{"id":252379,"date":"2022-06-19T05:09:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T05:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/?p=252379"},"modified":"2022-06-19T19:13:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T19:13:17","slug":"pandemic-isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/19\/pandemic-isolation\/","title":{"rendered":"A LONELY TIME: Pandemic isolation, grief take toll on teen mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zaina Mike’s father used to play games with her in the basement to make her laugh when tornadoes were nearby. Once he died from COVID-19, she coped using the bravery he taught her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just really caring and did everything for everyone, no matter what,\u201d Mike, 15, said. \u201cHe was really selfless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic that took Mike\u2019s father has dramatically changed countless teens\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I hear that someone has (COVID-19) or my friends\u2019 families have it, I just pray that they don\u2019t have to go through what I went through,\u201d said Mike, who is from Louisville. \u201cI get scared really badly because it was so traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Mike, 18-year-old Nickalas Lembo has had to deal with grief during the pandemic. When he lost his grandmother to cancer last year, Lembo withdrew from his peers. As he opened back up, the pandemic prevented him from fully reconnecting with his friends to get support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of closed in on myself for a little while,\u201d said Lembo, who is from Los Angeles. \u201cThen, by the time I wanted to start talking to people, it was really hard because of the pandemic. I couldn\u2019t really see people in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

From family deaths to isolation, the effects of the pandemic have taken a toll on teen mental health and well-being that persists more than two years after the pandemic began.<\/p>\n

According to a survey<\/a> by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 37.1% of high school students have experienced poor mental health \u201cmost of the time or always\u201d during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

For Josie Gilvin, 19, the pandemic has been isolating and draining.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very lonely time, I feel like,\u201d said Gilvin, an incoming freshman at Western Kentucky University. \u201cI was only around my family. I didn\u2019t get to see my friends much and my friends are what make me happy. It was definitely a loss of time out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With many schools across the country switching to distance learning during 2020 and 2021 as a result of pandemic safety concerns, teens had fewer chances to socialize. The CDC survey found that 46.6% of high school students felt connected to people at school during that time. More than 35% of those who felt connected to their peers felt \u201cpersistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,\u201d compared to 52.9% of teens who didn\u2019t feel close to their peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen significant levels of anxiety and depression in some students who I work with,\u201d said Cordelia Patterson, a school psychologist at Metro Nashville Public Schools.<\/p>\n

Students\u2019 academic performance has also taken a hit during the pandemic.\u00a0 A Brown University study<\/a> found that student math and reading test scores decreased significantly in 2021 compared to 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that COVID definitely created a barrier for the development of (organization and self-regulation)\u00a0 skills, just because a lot of students didn\u2019t have to apply them,\u201d said Patterson, whose opinions do not necessarily reflect those of MNPS. \u201cThey weren\u2019t able to apply them virtually.\u201d<\/p>\n

These widespread academic difficulties are another factor impacting teen mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor academics, it affected me very badly because I was at home, not focused at all,\u201d Gilvin said. \u201cNo one was holding me accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the pandemic has exacerbated the mental health crisis, teens\u2019 mental health was already worsening prior to the pandemic. According to the CDC, the suicide rate of young people ages 10 to 24 increased by 57.4%<\/a> from 2007 to 2018.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Karl Laves, associate director of the WKU Counseling Center, discusses mental health issues with Xposure Workshop students on Monday, June 13.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Karl Laves, associate director of the counseling center at WKU, said in an Xposure press conference that the majority of students he sees are not seeking mental health help primarily due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people were struggling before the virus and they\u2019re still struggling,\u201d Laves said. \u201cCOVID didn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n

To cope with their losses, Mike and Lembo rely on talking to friends and using their support systems. Gilvin deals with the stress of the pandemic by playing basketball with her teammates at WKU.<\/p>\n

“(You need) self-acceptance and normalization,\u201d Laves said. \u201cTalk, find other people and realize you\u2019re not the only one. There\u2019s great strength in hearing people go through or talk about the same problems you have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zaina Mike’s father used to play games with her in the basement to make her laugh when tornadoes were nearby. Once he died from COVID-19, she coped using the bravery he taught her. \u201cHe was just really caring and did everything for everyone, no matter what,\u201d Mike, 15, said. \u201cHe was really selfless.\u201d The pandemic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":252380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,467,462],"tags":[524,509,523],"staff_name":[485],"class_list":["post-252379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-x22","category-xposure-2022","tag-covid-19","tag-mental-health","tag-pandemic","staff_name-delilah-brumer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252379"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252406,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252379\/revisions\/252406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252379"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wkuxposure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=252379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}