By Ryan Greathouse
In the beginning of March 2020 discussion of COVID-19 was spreading, and an at-home lockdown was a growing possibility. That possibility solidified when students “came back” to school in March 2020 virtually. The pandemic and lockdown brought new challenges to teenagers and with that, an increase in mental health issues.
The impacts of COVID-19 caused many teenagers to feel worried and stressed about social isolation, the fear of getting COVID-19, virtual school, and the overall disruption of daily routines. Teenagers who already had experience with mental health disorders, like anxiety and depression, could have also felt that COVID-19 worsened their pre-existing disorder.
Ms. Eisele, a current RPCS Middle School Counselor and a former Upper School Counselor, shared what she had seen change in students after COVID-19: “Since COVID I have seen a drastic change in students. Their mental, social, and emotional wellbeing have been negatively impacted. We are seeing more symptoms related to anxiety, depression, and grief such as sleep disturbances, changes in eating habits, sensations of impending panic, difficulty concentrating, rumination, detachment, and decrease of enjoyment in activities.”
The sudden change of a student’s environment can have a large impact on their mental health and performance in school. When students are in school, there are numerous resources that are accessible to them that are not offered in one’s home. At RPCS, students have access to teachers, peers, councilors, and faculty when they need to reach out. This same opportunity is not as easily available at home.
School also offered an environment in which teenagers can socialize, but COVID-19 prevented students from making new friends, having meaningful conversations, and making many high school memories . Ms. Eisele noted this shift in students saying “Additionally, we are seeing an increase in problems between friendship and peer groups. This is likely due to students relearning how to engage with one another after being separated or distanced for the past two years.” Ms. King-Smith, an Upper School counselor, expands on this adding “I think a lot of students are probably slightly delayed in experiencing some of the social challenges, because we weren't in the building for over a year or at least not all together. For example: friendship issues, blowups, and friendship groups changing. Even conflict resolution with friends has seemed way bigger this year.”
Virtual learning had advantages and disadvantages for students and teachers alike, Ms. Eisele shared some of the positives of virtual learning: “flexibility in time, comfort from home (or other locations), and more breaks as needed.” She also stated that some cons were, “loss of activities and special events that connect students, online learning looked different depending on the type of school which causes disparities in learning, excessive screen time, no in-person interaction or hands-on learning, increase in potential distractions.” All of these factors combined made for a difficult learning environment for some, but also added some new freedom to students’ schedule and routine.
The adjustment that teens had to make from virtual learning to hybrid and then full in-school learning proved difficult. Ms. King-Smith noted some changes that she saw develop after returning to school:“I think students got used to, I think maybe adults too, got used to being able to sort of tune out of conversations during classes. Where they would just say their wifi was messed up and turn it off or turn off their camera. You had this ability to really turn things off in a way that you don't really have in-person, but I've seen some of that happen.”
A question that has echoed throughout the pandemic is “when will it end?” Some believe that the pandemic is over and things have gone back to normal, but Covid-19 is still at large. Ms. King-Smith touches on this and says “I feel this expectation that we are back to normal but we’re not, we are still in a pandemic. For example, some people are saying that everything is fine and normal but it's actually not. So I think there is some cognitive dissonance there, along with being unsure of when this will truly end.”
Adults also had to face many challenges during the pandemic. Ms. Eiesele shared one of her most difficult times during Covid-19 saying “The most difficult time for me during Covid was loss of family members and not being able to gather to celebrate the lives of people who I lost. It hasn’t been easy, especially when I haven’t provided myself the time to slow down and process all the loss has impacted me.” Ms. King-Smith added a difficult time for her saying “Sort of grieving what I thought life would be like and then realizing what it actually was going to be. Yeah, that's how the start of the pandemic was for me.”
Everyone experienced highs and lows during the pandemic, and we need to still be careful despite not being in lockdown. We are all still navigating our new reality and the impacts of the past two years. For these reasons, it is important to support each other, especially through the resources at RPCS, and celebrate what we have everyday.
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