Are you a young person suffering from depression or do you know a young person who is? Or is this a survey you're doing? Just wondering. While you will hear a lot of anecdotal evidence suggesting more people of all ages are suffering depression because of covid, scientifically speaking, it's way too early for anyone to have crunched the data to know if the numbers are actually higher than they were before covid. Knowing how many people suffer depression is almost impossible to know, because most people aren't asked and most don't seek treatment and even if they do most practitioners don't have to report this data to anyone. Most of what we know of mental illness is therefore anecdotal even in the best of times. There's also a big difference between depression and a sense of loss or sadness or boredom, which might go away quickly if covid goes away enough for us to get back to a more normal life. Depression is a disease that is very hard to get rid of, and usually takes a while to do so. Bottom line, you will hear a lot about this but the people talking aren't speaking with solid data, they are speaking anecdotally. Eventually, harder data will come out, because again, depression lingers, while frustration and the like go away more easily. I've certainly heard that more people are suffering from it, but again, I'm always skeptical about data that can't actually be known. As for the causes of depression, there are really only two: something traumatic happened that the person couldn't shake and it lingered long enough to become depression, and the second is, nobody really knows. Could be genetic. Could be exposure to pollution. Could be poor nutrition. Could just be life. Could be lack of breastfeeding. There are more theories than there are depressed people. Peace.
Isolation, fear of the virus itself, being at home more with any dysfunction that is in the home, virtual school which is hard to stay on top of or be motivated for, loss of activities that they enjoyed. The pandemic has been truly awful for us all and has hurt our youth terribly. Any type of difference from other kids such as a neuro difference? Then targeted for bullying and lack of peers to call friends. social media adds to it. It's complex. Agree that genetics play a role as well. but I'm shocked at the current number of kids needing mental health care right now. Backed up for months!