Teenagers and covid-19: asking for help is perhaps the secret.
The 2020-2021 period had to win the struggle with the mental-health taboo, because the diffusion of the Covid-19 had expanded the necessity of approaching this argument in our time with more bravery. We want to reflect on this.
In our opinion mental health is still a secondary theme compared to physical wellbeing. It is thought that in 10 years the mental weakness will pass the physical disease because mental health is one of most disregarded areas of public health. “ Mens sana in corpore sano” , a Latin proverb; perhaps Latin believed in a correspondence between these two and in this pandemic period this one could not be obvious.
For the actual stats, teenagers and young adults in the 16-24 years-old band are paying the highest cost during these years, maybe because they are in a period in which they are reinforcing their social identity and they want to improve. The most important thing is relationships: meeting friends, doing sports…and going to school too; normal activities that we’ve lost forcing us, suddenly to deal with a reality that we were not ready to face: the one made by the fear of isolation.
<< In my opinion – says Claudia – any inconvenience or problems have been amplified, from the progress of a confused society, fast, which offers us an image of unreal beauty and a type of surreal life, in which the rule of “being always perfect” >>.
Maybe it is, yes. However, in that period when I had to deal with the Covid 19 – says Samuele – I found myself discovering many different “me”, ranging from being cheerful and carefree, to having total confusion about everything around me. I found myself preferring days of idleness, without school, and then discovering and understanding, especially today, that school, in reality I had missed.
All this led me to think a lot and to hope that my life could return to the way it used to be, but in September, when we returned, I found myself face to face with the fear of normality. I felt lost, at the mercy of future uncertainties, I needed help but just because the “healthy” is not used to it, I kept everything inside. Then, when I found the courage to ask, I realized that I was actually a strong person. The moment I managed to reject the concept of the healthy not asking for help, I could simply be a guy with his difficulties >>.
<< I think that a little for all of us these years have brought a certain insecurity to what will come – adds Desiré – I, for example, currently often wonder if I will ever find my place in the world, my moment of tranquility… Like me most teenagers in this period would need only one question: HOW DO YOU REALLY FEEL? >>.
Perhaps the secret would be to intervene in a preventive and supportive perspective that is not always shared by all as a “natural need”.
<< Until a few years ago, going to therapy could have been synonymous with shame and madness – says Emanuele – but it’s all the opposite, because we all have difficulties, more or less important, to cope with. If you choose to embark on the way of psychotherapy you are not crazy, you are eager to solve your problems. It takes a great maturity to know how to recognize it. The desire to change unpleasant and difficult situations is a quality of the human who chooses to live and not to survive. Especially in this historical moment you must, of course, keep the social distance but avoid the distance from the heart! >>.
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