The Recent Spike in Students with Anxiety
Over the past 7 years or so, I have seen a huge uptick in students with anxiety (sometimes mixed with depression). I have always had clients who deal with anxiety, but our world has changed dramatically. I first saw indications of this with the broad use of cell phones and social media –TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and in the past, Facebook. It began with feelings of missing out or seeing people who looked a certain way and wanting to be like them.
As the outside world has become closer to us, and news travels faster, events that would not have been known are now binging on their cellphones all hours of the day. The teens and young adults have lived through school shootings, lockdown drills, a pandemic, climate change issues, hearing people spouting hateful ideas and thoughts such as racism, anti-Semitism, anti-LGBTQ trans rhetoric, and now, a war in Ukraine. The pandemic only heightened student’s fears and anxiety on top of losing a normal part of their school life during lockdown. They basically lost 14 months academically, socially, and emotionally.
It is most important that students are given a safe place to land. Hopefully, that is at home, but as academics have been impacted, home sometimes becomes a place where an emphasis is on schoolwork and test taking and everything else takes second place.
How Sheryl Can Help
Of course, we want our children to be successful, but at this time, it is more important to take care of their mental health.
As I work with both the academic and the emotional aspects of my students, I feel that during this time in our world, I can help them find their safe space, giving them both a sense of confidence in their ability to be successful and a feeling of peace with less stress and anxiety tugging at them.