By Ryan Afable
Mental health problems are a major issue in everyone’s life, but in this time where everything feels dreary and it is really hard to have hope, teens have been affected by this with the rise in mental health issues.
One of the biggest game changers was the COVID-19 pandemic, which made everyone quarantine and caused many mental health issues. It is very noticeable in teens who are still recovering. A survey was done by PubMed Central called “The Impact of Covid 19 on your Mental Health: A Mixed Methods Survey.” “593 young people with and without mental health care needs” were surveyed. The results “revealed high levels of clinical depression (48%), anxiety (51%), and loneliness in both samples.” The article also stated that “75.6% reported a negative impact on their work or study, 74.7% on their non-work life, and 75.6% on their mental health. In the general population, negative impacts were reported slightly more often across work and study, non-work life, and mental health, at 82.4%, 83.8%, and 86.0%, respectively.”
In 2022, over 49,000 people killed themselves. This is a worrying number in itself, and within that number, 13.6% were people aged 15-24 and 2.4% were kids aged 10 to 14. There is no set reason for why someone would decide to commit suicide. In many cases it is a bunch of small things that slowly add up until you can’t handle it anymore. People should be able to feel like they can talk to others about what they are going through. But, in this age of the internet, it is seen as a sign of weakness, causing people to bottle up what they are going through. That is one of the worst things you can do.
There are also ways we can help kids get back to a healthier mental place, and if you’re a kid, there are many things you can do. If you are worried about someone, you can always tell an adult and make sure the person knows that they have people that care about them and who they have had a positive impact on. Listening is also another thing you can do. Sometimes it helps just to know that there is someone that actually cares to hear you.
The numbers are very worrying, but there is also hope that they will go down. We just have to make sure that we help people that might have depression or could develop it later on in life get the help that they need.
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