By Julia Chaly '24
We’ve all felt that feeling at some point. A pit in your stomach. Your insides tossing and turning. Endless butterflies in your stomach. In today’s strenuous, stressful world, there is no shortage of things to be anxious about. After emerging from a global pandemic, teenage anxiety on returning to school has skyrocketed. The return to normalcy brings in-person school and activities, tests, and social interaction - all reasons previously isolated students are worried.
“Nearly every child in the country is suffering to some degree from the psychological effects of the pandemic,” explains Sharon Hoover, co-director of the University of Maryland-based National Center for School Mental Health. “Suddenly everyone is talking about mental health. Parents, teachers and students are openly discussing it.” Mental health has become a more frequent topic of conversation as many of us come to terms with the countless ways the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our lives, especially as students. From participation, to confidence in class, navigating a school building, to picking up the rigorous demands of AP and regents courses, the struggle to fall back into the regular stride has been harder than anticipated.
“It was a dramatic shift from the loneliness and isolation of remote learning to the liveliness and socialization of being back in the school building,” Carter Michaels 24’ explains. Aeriel Revivo 24’ agrees as well, commenting, “This year has been extremely different from the last. Being back in the building was an adjustment, however I feel that it is great to see my friends in person and get to socialize again!” Whether it's saying hello to a friend or using a locker, small actions and situations that were once taken for granted before the pandemic now bring us comfort and joy.
While transitioning to in-person school has been a mostly positive experience, the aftermath of online learning still lingers. “The year that [students] were out of school was a year that [students] didn't have the opportunities for developing the social skills that normally happen during their period of development," says Dr. Tami Benton, psychiatrist-in-chief at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "You're sort of catching up on all of that under extraordinary circumstances." Students who were wide-eyed freshman once online learning began are now nearing the start of the college application process as they finish their junior year. Though two to three years may not seem like a significant span of time in the grand scheme of things, there is a big difference both socially and developmentally between a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old. All students missed out on two to almost three years of proper socialization and stimulus, leaving a big gap needing to be filled. This gap has caused notable worry and stress on how to go about making up for and learning in the years that were missed.
The University of Amsterdam and The Emma Children’s Hospital released a study on the mental health of adolescents in the Netherlands, surveying several teens between the ages of 13 and 18 on how the return to school is affecting their mental health. They found that at least 70% of these young adults reported a significant increase in severe anxiety and sleeping problems post-pandemic. Although we no longer wake to computer screens or fall asleep with our eyes burning from technology use, this sleep deprivation has prolonged its effects from the pandemic. Even with classes still starting around the same time as remote learning, students have to wake up much earlier to commute to the school building. This takes away from their already lacking teenage sleep schedule. The average teenager needs 8-10 hours of full rest, however most teens get anywhere between 5-8 hours with social life, screens, and the adjustment to workloads of non-remote school. With less sleep, our body does not function in the same healthy way that it should. This can severely worsen panic attacks, anxiety, stress, depression and several other mental health issues.
Despite the long-awaited shift of physically being back in school after years of quarantine, the tolls of online learning are still being felt as teenagers learn to navigate post-pandemic stresses in addition to their already anxiety-inducing lives. Yet, we can remain hopeful as our resilience and all the lessons we have learned will allow us to rise to the challenges we may face down the road.
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