Self-care in uncertain times

A good form of self-care for teenagers would be to encourage them to talk and share their feelings. Studies have shown that, talking about feelings can help a person to stay in a good mental health, in other to deal with times they feel troubled. However, being that the average teen’s brain is not fully developed, they may respond to the stress this pandemic has caused very differently. In the year of 2001, 50% of adolescent with mental health issues kept their struggles from their parents and friends hoping it would go away because they feel embarrassed or they simply do not trust anyone, which are things that can lead to depression and anxiety in teenagers. Mental health has become a great side effect of this pandemic, and while teenagers cannot go out and have a social life, it is time for siblings, parents and adult guardians to step in and help by simply; planning cook outs, a bike ride where everyone cannot be that close to each other, or a socially distant bonfire and having fun conversations with their teenage loved ones that could be struggling mentally. Also, teens may be anxious about their family’s economic situation during a time when businesses are closing, and employees are being furloughed. Parents should not just brush off the anxiety because that may not work for all teenagers. Rather, they should acknowledge the anxiety teens and young adults are feeling and have an open and honest discussion about the struggles they could be facing. But, in that process parents should be able to balance the facts with a level of reassurance and talk about coming up with plans to help the situation. Therefore, discussing family economics with teens can also be a good way of communication to teens just to relief them of the stress and anxiety they could be facing to promote proper self-care, doing this is especially important for those who require mental health and psychosocial support. Because the stigma associated with mental health problems may cause teenagers to be reluctance in seeking support for both COVID-19 and mental health conditions.

Teenagers are young and have noticeably big dreams for their future but now, in place of their dreams, stress and anxiety loom large for some. At the beginning of this pandemic, when schools shut down, teenagers  saw that as a great opportunity to just stay home all day, play video games and for the extroverts an opportunity to hang out with their peers more often but for others, at the time they didn’t think it was forever. However, as news came out in the media it became nerve-wracking because they knew there was less and less of a chance of going back to school. So then, the disappointment and disruption from the coronavirus has been especially hard for teenagers, caught in limbo at a time when they are ready to launch. Many teens are wading through complicated emotions right now. They have had to adjust to online learning, isolate from their friends and erase meaningful events from their calendars, which has significantly decreased the ability to provide self-care for themselves. Many with the new mentality of just being home all day, with nothing to do or no one to visit have gradually become living zombies with zero ideas of proper self-care. Therefore, Parents and adult siblings who may be equally balancing work and remote learning schedules, should try to find ways to help their teenagers cope with the stress and mental health fallout resulting from the pandemic.