- During the pandemic, mental health crisis became a serious issue, depressed and anxiety symptoms in youth increased, with 25% feeling depressive symptoms and 20% having anxiety symptoms.
- In recent years, adolescent depressive symptoms have been on the rise.
- Compared to the same time in early 2019, emergency department visits in the United States for suspected suicide attempts were 51 percent higher for females and 4 percent higher for boys in early 2021.
While we continue to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, another health crisis is rapidly approaching. In the middle of the epidemic, the US Surgeon General published a public health advice on the mental health crisis issues that children and teens are confronting. Depressed and anxiety symptoms in adolescents increased during the pandemic, according to the Surgeon General’s study, with 25% of kids suffering depressive symptoms and 20% experiencing anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, compared to the same time in early 2019, emergency department visits in the United States for suspected suicide attempts were 51 percent higher for females and 4 percent higher for boys in early 2021.
“A significant layer of this also has to do with the discrimination [in the U.S.] that has come to light. It increases the vulnerability for families of color, [as well as people struggling with] sexual identity and orientation,” Lois said.
Pre-pandemic depression and anxiety in youth
Even before the epidemic, depression and anxiety were on the rise among children and teens. In 2019, one out of every three high school pupils, including half of female students, expressed melancholy or pessimism. Trusted Source said that they were unable to engage in their normal activities in the previous year, an increase of 40% since 2009.
Experts claim it’s become more difficult to spot indicators of child abuse, mental health difficulties, and other challenges as a result of pandemic-related measures, such as diminished in-person contacts among friends, social supports, and specialists.
“Social isolation caused by the epidemic, stress at school, and conflict at home with stressed-out parents create a powder keg in the family.” During COVID, everyone has had an emotional experience,” stated Becky Lois, PhD. Lois is a clinical psychologist at the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone and co-director of the KiDS of NYU Foundation Integrated Behavioral Health Program at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital. Several variables may influence young people’s mental health, according to the World Health Organization’s Determinants of Adolescent Health Development. Social and economic inequities, neighborhood safety, school and community connections, family relationships, as well as age, color, ethnicity, and gender, are all factors. Lois also pointed out that stress was induced by more than simply the epidemic. Discriminated children are more likely to experience anxiety and sadness.
