Teen Isolation and COVID

By Maks Ezrin

Today's teens and young adults will unfortunately carry the burden of COVID, lock down, masks, and isolation, some better than others, for years to come. The restrictions that have been placed on our young adults cannot be taken lightly or ignored. 

If there is any doubt about this, I urge you all to read Rebecca Mead's compelling article in The New Yorker called “Teen Lives, Interrupted By COVID”. The personal stories, from the teens themselves, are heartbreaking and demand our attention. 

The danger is that our youth are not yet fully equipped to manage the isolation and loneliness that they are experiencing. So they turn to drugs or alcohol to dull the pain, boredom or conflict. Oddly and sadly we can all relate to the feeling and the slippery slope of addiction becomes a real possibility. Mead’s article states that even before COVID, young people were reporting feelings of sadness and hopelessness in record numbers. We are on the verge of a national emergency regarding the mental health of the next generation. It is up to us to disrupt the potential pattern of substance abuse by being aware, engaged and involved in our children’s day to day life. Being proactive is the ONLY way to strike addiction. Not easy. But worth the effort. Help is out there…just ask.