Is my kid unhappy or really struggling?
‘COVID-19 hasn’t caused kids to become mentally ill, but it has unmasked symptoms’
- Link to: Northwestern Now Story
CHICAGO --- The coronavirus pandemic has caused feelings of anxiety and unhappiness for youth across the country, but it hasn’t caused new mental illness, according to Northwestern University experts.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent survey findings showed a stark decline in teen mental health, including increased feelings of hopelessness and thoughts of suicide, with a particular impact on girls and LGB students.
COVID-19 caused a crisis among children already at risk for or experiencing mental illness — like anxiety, depression and psychosis — by taking away critical support systems that could allow these kids to mask their symptoms, Dr. John Walkup said.
Walkup, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and head of the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, is available to discuss determining risk and how to support your kids — whether or not they’re experiencing a mental health problem.
Contact Win Reynolds (win.reynolds@northwestern.edu) to set up an interview.
“COVID’s had a big impact, but it hasn’t caused people to become mentally ill. It has unmasked those with mental health issues who were held together through the support systems that were dismantled during COVID-19. Some kids are going through a lot of distress (a family member died, or their school is closed) and if you give them a rating score, they may say they’re pretty unhappy — but those kids are not mentally ill, and it’s important to understand the difference.”