The Silent Impact of COVID on Our Children Part 2

To read part one, click here. In that article, I began exploring the subtle but lasting impact the pandemic had on our children. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with a young woman who was in school when COVID first hit our nation. Listening to her experiences, it quickly became clear that the disruptions, isolation, and constant fear left lasting marks that she still carries today. This second part delves deeper into the psychological and social effects of those years.

I propose that our country and, specifically, our children, have gone through a trauma. I suspect that nearly everyone went through something that they never thought would happen to them. 

Then layer that with the constant warning signs everywhere, being treated like a walking contagion, apps that connected you with infection rates in your area giving out alerts, businesses going out, non-stop social media posts, death tolls up on every news station, and being blocked from even participating in holidays, birthdays, weddings, or funerals. 

I don’t think I need to go on. Our entire country came to a screeching halt. Now, let’s add another layer to that trauma that our children went through.

Mandatory Masking. 

While I get the purpose of needing to mask up when sick, we all know this did not pan out as well as we were all told it would. I’m not here to go into that side of things; just pointing out that it didn’t work as well as planned.

We went well past the 2 weeks we were all told.

We were required to wear masks far longer than any of us expected. So we have people experiencing a high level of constant fear and stressors now, also being required to cover their faces. 

So here are my connect-the-dot moments.

Traumatic Event-

“Trauma is when we experience very stressful, frightening or distressing events that are difficult to cope with or out of our control. It could be one incident, or an ongoing event that happens over a long period of time.” (1)

“Covid-19 has destroyed and remoulded me into someone I am still trying to figure out. It has completely changed my outlook on life and it has broken a part of me which I am still working hard to heal, with the help of my colleagues and loved ones.” (1)

Here are some of the common reactions after a trauma. (2)

• Losing hope for the future

• Feeling distant (detached) or losing a sense of concern about others

• Being irritable or having angry outbursts

• Getting easily upset or agitated

• Blaming yourself or having negative views of oneself or the world

• Being unable to trust others, getting into fights, or trying to control everything

• Being withdrawn, feeling rejected, or abandoned

  
  

PTSD-

“Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that’s caused by an extremely stressful or terrifying event — either being part of it or witnessing it.” (3)

“Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms may start within the first three months after a traumatic event. But sometimes symptoms may not appear until years after the event. These symptoms last more than one month and cause major problems in social or work situations and how well you get along with others.” (3)

Here are a few common symptoms. (3)

• Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of a traumatic event.

• Negative thoughts about yourself, other people or the world.

• Ongoing negative emotions of fear, blame, guilt, anger or shame.

• Feeling detached from family and friends.

• Irritability, angry outbursts or aggressive behavior.

  
  

Social Contagion-

“the spread of behaviors, attitudes, and affect through crowds and other types of social aggregates from one member to another. Adolescents are prone to social contagion because they may be especially susceptible to peer influence and social media.” (4)

“Given their developmental stage, adolescents are a population prone to social contagion not only because they may be especially susceptible to the influence of social media [9], but also to that of their peers” (4)

Group Think- 

“Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinions of the rest of the group. The term was first used in 1972 by social psychologist Irving L. Janis.” (6)

Here are some of the signs to watch for with this phenomenon.(6)

1. Illusions of unanimity lead members to believe that everyone is in agreement and feels the same way. It is often much more difficult to speak out when it seems that everyone else in the group is on the same page.

2. Unquestioned beliefs lead members to ignore possible moral problems and not consider the consequences of individual and group actions.

3. Rationalizing prevents members from reconsidering their beliefs and causes them to ignore warning signs.

4. Stereotyping leads members of the in-group to ignore or even demonize out-group members who may oppose or challenge the group’s ideas. This causes members of the group to ignore important ideas or information.

5. Direct pressure to conform is often placed on members who pose questions, and those who question the group are often seen as disloyal or traitorous.

   
   

Here’s something personal I’d like to bring up. 

I do not know how many remember this, but a while ago, there was a concern, for lack of a better word, when teenagers started showing up at the doctor’s office because they developed Tics/Tourette's syndrome symptoms.

It made the news for a while, and doctors learned that these teenagers were watching influencers who truly had a Tic disorder or Tourette's syndrome and then were starting to mimic them; their brains did this to them.

I remember this and watched it play out because my daughter truly has Tourette's syndrome. I will be honest, it was saddening and also frustrating. No one knows the hell Tourette syndrome can actually be, and here are kids being so influenced by stuff online that their brains literally started copying them.

“Then, because they’re watching these videos so often, their brains start to mimic the tics. “What these teen girls have are called functional tics — it’s a functional neurological disorder,” says Dr. Danoun. “We’ve seen this before in children who have parents or siblings with seizures.” (5)

“Functional neurological disorders are often associated with anxiety, depression and/or trauma, so people with these mental health conditions may be more susceptible to developing functional tics.” (5)

Why am I dropping all these definitions? 

I know it’s not as cut-and-dry as these definitions, but we have a problem.

When I see reports of teens developing tics just from watching too much TikTok, we have a problem on a much larger scale in our country if that can happen to our children.

I can see that there’s a large population suffering from trauma, and they are all reacting quite loudly and rudely; they are reacting as if they experienced a trauma. As a survivor of trauma, I can see and recognize these actions, and I can understand them internally in a way those who haven’t experienced trauma cannot.

Take all these conditions (there’s more btw, but I stopped) and throw in a couple of years of masks, fear, isolation, and trauma to young children, teenagers, and adults. You can not convince me that they came out unscathed. 

I am 42 years old, and I have never seen a reaction so substantial, forceful, and potent in this country until the mandates went down and people went back to “normal” lives.

I know I can not be the only one who saw this.

© Jane Isley

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Sources:

(1) Mind.org

(2) U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs; PTSD: National Center for PTSD; Common Reactions After Trauma

(3) Mayo Clinic; Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

(4) PubMed Central

(5) Henry Ford Health: Why Is TikTok Giving Teen Girls Tics?

(6) Verywell Mind; How Groupthink Impacts Our Behavior