Parents everywhere are noticing that their children are hitting the “pandemic wall,” and psychologists have an explanation. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of children, and it has had an effect on their mental health. As we are about to hit the one-year anniversary of the pandemic, experts (and parents) are growing concerned about the mental health of children and youth. We are also now starting to hear stories from children about how they are feeling, and one little girl opened up about how she is feeling right now.
According to CNN, London Loree is an 11-year-old who has said in the simplest terms that she has “had enough.” She spoke specifically about school, and how she is tired of doing classes on Zoom and dealing with the fails that come with relying on technology.
What is alarming to London’s mother is that her daughter, who once loved and thrived in school, now dreads it. London said that she is tired, stressed and that she feels “lazy.” This is being referred to as the “pandemic wall” by experts, and London is not alone with feeling like she has run right into it.
According to CTV News, psychologists say that this is “cognitive overload.” Jaleel K. Abdul-Adil is a professor of clinical psychology in psychiatry at the University of Illinois, and he said that children have a very basic framework when it comes to handling and navigating disappointment.
They have a very simple process of regulating their emotions around disappointment, but the pandemic has proven to be too much and for too long. They are struggling to regulate their emotions and feelings. He said that this is going to impact younger children a lot more than older children, because children who are young do not know how to label and process their feelings in a healthy way.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross designed the ‘5 stages of grief,’ and experts are saying that children seem to be stuck in the depression/anger phases, and unable to push through to the more healing stages.
London’s mother said that her daughter used to enjoy school and now it seems like she is only doing it because she has to. London’s mother is not the only mother that is concerned about this.
Thato Mwosa is a mother-of-three, and she noted similar behaviors in her 12-year-old son. She stated that there are moments when her son seems so overwhelmed that he can not seem to process any of the work that is being asked of him. She and her husband had started getting letters from her son’s school that he was showing up late for school, behavior that he had never exhibited before.