With the mask mandate being lifted over a year ago in the United States, the pandemic seems to be long gone, but the impact it has had on many Americans’ mental health is still prevalent today. There’s no doubt that the isolating factor of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many peoples lives for a few years. The World Health Organization (WHO) said “In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25%, according to a scientific brief released by the World Health Organization (WHO) today.” 

This is due to many things caused by the pandemic such as isolation and lack of human interaction but not everyone was affected equally. “The pandemic has affected the mental health of young people and that they are disproportionally at risk of suicidal and self-harming behaviours.” WHO said “It also indicates that women have been more severely impacted than men and that people with pre-existing physical health conditions, such as asthma, cancer and heart disease, were more likely to develop symptoms of mental disorders.” 

While many adults had to just simply work at home and people who were retired had to go out less often, young people’s lives were completely uprooted. “‘You are a 15-year-old teenager only once,’’ Alex Desatnik, a clinical psychologist, told CNBC, “‘Everything we know about brain development, physical development, emotional development, with each age there is a unique window of opportunities’ in which to grow, learn and develop.” 

Even if you were out of high school at the time, young adults were almost equally affected in a different way, “For young adults particularly, the pandemic may have interrupted higher education plans and the initiation of careers and social and financial independence, with unknown long-term repercussions.” Ed Hayward wrote for Boston College News. 

The main victim of the pandemic is clearly younger people and throughout the 2-3 years it lasted, schools greatly improved mental health resources such as “reset rooms”, excused mental health days, and an increase in school social workers like Katie Houghtaling, a social worker at Hall high who has seen the impact of the pandemic on teens first hand, “I’ve worked with teenagers and students for over 10 years now and yes I’ve seen many more students deal with mental health issues like depression or anxiety and come in for help in the last couple of years.” She said. 

Although the pandemic seems far in the rear view many people struggle with mental health problems that still follow them. The hope is the mental health resources developed over the last few years will help everyone get back to feeling normal again.