Social media, COVID creating critical situation for our teens
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Nick Richard has spent over 20 years as a mental health professional, including plenty of time with teenagers, and right now he has an important message for parents to hear: “Wake up.”
Richard has been the executive director for NAMI of St. Tammany (National Association for Mental Illness) for two decades, and is considered one of the top experts on the North Shore when it comes to mental health issues.
That is why he is so concerned to see what he calls “startling studies” which show that one in five teenagers are seriously considering suicide on any given day.
“Really? Is that what our teens are really thinking about today?” he said after stating the numbers. “Think about that. Think about your teenager, or others you know. One in five is seriously thinking about committing suicide on any day.
“When people ask what my biggest worry in the mental health realm is I tell them it is our youth. I feel scared every day just thinking that one in five of our teens could commit suicide today,” he said.
That commentary was backed up recently when St. Tammany Fire District #1 issued a public press release on a related problem that is growing exponentially on the North Shore and across the country, and is one of the reasons that teens are in a critical situation. It is the use of the most powerful drugs, especially the rise in fentanyl use, that is leading to more-and-more calls for overdose emergencies.
In 2019, the Slidell fire department responded to 108 overdose calls, a number that went up to 146 calls for drug overdose in 2020, then a whopping total of 192 calls in 2021.
It was barely a year ago when Fire Chief Chris Kaufmann held a press conference to announce the district had received a grant for the drug Narcan, a drug that can be administered in emergency situations to anyone who is beginning to overdose. When firemen arrive to an OD scene they can immediately administer the Narcan shot which can help to arrest the overdose until further case is provided.
Unfortunately, those first responders are seeing an unbelievable rise in the need for Narcan in our own communities.
Kaufmann said the department used Narcan 63 times in 2019, then almost doubled to 124 times in 2020, then 162 times in 2021.
“We will continue to respond to overdose/suicide calls and give every person the best chance at survival,” Kaufmann stated. “However, I am alarmed at the rate of rise in these types of calls.”
Kaufmann believes the past two years of COVID stress to families is a key reason for the increase in overdose and suicide calls, and Richard evaluated that picture by adding more reasons for teens feeling a need to escape this world.
“COVID certainly has made things worse since kids were ordered how to act, and most importantly, not allowed to interact with peers in a normal way since they had to wear masks at school,” he said. “But Social Media has also played a very big part in what has happened.”
Richard said that the access allowed by parents to social media for their kids, even those younger than teenage years, has made things considerably worse.
“It is a fact that when young people begin to get into the teenage years they become more autonomous from their parents,” he said. “Now, with social media, they see a rise in the expectations of how they should look and act. Most of them can’t reach such high expectations and it leads to depression, anxiety and for some, suicide attempts.”
“And the problem for so many young people is they don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Richard added. “In the past two years of COVID we saw higher ER visits for youth, and we got a lot more calls here at NAMI from people and teens asking for help.”
The other side of the coin for teens who seem to face more stress to be successful and popular is that the help at home from parents has been diminished in other ways from COVID.
“So many people were suddenly working at home during COVID, and that means the stress and pressure from work was suddenly in their home.
“Your home is supposed to be a safe place, where you leave the pressures of work behind,” Richard explained. “But that’s not the case anymore.”
The result, he said, is that teens feel that pressure and find less support and time with parents.
Richard also said that the fear across our nation from the COVID outbreak, which so many parents accepted and believed, was another negative factor for young people who never were at the risk level first suggested.
“Parents were so fearful from what they were told on the national media,” he said. “That was never in the best interest of kids and it created kind of a low fever of fear in the home.
“Parents became so highly stressed that they brought it home to their kids, and then they were working at home, so they had less time for their children,” he said. “When people have fear on their brain, it makes the brain hyper-vigilant—kind of like a soldier in a combat zone. You can’t turn it off.
“And you can be sure your kids were feeling that fear,” he added.
Richard said he is especially concerned what the next year or two will bring because statistically there is a 41 percent increase in suicides two years after an area experiences a hurricane. COVID, he noted, is certainly as serious as dealing with a hurricane and he warns parents and others to be aware of the situation.
“Think about how we react when a hurricane hits our area,” he said. “The way humans work in a disaster is that at first, they are resilient and tough. They handle the adversity and do what is necessary.
“After things settle down, as is happening now with COVID, you try to figure out what is next. The result is that drinking, and drug use goes up, there is depression, you don’t feel right, and you avoid social situations,” he said. “Those are all factors that lead some to attempt suicide.”
Even the United States Surgeon General issued an advisory in December, 2021 about concerns for mental health issues for teens. Dr. Vivek Murthy noted in the press release that for young people “the COVID-19 pandemic altered experiences at home, school and in the community, and the effect on their mental health has been devastating.”
That statement was supported by startling statistics showing that among high school students 19 percent were seriously considering attempting suicide, 16 percent have made a suicide plan within the past year, suicide rates among youth ages 10-24 increased by 57 percent in the past nine years, and there were more than 6,600 suicide deaths in this age group in 2020.
Richard said that the first-place parents should start is to have controls on Social Media, even though acknowledging “I know they can’t completely stop it all. But there has to be a middle ground since teens so badly are looking for approval from their peers. And what they see on social media makes them want to reach those expectations.”
Secondly, parents need to talk to their kids, recognize their feelings of “I don’t feel right,” and get them help if they have concerns of depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts.
“We have to realize there is no such thing as normal for any of us,” he added. “But the earlier you recognize someone needs help, then the more you can help them.”