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.

Yes very much but I agree it isn’t just school kids - it seems in young people generally. I don’t just attribute it to lockdown - it has been increasing for years.

I am very interested in the impact of lifestyle and food on mental health. I believe this is one is the factors behind it. Our children are suffering from malnutrition even if they have too much food. The basic groundblocks to help make neurotransmitters, such as the B vitamins, aren’t being taken in or not being absorbed. The gut microbiome is successive generations is poorer and less diverse. All these add up hugely.

There is lots that can be done but it needs time and more than a sticking plaster of drugs

I disagree that it's due to lockdown as such, although obviously that won't have helped some teens and the current uncertainty in school is making things worse.

Teen mental health issues have been a real problem for years. I think exams and social media are both major factors in this. Anxiety and eating disorders have been really common for a while now.

However, what is very different this term is that it is much harder for schools/teens to access help - counselling services are not doing face to face appointments, or coming into schools, it is much harder to access the GP, school staff who can offer early support may be absent, social workers seem completely unwilling to get involved with anything at the moment...

This means that issues that last year we might have been able to offer early support for have escalated instead.

Nice guidelines mean talking therapy is given alongside drugs when used so they don’t just become sticking plasters.

Re eating disorders they surged during lockdown, old and new.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/demand-surges-for-eating-disorder-helpline-after-lockdown-creates-perfect-storm-12065601

YY to the lack of support due to Covid.My ds developed clinical depression with suicidal thoughts due to some pretty shit life events.Literally the lowest you could plummet and he was described as suffering from a significant mental illness.

Due to Covid all he got was a few phone calls whilst waiting in the Q for treatment. Like many teens he has a fear of video calls but now has to speak to his psychiatrist by video and struggles to lift his head. It is almost impossible to discuss hideous things by video. You are so detached, he’s convinced it’s recorded, hates seeing himself.....He has a lovely psychologist too now but has never seen her face. He just can’t do video calling with her and he ends the phone calls early. If he was in a room face to face he wouldn’t be able to shut things down so quick.

What Sansa said about outside agencies.It’s so bloody hard, I really feel for teenagers. I’m appalled at how little the gov are doing and how much they are chucking at schools who have been dumped with the impossibility of keeping staff and children safe in cramped buildings, inadequate funding alongside the psychological impact Covid has had on families and children as individuals with little outside support.

Agencies won’t sit in a room with one child desperately in need of help whilst school staff are being expected to sit in classrooms with the same children and 29 others with little support whilst dealing with a global pandemic.Now that is truly a sticking plaster that is going to burst further down the line.

It’s a disgrace and more should be done to hold the gov to account. I am a very engaged supportive parent finding supporting my struggling dc hard. We’re doing ok but I’ve had to battle for support and do a lot myself alongside hours of research to keep them safe at times.I find it hard thinking about the kids without that support so then I feel bad that my dc have that much needed support and I really shouldn’t.

Telling parents to provide exercise and sleep is not support.
Actually there is good evidence that
exercise is as good as antidepressants for many people.

This whole thread is very disturbing to read. My kids are still in PS but I fear for whats ahead of them. Lockdown goes against the very essence of human need for interaction but particularly for our young. They learn from play & each other so they are missing out on so much. My little boy is 6yrs old & I've noticed a decline in his speech & confidence in general. They need to get back to normal asap to try to reverse this damage if possible. Just a very very sad situation 😭