I’m glad Covid-19 has revealed teens’ mental health problems
Many, if not most Kenyans, view mental health and suicide as a minor issue.
What you need to know:
- I’m glad that more and more people are paying attention to teens’ mental health challenges.
- But we will not see any changes unless everyone takes the responsibility to care and listen to young people.
Nowadays, everybody is talking about how Covid-19 has affected teens’ mental health and how they are in urgent need of attention. But has this issue only come up during this pandemic period?
Of course not! It’s just that nobody had taken the time to notice it. Everybody wants to feel special. That’s why we work hard at school to score that high grade and at work to land a promotion.
The need to feel important in most teens is usually manifested in friendships and personal relations. We all want to be part of the “in thing” and many of us go to great lengths to be at par with our peers. In the name of chasing fashion, you find teens abusing drugs or developing eating disorders as they try to starve themselves to attain the right shape.
Parents also pile pressure on their children to excel in exams and many of them normally blow over the top when their grades are not good enough.
Some even go to the lengths of comparing their sons and daughters to other more hard-working children.
Mental health challenges
They don’t take the time to find out the challenges their teenagers face, especially in school. The pandemic has exposed an issue that for long has been swept under the carpet.
I’m glad that more and more people are paying attention to teens’ mental health challenges.
But we will not see any changes unless everyone takes the responsibility to care and listen to young people. Many teens suppress their feelings since society has taught them that venting is not important.
With time, most of them reach a point where a small trigger sets off drastic actions such as suicide or depression. When this happens, everyone wonders what went wrong when it was actually an accumulation of mental pain.
Teachers and parents need to take time to actually listen to what we say and calmly give advice without any criticism.
Schools can go the extra mile and hire a psychologist or a therapist to help students cope with stress. Young people can also help themselves by abandoning the notion that someone has to be something or have something in order to fit in.
Mercy Wangui, 16, is a student.
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