Covid-19 has affected the lives of millions of people across the world in many different ways and continues to do so. Mental Health is very important and there are many people that suffer with psychological issues across the UK. This has gotten significantly worse because Covid-19 has had such a huge impact and many people, especially young people have been affected.
Loneliness and depression
Covid-19 has had a massive impact on mental health because it has caused an increase in depression due to young people being lonely. During the pandemic everywhere went into lockdown, this meant all schools were closed and everyone had to stay indoors. This increased loneliness because it meant young people could no longer see their friends and socialise. It also would have prevented a lot of people from making new friends if they were starting at a new school for example. Many young people also may not have siblings which means they will not have social interactions with people of the same age. Loneliness by itself may not cause depression, but multiple contributing factors can cause depression or make it worse.
Anxiety
Covid-19 can also contribute to anxiety among young people because they wouldn't have experienced a pandemic before or a lockdown so it is something very unusual to them. With everything changing and a lot of uncertainty this will have people feeling anxious . Not only this but they may be worried about contracting the virus and be worried about their family members as well, especially if they have family members who are at risk due to having a weak immune system. Furthermore, due to lack of social interaction when they are allowed back to school and allowed to see friends they may get nervous about socialising again and being in a big group again.
Job loss and university closures
There would have also been an impact on people attending university because it means all lectures and classes will now be online via sites such as teams. Many university students will struggle with this because it also means that they would be in lockdown away from their families if staying in accommodation. This can be very isolating and have a negative affect on their mental health. Also, university is a very important time and can be very challenging so this can be very stressful because students will want to do their best and having to change the dynamics of how they work can be hard. Majority of university students have part time jobs and therefore this means that they can't work due to the lockdowns so they will also have financial stresses and struggles. There are young people who don't attend university and work full time, they may live alone and if they can no longer work this will mean they won't be able to pay their bills or pay rent. All of these different factors and scenarios will have a great impact on young people's mental health and make it worse. In 2021, it was found that 46.5 % of young people aged 17-23 with mental health concerns said that the Covid-19 restrictions made their life a little worse and 24 % said it made their life much worse .
Long-term impact
As we are no longer in lockdown, a lot of factors that were contributing to the mental health issues of young people aren't there anymore. For example, schools and universities are back in person and people can go out and socialise again. However, this doesn't mean that there isn't a long term impact that the pandemic has caused. When people lose their jobs, they is no guarantee that they will get their them back when things return to back to normal. Therefore, people will still be without money and still have the stresses that the pandemic has left behind. Additionally, when a person has not socialised for a long period of time, this can have a lasting impact on their social anxiety and going back out into the world again. Some factors may be short term but there are many issues which are lasting and still affect people today.