STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Cases of anxiety and depression among children and adolescents are soaring, as students return to school after a year of remote learning due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Staten Island mental health experts report.
Adjusting to academic and social demands that differ drastically from what they’ve experienced during remote learning environments is proving to be an insurmountable hurdle for many, particularly teens and those with pre-existing social anxiety or learning disabilities, the doctors explained.
“Now, they feel like they have to rebuild relationships,’’ said Dr. Peng Pang, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), who estimated that she’s seeing three times the number of child and adolescent anxiety and depression patients as before the pandemic. “A lot of kids are saying that they somehow feel like they lost their social skills. They lost the familiarity with each other.’’
Children, especially teens, have changed, matured and grown significantly while away from each other during the last school year, Pang said. “They’re lost,’’ she said. “Now, they say, ‘Is this the same Jack? Are they still interested in talking about the same thing?’ They are not. They’ve changed dramatically.”
Students were then forced to cope with learning at home in isolation from peers, without extracurricular activities and in very close quarters with parents and other family members for long periods of time, said Dr. Nida Khan, medical director of the child and adolescent outpatient clinic at Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC).
‘WE’RE SEEING IT SPIKE’
“We were expecting it to be a little bit more amplified,’’ Khan said. “It’s manifesting as social anxiety, emotional health issues, depression. We’re seeing it spike now.’’
The new learning environment and higher academic demands after many educators lowered expectations for students learning at home have created new stress for both children and adolescents, physicians in Staten Island’s psychiatric community said.
Additionally, many students didn’t perform well academically while learning remotely. They may feel pressure to make up for lost time and pull their grades up, causing more anxiety, they doctors reported.
“That’s why kids are so anxious,’’ Pang said, noting that teens with pre-existing social anxiety are having the worst time of it now. “I’ve seen parents in the emergency room, and their kids don’t want to go to school. They don’t have the coping skills. They don’t know how to face the challenge. So to them this is the end of the world.’’
The challenge is most difficult for students starting a new school, like high school freshmen and those just entering middle school, Pang said.
More young patients than ever are coming to the emergency room with panic attacks, anxiety attacks, self-harming behaviors, the doctors said. Even children and teens who previously had no symptoms of anxiety and depression are experiencing symptoms now, they said.
Add to those pressures the fact that many young people have lost loved ones or lived through a family member’s COVID-19 battle during the past year-and-a-half, and the burden gets heavier, said Dr. Avinash Boddapati, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at SIUH.
“It has definitely affected them, and they are more depressed,’’ Boddapati said, noting that therapy is needed in many of the cases, and, at times, medication.
“We’re seeing it mostly in the older population,’’ Boddapati said. “In younger kids, what we’re seeing is behavioral problems, outbursts.”
RED FLAGS
Parents, who know their children the best, should keep their eyes out for symptoms of anxiety or depression, the doctors said. These include avoidance of school work, refusal to go to school, lack of interest in school and peers, difficulty keeping up with routine and lack of interest in personal care.
Many will have emotional outbursts, exhibit changes in their eating and sleeping habits and will complain of fatigue, nausea and headaches, said Pang.
These are red flags for parents, she added.
“They are supposed to be very healthy; it’s the beginning of their life,’’ Pang said, noting that unexplained headaches and nausea should be reported to the child’s primary-care physician. The doctor may refer the youth for psychiatric care or therapy. Many will benefit from counseling offered in school, the doctors said.
If children or adolescents exhibit any signs of self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they should be brought immediately to a hospital emergency room for evaluation, the doctors all stressed.
Khan noted that RUMC has its own psychiatric emergency room, and parents should not hesitate to bring their children there.
“If there are any safety concerns, parents should not be waiting,’’ Khan said. “Please take your kids to the emergency room so they can get evaluated right away.”
As students adjust to another new normal, parents should give them a little slack, Pang said, and they should reach out to school counselors for assistance.
“We want parents to help the kids solve the problem, remind the kids to take breaks,’’ she said. “They should not make negative comments. Parents need to avoid being emotional with the kids. It’s very hard, but this is the time that parents need to really avoid power struggling. The kids need your help.’’
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