Life seemed promising last year for Philaé Lachaux, a 22-year-old French business student who dreamed of knocking out on her own in the live music industry. But when the pandemic broke out, she lost her part-time job as a waitress, she sent her back to live at her family’s home.
Now, struggling to think of a future after months of restraint, Lachaux says loneliness and despair will enter the night.
“I’m looking at the roof, I feel a lump in my throat,” she said. “I’ve never had so many suicidal thoughts.”
“Pandemics feel like a big stop to our lives,” she said. “One that puts us so low that I ask, ‘What’s the point? ‘”
With invitations, closures and locks in European countries set to slow down into spring or even summer, mental health professionals are increasingly fearful about the declining state of young people ‘s mental health. they claim to have been among the worst affected by a world with a positive sense of the future.
Finally according to vaccines and with schools and universities closed, young people have largely borne the burden of the sacrifices to protect the elderly, who are at increased risk of serious diseases. But there may be too much persistence in youth resilience, mental health professionals say.
Faced with limited social life and added uncertainty at a precarious time in their lives, many young people suffer from a gnawing sensation that they are wasting valuable time in their prime years.
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Across the world, they have missed out on economic opportunities, missed traditional milestones and lost relationships at a crucial time to create an identity.
“Many feel they are paying the price not from the pandemic, but from the measures taken against the pandemic,” said Dr Nicolas Franck, head of the medical network. mind in Lyon, France.
In a survey of 30,000 people he conducted last spring, young people were at the lowest level of psychological well-being, he said.
In Italy and the Netherlands, some juvenile psychiatric wards have been filled to capacity. In France, where the pandemic tax on mental health has made headlines, professionals have urged authorities to consider reopening schools to combat loneliness. And in Britain, some doctors said they had advised patients to break locking guidelines to treat.
In the United States, a quarter of people ages 18 to 24 said they had seriously considered suicide, one report said. In Latin America and the Caribbean, a UNICEF study of 8,000 young people found that more than a quarter had experienced 15 percent depression and depression.
And a study by the International Labor Organization last year in 112 countries found that two-thirds of people aged 18 to 29 could be anxious and depressed.
The lasting effects on suicide rates, depression and anxiety are still being measured, but in interviews, a dozen mental health experts in Europe paint a grim picture of a crisis they say should be treated as such. bad at introducing the virus.
“We are in the midst of a pandemic of mental health, and I don’t think it is being treated with enough respect,” said Arkadius Kyllendahl, a London-based psychologist who has younger deals see double in recent months.
Limbo awareness
Many European countries entered the collapse with the prospect of a virus outbreak, just to address an even bigger wave of diseases this winter. That led to false expectations, young people said, that hard restrictions would soon end.
Lockdowns have relieved the pressures of school or work, which have made them more stable, psychologists say. But for others, especially those who were already struggling with mental health illnesses or limited access to care, the sensitivity is exacerbated.
“Not controlling something like this is a cause for concern,” said Dalia Al-Dujaili, 21, a student at the University of Edinburgh.
As the pandemic has progressed, so has limbo awareness, she said, and she tried online therapy for the first time last year.
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“What am I doing? Why am I getting a degree, if there are going to be no jobs? ” she asked.
One blessing, she said, is that younger people are more open to talking about their struggles.
“Everyone’s talking about their therapists and medals,” she said.
That did not stop some from feeling guilty, however, as the pandemic has affected everyone.
“There are people with bigger problems: people who have lost their jobs, or are related to the disease,” said Marcelo Andreguetti, a Brazilian graphic designer studying in Cologne, Germany.
He said he started taking antipsychotic medication after declaring that he had depression and obsessive compulsive disorder this year.
‘Loneliness leads to despair’
Winter has made the situation worse, according to therapists and psychologists, who say they have seen young people show more severe symptoms of anxiety, depression, eating disorders and anxiety. ris.
In the Netherlands, Dr Robert Vermeiren, a professor of child psychiatry at Leiden University Medical Center, said the hungry ward he manages had been full for weeks – something he did not. never seen.
The situation was so bad, he said, that his team did not send children home for Christmas, as usual. Isolation has also disturbed the normal transition of teenagers, when young people move from belonging to their family to belonging to their peers, Vermeiren said.
“They feel empty, lonely, and that loneliness leads to despair,” he said.
In Italy, calls were doubled last year to the main line for young people who have considered or tried to harm themselves. Beds in the pediatric neuropsychiatry unit at Bambino Gesù Children ‘s Hospital in Rome have been full since October, said Dr Stefano Vicari, the unit’ s director.
Hospitals of young Italians who harmed themselves or attempted suicide have risen by 30% in the second wave of cases, he said.
“For those who say that, after all, these are challenges that young people have to go through, that they will come out stronger, this is true for some, for those who have more facilities, ”said Vicari.
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Catherine Seymour, head of research at the Mental Health Foundation, a UK-based charity, said young people living in poor homes were more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, according to a study carried out among nearly 2,400 teenagers.
“Those in poorer households may be more likely to lack space and internet access to help with schoolwork and communicate with their friends,” said Seymour. “They can also be affected by their parents’ financial worries and stress.”
Surveys from the first locks show that they may have already left an inevitable signal.
In France, a study of nearly 70,000 students found that 10 percent had experienced suicide in the first months of the pandemic, and more than a quarter had suffered from depression.
In Spain, one of the toughest locks in the world last spring had a profound effect, especially for young girls, who were more likely to experience stress, anxiety and depression, according to a study of 523 person with the University of Valencia.
Konstanze Schoeps, one of the study’s authors, said, “They were developing their freedom and place, and at the time of the lock they lost what they had just begun to experience. ”
“It was a sad process,” she said.
Search for remedies
The situation has become so dire that students and mental health advocates have called on authorities to model some measures, including the reopening of schools and universities, even though officials are concerned that premature relaxation of rules reduces the spread of new changes.
“Building social relationships is at the heart of our lives, and that’s gone,” said Heïdi Soupault, 19, who urged French President Emmanuel Macron to reopen universities in an open letter quickly circulated to the Internet. last month.
Starting this month, students in France can return to universities one day a week. They can also get three free treatment sessions.
In Britain, where mental health groups and experts have urged the government to cut funding to help tackle the issue in schools, officials have said they will consider health support. mental as part of plans to lift restrictions. In the Netherlands, the central government has pressured regional authorities to invest more in youth mental health.
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Dr Silvia Schneider, a child and adolescent psychologist in Bochum, Germany, said governments should share clear messages on television and social media.
“We need to provide very accessible information on how to handle the feeling of loneliness with these challenges,” Schneider said of young people. “And there are some things that can help them.”
To treat the symptoms of anxiety and depression, some therapists, such as Kyllendahl in London, urge their clients to go out as much as possible – even if it is taking their time. -into breaking restrictions.
However, some young people see a money line.
“At least the pandemic has given us the right to be sad,” said Lachaux, the French student. “We don’t always have to show how strong we are. ”