Many more teens seem to be having serious panic attacks

[Ihaveyourback]

On a daily basis in dd's class (15) she has around four children a day having to leave mid lesson due to panic attacks at some point in the day. At least four of her friends are self harming, and three have full blown anorexia.
DD is finding it very stressful and is getting quite scared, and god only knows how the children are coping themselves. Before it was about one or two a month, now every day someone is in difficulties.

My younger dd (12) is also experiencing something similar in her year - eating disorder, anorexia that needed hospitalisation and anxiety. It is worse in my older dd's year but I would say a quarter of 12 year olds in my dd's year and friends have significant MH issues.

Please can you tell me what you are experiencing in your schools? Are you noticing a massive upward trend? I am assuming it is the pandemic, exams combining but I could be wrong, my eldest dd is now saying she doesn't want to go to school, she is feeling overwhelmed.

I am quite frankly horrified at how many children are in a really bad state. Most seem to having some kind of counselling, which does not appear to be working at all for them.

If you are going through this, or understand this in a more informed way I would be grateful for your thoughts. Or if your child is not experiencing anything like this and your school seems fine. I am wondering if it is the school environment, their age or the pandemic.

My DD has struggled with anxiety for years but during the first lockdown suddenly developed pretty bad verbal and motor tics. Looking back, she’s always had them but so very rarely that it didn’t really register.

She says there are 2 others in her friendship group who have developed tics over the last couple of weeks - absolute nightmare for DD as hers are very suggestible and are extremely unpleasant and painful.

One of her friends is struggling with anorexia- she has suffered before but had improved, over the last few weeks has deteriorated again.

She’s unbelievably stressed and anxious at the moment

Sorry, meant to say DD is 15 in year 11 so mocks, exams, etc are taking their toll a bit

Yes mine too, I am sorry to hear things have got worse for your dd - it is really far from ideal especially this year. Are you finding anyone that is talking about this?

DD said the panic attacks can trigger others, so one girl will have one and the others can often find it very hard if not impossible to be triggered by it.

I feel so sorry for them all. During the lockdown many seemed to cope fine, but it seems to be harder now they are back in school. I am not sure why.

My dd y11 has had to isolate three times now. Her mental health is not good at all. To the point I would be worried for her if it happens again. She has never had any issues before the pandemic. It is fully down to exam stress and missing so much school.
This is a familiar picture in her school right now. Keep sending these children home for two weeks on their own isolating is causing some very real other health issues

I think it’s a little too easy to put it on lockdown tbh.
I’ve been disgusted and horrified at the behaviour at DS school.
I put a thread on here about it and it makes for depressing reading.
The world is falling apart.
Knife crime amongst kids is absolutely rocketing, as is drug abuse, anxiety, depression etc.
I’m not surprised the kids are anxious.

DD’s school have been really supportive and from chatting to her mentor the other day they do seem to be concerned across the board about their mental health

I’m finding it impossible to access any help. She had 6 Zoom counselling sessions, which she said were helpful but she’d like more but it’s not possible.

They used to have a quiet area she could go to - she has a pass that she’d put on her desk and just be able to leave wherever, whenever but it’s all out of bounds now.

We’re lucky in that she hasn’t been sent home to isolate - yet - 2 other year groups have been sent home so it’s only a matter of time

Her usual support - best friend, her boyfriend, her mentors at school have all been taken away, constant change as teachers have to isolate, meaning she has to explain her tics every time, and she’s really, really struggling

It seems that if anyone mentions teens’ mental health they are shot down, round here, teens are being blamed for breaking rules (I don’t think they are any worse than any other age group for rule breaking) left right and centre for any rise in positive cases.

Mine found the first lockdown easier as she didn’t have to worry about school - she has a social phobia and school has always been a problem so it meant a break from it, even if it meant anxiety about other stuff. She rides and we’re lucky that she has her own pony so getting up to the yard twice a day, seeing her pony and riding was always a bit of a haven for her. This time she’s even finding excuses not to come to the yard

Unlike physical heath issues, mental health issues particularly anxiety / panics attacks and particularly in children are rarely attributable to one cause. Rather they are caused by a build of of various worries / pressures / problems etc that build up to create a massive constant stress ball in the child. Then the slightest issue or problem can trigger a panic attack.
In my DD school there has been at least a 200% increase mostly in girls and higher in Year 7 then falling a lot in Year 8 and Year 9 and then more in Year 11.
Whilst Covid cannot solely be blamed - the restrictions, lockdown sending Year groups home etc has without a doubt been the main cause IMO of this rise.

My yr13 has always suffered from anxiety but it has got so much worse since the first initial lockdown :( to the point now where we have no idea whether university is an option as she is struggling so much.
My yr6 who is a confident child even cried when we where watching Boris saying another lockdown - apparently she was scared there be no school.

My DD has barely done a full day since September. She goes in late and leaves early due to severe anxiety. She doesn't go to classes, she sits in the quiet room. She is currently in self isolation, and was only back 2 days since half term as prior to that she was isolating because I had covid. Its grim, she's so sad and anxious, has daily melt downs. She's 13 prior to this year she went to school without problems. We are having help but its slow progress especially with all the periods of isolation.

Are you listening, Boris? This is one of the many legacies of your lockdown.

That’s exactly it Springersrock taking away their best friends / boyfriends / favourite teachers is having a huge impact as it’s their support network.

I don't think it's as a result of lockdown. I work in a girls' school and we have children leaving the classroom with panic attacks on a daily basis before lockdown. Some children are just prone to them.

