Sad.... and scary
Extended pandemic feeding the anxieties of B.C.’s youth
Parents not sure what to do, urged to reach out for help
Lately, when 15-year-old K (name withheld to protect identity) arrives outside her school in Campbell River, nervousness sets in.
Her legs start shaking, her entire body begins to tremble and she gives way to uncontrollable sobbing.
Her parents eventually turn the car around and take her back home, to try again the next day.
The heightened anxiety attacks are new for both K and her parents, especially because their daughter is an above average student and has never had a problem going to school until a couple months ago, says K’s mother.
To add to the dilemma, new COVID-19 regulations require students to sit at one place for five hours with minimal interactions with their classmates and focus on one subject for five straight weeks. Missing one day of school leaves a student with a gap of five hours of math class, says K, and adding further to her anxiety.
While psychiatrists are seeing behavioural relapse in individuals who are on medications and were reasonably well controlled previously, they are also witnessing an increase in number of youths without previous diagnosis.
“It’s not just a pandemic of coronavirus in Campbell River, we have a pandemic of mental health exacerbation as well,” says Coetzee.
Wendy Richardson, executive director of the John Howard Society of North Vanouver Island said there is a spike in mental health issues among children as young as 11.
“Our mental health counselors have been working with kids with a lot of additional anxiety and suicide ideation,” she said and added, “It has been alarming… Suicide is high on our radar.”
“The reason I say it’s scary is because, historically, it’s not an age group where suicide ideation has been high on our list of things they are dealing with,” she said.
https://www.saanichnews.com/news/ex...TibtX1AGzt2hpxdz9pSG47so_NsVWTHMV2eq6yxyiGmfM
So getting a Urinary track infection is highly unlikely, also for a male to get that infection is far less likely then covid.
www.huffingtonpost.ca
