How the pandemic has affected young people
Puberty is always a complicated time, both for those affected and for those who accompany them.
Life becomes a kind of roller coaster and hormones go crazy.
The pandemic has affected all age groups, but adolescents are undoubtedly the biggest victims.
Dr Inmaculada Moreo, a specialist in family medicine and head of the Adolescent Medicine Clinic in Juaneda Miramar, spoke to us about the aftermath of the lockdown in adolescents and its consequences.
The effects are both physical and emotional. For the young people, it meant a huge change in their daily routine (school, sports, food, friends, personal relationships, etc.), and from one day to the next they were cut off from the outside world. As expected, this has negative effects on their mental health: fears resurface and stress arises.
Many of them, without direct contact with their friends, could not/would not talk to anyone and kept their feelings to themselves. Only now, with a little distance, do they begin to express all that has happened to them.
Many family members come to the Juaneda Miramar Adolescent Medicine Clinic because certain changes in the child's behaviour have set off all the alarm bells.
But what are the most tangible consequences? Dr Inmaculada Moreo highlights two in particular:
1. Significant increase in eating disorders: This was a very common reason for counselling and accounted for almost 70% of the young people treated. These may be past disorders that are now re-emerging or those that started during the lockdown and are in urgent need of early treatment.
2. Increase in self-harm: Adolescent girls in particular suffer from a problem in regulating emotions such as stress or sadness that they are unable to manage. For them, self-harm is a means of coping with stress and anxiety and not infrequently this behaviour has become chronic.
It is obvious that young people, as much as they seek refuge in new technologies, need contact with their peers. Seeing each other, meeting each other, hugging each other, playing sports. It is an age when relationships between them are very important. In many cases, more than the relationship with their own parents.
We at the Juaneda Group want to help you, accompany you on your journey and, above all, make it easier for your children. For the vast majority of cases, it is time to find the right treatment. This wonderful team of professionals has the necessary tools and experience to repair the effects of the pandemic on them and help them return to normality.
Juaneda, close to you.
Share