Yes DD is 15 and this happens a lot in her school.
My DD is one of the self harmers that were mentioned earlier

I'm not sure it is solely due to the pandemic. OP, this is not exactly related to your question but I manage a team at work made up quite a few people who are mid - late 20s. Almost all have told me they suffer from anxiety and many are taking medication. Several have told me the anxiety began at school, ie in the last 10-15 years. I see this as something generational because I don't remember this being such an issue when I was their age.

Personally I think Social Media and the relentless 24 hour 'on' nature of our lifestyles has fuelled a lot of anxiety. My teenage years were mercifully free of FB, Insta etc. My friendships were all formed in real life, not virtually, and I wasn't bombarded with news, videos and the non-stop barrage of fake, perfect images of stick thin models on photo sharing platforms. I can't imagine what all of this has done to the brain development as well as the mental health of young people who have been raised on digital devices.

I am quite fearful when I think about the future of young people today. But then I think middle aged people like me have said this about every generation of younger people since time immemorial...

I don't have experience of secondary and covid but would like to say that when my children were at secondary (within the last 5 yrs) the girls were mostly cutting as a form of self harm, and there was a small epidemic of anorexia among the boys. And lots and lots with anxiety. So it isn't just a very very recent thing, sadly.

Normalisation of the idea that you can engineer how others see you is the source of much anxiety amongst young people I feel.
This freedom is not liberating, much the opposite.
Where is the line? Where do the self-imposed expectations end? If changing some fundamental aspect of yourself - such as for example sex - is theoretically within reach but temporarily unavailable (too young, unaffordable, etc) the perfect image you have of yourself in your head will haunt you. Because the idea of living an 'authentic identity' has become such a normative ideal among kids (and why - because there's big money in it). It's become almost irresponsible not to pursue the expression of your so-called authentic self. But, more importantly, if you create a situation where the onus is on you to curate the image others have of you, and it becomes vital to your mental wellbeing that others should see you as you would like to be seen, your wellbeing is going to take a lot of hits because what is being sold to kids as possible is impossible. There will always be people who don't see you as you'd like to be seen, and no, they can't all be tarred as prejudiced and out of touch. You can't innoculate yourself against this happening.
Am in my 20s and saw this developing already when I was at school, but it seems to have taken off in an unbelievable way in the last five years.

Are your kids in private girls schools or state school. My daughter starts state school in sept hope I dont get any issues

@wanderings - to be fair the lockdown and restrictions cannot be solely blamed at Boris and the Government, they were only acting in line with public opinion. The majority of the public including a majority of MN posters were and still are in favour of the lockdown and restrictions. The younger generation are being completely sacrificed for the benefit of the boomer plus generation. It seems that ballooning mental health problems in our children is acceptable price to pay in order to protect the elderly despite this problem being made very clear throughout.

I even remember one MN poster saying "Covid kills but mental health doesn't " - clearly the problem of suicide hadn't occurred to them.

@Springersrock Exactly the same thing happened to my daughter but when she returned back to school in September. I was in shock at how quickly the complex motor tics came on. Also developed more entrenched OCD's too.

I hope you and your DD are doing ok. I'm exhausted from it all as my DD's been on a PT timetable since hers started to escalate.

I don't doubt that the lockdown has had deleterious effects on some children but as pps have said some of these behaviours have been around for a while . My DD is nearly 30 and when she was in year 10 at a girls super selective grammar every one of her friends was self harming. It was rampant and lt ran through them like a craze. Several of that group of lovely , capable girls had significant mental health problems and some are still suffering. Unhappiness in children is a scandal that is not discussed nearly enough.

I used to teach medical outreach - students who couldn't attend school for health reasons. The majority of my case load were girls in year 10-11 with mental health difficulties such as anxiety, OCD, ASD (masked for so long they fell apart under it), self harm etc. It was very sad. This was 7 years ago.

I don't recall it being a thing when I was at school (late 90s/00s) - I'm sure it happened but I didn't know anyone who was affected at my school. I knew one girl with anorexia in my wider social circle but that's it.

DC1 has had depression and an ED for a while. Is now having panic attacks - a number of their fellow pupils are also having them - school say that as they are Yr13 they expect a bit of stress at this stage but have never seen anything like what is happening at the moment.

DD (different school) was always very calm and together - has now developed a nervous tic of wringing her hands. Is very anxious (built up over lockdown). Again school see they have never seen anything like this level of MH propblems.

Both schools expected an increase in MH problems and recruited an extra counsellor each and both say that their MH provision is overwhelmed by demand.

Tbh, I wonder if a lot of these things really only arise spontaneously in response to quite extreme life experiences but are socially contagious once they become widely known about and discussed to the point of normalisation.

Is it any frigging wonder, in this pornified, social media saturated world, my kids school is more akin to some kind prison or concentration camp than my shit 90's secondary. I would have had a nervous breakdown if I was subjected to what they are.

Dd was chatting the other day (she is in sixth form now) and said they had a whole lesson devoted to putting their hand up . If anyone spoke, they would have to leave and file in again.

I mean wtaf???

My laid back lovely DS who is 16 with no previous issues spent Saturday night till 2am wide awake and came to get me saying he was struggling to breathe and cope and just having a panic attack, it wasn't too distressing for him he managed to get to sleep and I'm grateful he came to wake me. But for me it was awful and very very worrying as he's never displayed anything like this before, we are keeping a close eye on him and making sure he talks to us, spends time with us and not on his own and is getting out walking and chatting as much as we can.

It's worrying times for them all and I can see how this will take it's toll on the young ones.