The Covid pandemic has led to a deterioration in the mental health of young people in many Western countries, according to recent studies.
This deterioration resulted in an unprecedented rise in depression among the younger generations, according to two studies conducted in France and the United States, in a wave that may affect an entire generation.
The researchers attributed the deterioration of the mental health of young people to frequent periods of closure, a foggy future, and a sense of guilt about spreading the epidemic.
– High rate of depression
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most prominent federal health authority in the United States, sounded the alarm, yesterday, Monday, about disturbing numbers about the mental health of students, especially girls. A study showed that almost a third of female students (30%) had contemplated suicide in 2021 (compared to 19% in 2011).
In France, the twenty-year-old student Antoine, who is still taking antidepressants three years after the start of the global health crisis, says that “quarantine measures have completely changed me.”
The young man, who asked that his full name not be mentioned, lived a situation similar to that of many of his peers, according to a study published today, Tuesday, by the French Public Health Authority.
This research was conducted based on questionnaires conducted on about 25,000 randomly selected French people, with a measurement of the frequency of depressive episodes in the population in 2021.
During the past two decades, similar studies have been conducted continuously in France, the latest of which dates back to 2017. However, the last years after this study were marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, which recorded an unprecedented rise in cases of depression, in a conclusion similar to the findings of studies conducted abroad.
This increase affects all French age groups, but the most affected by this situation are the young people between the ages of 18 and 24 years, as their cases of depression increased by almost double, reaching nearly a fifth of the people surveyed.
Suicidal tendencies
Of course, it is impossible to establish a specific causal link in each case between the Covid crisis and depression, especially because the causes of this disease are always linked to several factors, including the patient’s personal history and physiological makeup.
However, in general, “it appears that the psychological stress resulting from Covid-19 disease and the restrictions imposed to control it constitute one of the main hypotheses that explain this rise,” according to the researchers in this French study.
In the case of Antoine, the first period of closure, which France announced in March 2020 and was characterized by great strictness, had a role in exacerbating his mental problems. The young man was suffering from symptoms directly related to depression, from unexplained crying and suicidal tendencies, but they reached a level beyond acceptable levels when he found himself stuck in his parents’ house in the coastal city of Nice.
“I was leaving my symptoms at home,” he says, but “with the lockdown measures, I found myself stuck with it.”
The situation did not change much after the end of the closure measures, as symptoms of depression persisted. Although the young man is feeling better now, he still fears that his condition will worsen again.
“Quarantine was a transitional stage from one state to another,” according to Antoine, whose mental health was also negatively affected by the difficulty he faced starting school in the fall of 2020 due to the closure of French universities and the overall reliance on distance teaching.
– feeling guilty
While Antoine’s case is linked to factors of a personal nature, it is consistent with the results of the study, the results of which were published on Tuesday, by embodying the psychological impact emanating from the restrictions imposed during the Covid crisis, especially on young people, and the risk that this effect will last for a long time.
Angeran de Roscoe, a co-author of the study and a specialist in mental health issues at the French General Authority, says, “What played a big role was the uncertainty about the future, which is a very big dimension at this age, with questions such as: Will I get my degree? Will I be able to continue my education?”
De Rosqua refers to the feeling of inability to fix the situation, saying, “What a person lives in the age group between 18 and 24 years are things that cannot be compensated in principle.”
The researcher talks about other hypotheses, including the fragile financial situation and isolation in very small dwellings, in addition to a kind of guilt about the pandemic. “Young people have been accused of (causing the spread of the epidemic) because of their desire to go out and their high rates of infection make them a potential danger,” says de Rosqua.
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