“Mental Health of school students during the Pandemic.”
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“The only journey is the journey within.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke
A tiger in a zoo, within his cubical concrete cage, growls, snarls, and roars. He circles in exasperation, stalking despairingly the bars in front of him, that serve to be the horizons of his world…his life. A gullible school student is no better today.
Coronavirus, while sweeping away millions of lives, carried with it an even larger number of fertile young minds. The corresponding lockdown, which now seems to be incessant, brought initial sparks of hope to the adults fearing community spread of the egregious virus, and a momentary excitement and jubilation to the school students, who became enthralled by the prospect of ‘no school, no homework, no early mornings.’ Little did they know that this apocalypse would end up being dragged way longer than expected, draining the students off their joy, and initiating anxiety and stress- emotions in children, which are now dreaded worldwide among parents. This gradual innate depression and plummeted mental health has lead to a series of catastrophes. What caused it? How does it work? Are there any potential harms? Well, can they be prevented or cured? Can everything become normal again?
Mental Health - What Has Happened?
“If you held a five-pound weight in your hand for a few minutes, no big deal. Your arm can take the stress,” said David Bond, the director of behavioural health at Blue Shield of California. “But if you were told you had to hold that five-pound weight in your hand for four hours, that is really daunting. ... Something that was a relatively smaller stressor becomes becomes really fatiguing on your body. That’s what chronic stress is like: It’s a weight you can’t put down.”
With the advent of lockdown, children couldn’t go out, to play, to socialise with friends, to cycle around parks, to do anything. This blocked the pipe of outlet to emotions, and therefore, mixed feelings piled up inside, and, as a heap of different kinds of garbage when burnt, turns into ash alike, all feelings together gave rise to depression, stress, and anxiety. Also, children got distracted while in online lessons, got low grades, and got stressed further. Dr. Sanjeev Kanoria, Founder, Suasth Hospital, listed a few common mental health issues observed in students during Covid-19, as following: Irritability, mood swings, dependence on video games, emotional disorders due to spending long screen hours, increased social media use, and outbursts. Several children faced trouble with sleep- excessively too much or too less, due to a changed routine induced by lockdown.
The pandemic, also combined with a colossal experiment in remote schooling, a racial justice movements, innumerable casualties, and socio-economic and political instability has had, and will continue to have long-term effects on school-children’s mental health.
Surveys and Anecdotes
Genuinely, to have an idea of the trend of these mental conditions, as well as to fetch solutions, several agencies carried out surveys. One such data, as illustrated here, represents the outcomes of mental health/changed routines in a number of high school students. 10 Criteria were chosen, and the re
sults were expectedly poor- on an average, 20% of volunteers showed up problems as mentioned in the criteria. Most students agreed to schooling-based questions of whether they were feeling tired during lessons and procrastinating homework, with a high percentage of approximately 30%. Low communication, participation and interaction, and mood swings were also witnessed, perhaps as a side effect of depression or anxiety. Another major issue observed was the lack of concentration and focus, which lead to lower grades, subsequent self-doubt and depression, thus creating a negative feedback loop, and a trickle down effect of disquiet.
f of students accepting a worsened mental health.
“Excessive screen time is often associated with poor sleep, sedentary habits, mental health problems, and physical health issues,” says Aditya Thakur, an Indian student. “Quarantine, trauma… in pandemic further increase the risk of mental health problems.
Science behind stress and anxiety
in the bloodstream, enhances the brain's use of glucose, and causes an increase in the heart rate and blood pressure. It also curbs functions that would be nonessential. It they suppress the effectiveness of the immune system. The suppression of immune system leaves the body vulnerable to disease and infection, which is really a bane during COVID, where the virus, with utmost readiness, enters into a host with weak immunity, leaving another casualty behind. “Right off the bat we know that those stress reactions will make it harder for children to learn,” said Robin Gurwitch, a psychologist and a specialist in childhood trauma. These stressors that stimulate the release of cortisol, can cause mental health challenges for anyone and can cause acute symptoms to appear for people who may experience preexisting mental health challenges.
What has been done yet?
Well, to begin with, earlier this year, UNESCO started the Minding our Minds campaign because it was clear that a comprehensive mental health strategy was essential in minimising the setback students faced during this pandemic. UNESCO also alluded to India’s National education policy, lauding it. Indian new revamped NEP (National Education Policy), introduced several changes, which also aim to reduce education and exam related stress with new guidelines regarding board exams and educational structure. Several other initiatives have also been commenced, to better the mental health of school students.
What is to be done now?
This is the most important question that now arises, as also stated by a proverb “Past is history, future is mystery”, so what is to be done, is to be done now, and the focus should be on present. This problem has several individualised solutions, as well as a few generic governmental solutions.
First and foremost step is to understand the symptoms and behaviours of mental health/anxiety victims so as to identify whether someone is suffering or not, and subsequently accept so to seek remedies. As Dr. Kanoria says, psychotherapy and counselling with a psychologist can make a huge difference. Medicines along with psychotherapy give the best results. Parents/guardians should be open and empathetic towards the victim. For the patients themselves, one needs to keep in mind the ‘CEASE’, i.e. Communicate, Eat, Avoid screens, Sleep, and Exercise. Also, set small targets, enjoy the process, achieve your targets, and stay jovial.
A third level is based on the participation from schools and NGOs. The schools can do their part, perhaps by initiating interaction-based programmes. A virtual culture can be organised, online internships should be provided, and personal support, in the form of individual mentors for students, should be motivated. Besides, the government should also start awareness campaigns, and further the health infrastructure, giving more space to this newly arisen health issue.
Conclusion
All in all, Coronavirus brought in innumerable changes to the children’s minds, their behaviours, and their attitudes. Since they were cut off from the whole world, they commenced one of their one. Thinking too much, without an outlet, they began the terrorising journey of depression and other negative mental health issues. This can be traced to the increase Cortisol levels because of increased stress and anxiety. Several students, throughout the globe, when surveyed, exposed their issues, and their responses signalled for a call to action. While much has been done, much more needs to be done as well. As also said by Glenn Close, “What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candour, and more unashamed conversation.”
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”
- Vivan Greene
-VIVASVAT RASTOGI
Sources:-
https://en.unesco.org/news/how-do-we-protect-mental-health-students-pandemic
https://www.vivasvatrastogi.com
https://www.activeminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Student-Mental-Health-Data-Sheet-Fall-2020-1.pdf
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-pandemic-will-affect-students-mental-health-for-years-to-come-how-schools-can-help/2021/03
https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/student-mental-health
https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/mental-health-problems-in-students-covid-19-tips-for-parents-teachers-sudents-1730312-2020-10-10
https://monitor.icef.com/2021/03/survey-finds-majority-of-students-struggling-with-mental-health-during-covid/
