with it if it becomes a problem at school. Because she has a good relationship with her school counselor.
But somewhere along the line, attitudes have to change.  Teachers shouldn't be blowing off mental health issues just because the issues don't affect a student's time in the classroom. Problems have a way of eventually spilling over into entire lives if not handled effectively to begin with. Not that it's fully a school problem. Or a teacher problem. That's the world I have been and will be immersed in my whole life, so I notice it more there. It's a societal issue. And it has to change.