COVID-19 impacting teens mental health

COVID-19 impacting teens mental health

Depression and anxiety can strike anyone, anywhere at anytime.

And with the added pressure of being a teenager these days- there's many factors that can contribute to it like a pandemic.

Fox 55'sjentill neal tells us how one parent is trying to keep her teens inspired.

Jentill?

Hunter, candice bradley is a mother of three.

An 18 year old, 15 year old, and 12 year old.

She says this has been one of the most challenging things she's ever experienced trying to help her children navigate through all of what's going on- but she has some help.

Candice bradley is looking for ways to create a space of comfort for her three children who are now isolation- her daughter is taking it pretty hard.<candice 17:03:40-17:04:12 "she's feeling her own anxiousness because she was anticipating graduating early.

She's a sophomore but she set some things in motion to fast track.

Those things have been put on hold.

Then she realized her plans with city life for the summer are put on hold or may not happen, she's taking that really really hard."

There's no school to look forward to and no more hanging out with friends.in fact the top struggle with local teens right now is friendship.but city life youth for christ and remedy live are trying to help parents like candice.they've created a digital space to bring parents and teens together so they don't have to feel alone.>16:55:53-16:56:11 "the data is showing 93% of kids are struggling with some sort of anxiety.

In the past month, they've been dealing with anxiety so it's a real issue.

If you think about it, that issue is amplified within the context of isolation."the top struggle parents are witnessing right now is bordom among their teens.this is from an interactive poll by remedy live.they've teamed up to create a website with podcasts, social media gatherings and video on ways to open up conversation with your teen about tough topics around covid-19 and other things.while these things could be helpful, chris says the biggest key here is making time to actually talk.>"one of the things we talked about is taking advantage of the little moments.

Not expecting a kid to sit down and have a 30 minute conversation, but the 30 second conversation at dinner is a big deal."

They held a webinar this week for parents on this as well.

They aren't conducting anything in person, but if you think this could help your teen, we will have the information on our website at wfft dot comreporting live jentill neal ... fox 55