Crisis is an overused word. We read about it with the NHS, poverty, unemployment, flooding and governance yet, by hook or crook we, as a society, find a way to sidestep the abyss with some modicum of blood, sweat and tears.

One crisis that is hard to quantify the ramifications of however, is that of childhood mental health. I am a teacher as well as a parent, yet despite many of us highlighting the increasing issues, it seems the tipping point has now arrived. Our bairns live a modern-day, adult-induced life of lockdown solitude, behind closed doors, as we hold the fervent hope, in our peculiar British way, that things will turn out nice in the end... won’t they?

Many, if not all, parents, particularly of teenagers, are suffering the angst of their offspring’s current situation. Previously outgoing, fun, lively, effervescent young people have been turned into shadows of their former selves, with little of it their doing. Scant are the pesters for more freedom, to pop into town with their mates, or to skip to the local park, to be replaced with an insistence that they "must" send one more message on their phone as it is - as it always is - "really important’.

Brett is worried about the effect lockdown is having on the mental health of teenagers at a formative period in their lives. Photo: Pixabay

Brett is worried about the effect lockdown is having on the mental health of teenagers at a formative period in their lives. Photo: Pixabay

Teenagers may be disappearing into an online world

Days are spent under house arrest and we guardians, aware of the lockdown and enforced imprisonment of our own kin, try not to be too Victorian in our parenting. Yet, unsure as to precisely what they are doing in their domains, we invade their privacy, unannounced, to spot check their virtual world for safety purposes. We find nothing untoward going on besides a messenger group chat or yet another game of Roblox, yet the concern remains as to their mental well-being. To extract them from their technological pits, we suggest a walk in the woods. Excuses come into play: "I’m not feeling great", "it’s too cold", "I just have to wait for a call from Sarah…it’s really important" as their links with nature and the great outdoors become as frayed as our efforts intensify.

But can we blame them, for we adults have forced them into this position through our incompetence and ineptitude. I never wanted to hang socially with my parents at their age and instead chose, before technology mechanised all our lives, to go and kick a ball against a wall. So they go where their friends are, and retreat into an online world. We buy into the societal fear, stock up on family-sized cotton wool and keep a tight leash, yet when we attempt to loosen that restraint the kids are too engrossed in this artificial reality to care of little else. It is safety in numbers and the belonging of a crowd that appeal, no matter how browbeaten that crowd has become. They tire themselves with inertia, as they find yet another excuse to continue to stare at a screen for hours on end while their nerves frazzle and their anger bubbles to the surface at the drop of a hat.

Brett fears teenagers may be retreating into an online world as they are unable to see their friends normally. Photo: Pixabay

Brett fears teenagers may be retreating into an online world as they are unable to see their friends normally. Photo: Pixabay

The constants are gone: the teachers, the interaction and their peers, as we leave them high and dry in their most formative of years. But now the structure is amiss, and there is no carrot to get revved up for another day at home. We may as well stay up late as there is scant little in the itinerary tomorrow, as many sit back and allow their kids to enter in to a world of depression and despair despite the grown-ups in the room purporting to stop such things.

Many have developed OCD and anger issues as confusion reigns and independence is not so much stifled as suffocated. NHS digital claims that 16 per cent of 5 to 16 years olds (as of July 2020) suffer ‘probable mental health problems’, with figures of 25 per cent for sleeping issues and 10 per cent feeling permanent loneliness. No doubt those figures could easily be doubled now, as we wrestle not only with another lockdown, but the winter blues, financial woes and solitude, creating the perfect storm.

The ‘stay safe’ mantra is threadbare now and I am in little doubt that we will suffer the fallout for generations to come. The cases of mental illness, diagnosed or not, are becoming more apparent by the day and yet, can we look back and say we did the right thing during the great Covid crisis? I believe history will sadly leave us wanting, as we fight against this scourge by our increased insistence on embracing life and the great outdoors, to save us a future tending to our kids' mental wellbeing deep into adulthood.

  • Brett Ellis is a teacher