Young People Fear Being Eaten Up by Dark Feelings as the Pandemic Hits Their Mental Health. By Adam Colclough

 

At the end of January, the Mental Health Foundation published the latest findings from its tingling research into the mental health of young people in the UK.

Data was gathered from 2395 young people aged between 13 and 19 between November and December last year. This was then analysed by researchers working for Swansea University, M Q Mental Health Research and Leaders Unlocked.

The results do not make for comfortable reading.

One in four of the teenagers interviewed said they had experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression, 26% said stress had made it hard for them to do concentrate on school work and 32% reported having had trouble sleeping.

The young people who took part also reported a decline in their general mental well being. Asked in later Summer 10% described their mental health as 'poor', by November this has risen to 16%.

Young people spoke to researchers about feeling 'afraid' that something awful was going to happen and said they often 'felt bad' about themselves.

One spoke to a researcher from Leaders Unlocked about feeling 'very scared of losing myself and becoming incapable ' and not wanting to be 'crushed by the dark feeling that is eating lots of people up'.

Worries about money have been identified by researchers as a key driver of mental distress among young people, with those from families where one or more parent is unemployed or on a low income faring worst.

Professor Ann John, who led the project for Swansea University said the pandemic has 'exposed the deep inequalities in our society'. 

 

 

The Green Party has led the way in recognising that we need to address the inequalities in our society. At the 2019 general election we ran on a manifesto that included policies to use a Universal Basic Income to reduce poverty and to ensure young people have access to a safe place to live, enough to eat and space in which to develop as individuals.

The pandemic has made addressing issues of inequality more important than ever, without doing so in a meaningful way a lasting recovery and a better future will not be possible.

Ensuring the mental health of our young people, the leaders of tomorrow, is protected is essential.