October 27, 2023

The Pandemic and Teenage Mental Health: How to Help Your Teen Cope

Being a teenager can feel overwhelming, stressful, and downright hard – even in the best of times. But the COVID-19 pandemic has piled on a whole slew of never-before-seen challenges and pressure for today’s teens.

The disconnection, uncertainty, fear, and disruption of normal day-to-day life have weighed heavily on many teens – creating a massive surge in teens struggling with pandemic-related depression and anxiety. With an alarming number of young people grappling with their mental health, many teens and parents are struggling, unsure of how to cope and move forward.

In this blog post, we’re going to explore this surge in pandemic-related teen anxiety and depression, and most importantly, we’ll cover some crucial steps you can take to address these life-disrupting mental health challenges.

How Has COVID Affected Teenage Mental Health?

Lockdowns, quarantines, isolation, and closures turned many people’s worlds upside down. But for teenagers, these shut-downs and separation from the outside world occurred during some of their most formative years – creating a unique set of struggles such as:

Missing out on important milestones like prom and graduation
Difficulties meeting academic goals with remote learning
Separation from friends during formative years of gaining independence from parents
Lack of socialization and difficulty creating important relationships socially, academically, and in extracurricular activities
Increased stress and tension in the community with uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, following precautions, etc.
Strained family dynamics and parental issues trickling down as adults struggle with financial concerns, working from home, their own concerns around the pandemic, etc.

So it’s no surprise that we’re seeing a massive surge in teenagers struggling with their mental health.

Youth Depression and Anxiety During the Pandemic

Teens' growing brains are much more vulnerable to stress and traumatic events. Teen brains are simply biologically wired to be less resilient than adult brains. Throughout the pandemic, and as we begin to transition back to “normal” life, many teens report an increase in feelings of:

Persistent sadness
Hopelessness
Disconnection and loneliness
Anxiousness about the future
Nervousness and uncertainty about “returning to normal” and engaging in social interactions
Apathy and lack of motivation

While it’s difficult to know the true extent of the pandemic on teen mental health, it’s evident that the stress and transitions of the pandemic have eroded the mental well-being of many teenagers. And with a growing number of teens being diagnosed with post-pandemic anxiety and depression, it’s important to understand exactly what these conditions entail and how to spot them.

So, let’s explore teen depression and anxiety a little more in-depth.

What Does Depression Do to the Teenage Brain?

During adolescence, the teenage brain is still under construction. This means teen brains are structurally different from adults and depression can have an even more pronounced impact. Some of the changes that take place in the brain during depression include:^1,2,3

An imbalance in hormones and neurotransmitters: In a depressed brain, there’s an imbalance in the chemicals and signaling molecules the brain relies on to function. This disrupts the brain's ability to regulate mood and emotions while hindering communication amongst brain cells.
Inflammation: Inflammation in the brain and nervous system can further disrupt hormones and neurotransmitters. Inflammation also makes it difficult for the brain to grow and create new communication channels known as synaptic connections.
Synaptic pruning: Synapses (the connections between your brain cells) are trimmed or removed in depression – essentially shutting down lines of communication and hindering the brain's ability to function efficiently.

These changes in the brain can result in symptoms like:⁴

Feeling sad, numb, hopeless, worthless, or empty
Mood swings, irritability, increase in conflict
Sleeping too much
Little interest in activities
Low self-esteem, extreme sensitivity to rejection or criticism, need for excessive reassurance
Thoughts of self-harm, death, or suicide

Now let’s explore another mental health challenge a number of teens are facing – anxiety disorders.

What Are the Signs of Anxiety In a Teenager?

The hallmark of any anxiety disorder is a feeling of nervousness or fear that just doesn’t seem to go away. Teens are particularly vulnerable to anxiety disorders because their brains' neural structures and connections are still developing. This makes it much harder for teen brains to process emotions and manage intense feelings of stress and fear.

But as a teen or the parent of a teen, it can sometimes be hard to differentiate between the normal emotional changes that come with adolescence and when it's time to seek help. All teens struggle with feeling nervous about an upcoming event or worry about fitting in with their peers. But sometimes these feelings tip the scale and become a concern.

Exactly how anxiety presents itself and what triggers these intense feelings of discomfort can vary significantly and may include:^5,6

Intensely worrying about social interactions and/or avoiding social interactions as much as possible
Becoming very afraid when separated from parents and needing to constantly be in close proximity to caregivers
Experiencing extreme fear over specific situations or things such as riding in the car, encountering dogs, or becoming ill
Constantly worrying about the future and about bad things happening
Repeated episodes of sudden and intense fear – often coming with physical symptoms like a pounding heart, difficulty breathing, feeling shaky or dizzy, and/or sweating
Extreme mood swings and unexplained irritability, anger, or crying
Unexplained physical ailments like stomach aches, headaches, persistent fatigue
Difficulty sleeping

Sometimes anxiety and depression can present on their own and other times teens may experience both. So what can we do to help teens cope with and recover from anxiety and depression?

How Do You Help a Teenager With Anxiety and Depression?

The good news is, there are a plethora of ways to help teens that are grappling with depression, anxiety, or both. Oftentimes, if you visit your general practitioner, conventional treatment for both depression and anxiety will include behavior therapy, and in some cases, medication.

Behavioral therapy is a type of therapy led by a mental health professional that can help teens:

Learn to better process emotions
Identify triggers
Create healthier coping mechanisms
Gradually overcome fears

Prescribed medications may include antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, or a combination of both. While these treatment options can certainly be a good place to start, sometimes they simply aren’t enough. And in some cases, teens and parents may be hesitant about ongoing medications and how they can impact developing brains.

Fortunately, there are some additional steps you can take that can have a potent impact on beating teen depression and anxiety.

How Else Can Teens Cope With Anxiety and Depression?

It's Important to remember that both anxiety and depression are treatable conditions. It may take some trial and error paired with some time and effort. But with the right strategies and tools, managing and overcoming teen anxiety and depression is entirely possible.

Some additional strategies and coping skills that can have a monumental impact on teen depression and anxiety include:

Lifestyle Modifications and Addressing Underlying Imbalances

Mental health is not separate from overall health. Some things that can majorly impact mental health and trigger or exacerbate the symptoms of depression and anxiety include:

An imbalance in hormones or neurotransmitters
Nutrient deficiencies
Poor gut health
Underlying inflammation or hidden infections

Taking a big-picture, holistic approach and addressing any underlying imbalances can make a world of difference in managing mental health issues. Partnering with a practitioner that specializes in functional medicine can help identify any underlying imbalances and help create a personalized plan to address teen depression and anxiety.

To learn more about the functional medicine approach, visit our Functional Medicine Q and A page.

Ketamine Infusion Therapy for Teen Depression

Ketamine infusion therapy has been found to be a safe and powerfully effective treatment for teen depression. In fact, it’s been found that a single infusion of ketamine can significantly reduce depressive symptoms within 24 hours of administration.⁷

Ketamine infusion therapy works to treat depression in both the long term and the short term by stimulating what’s known as synaptic plasticity – the promotion of new neural connections in the brain. Ketamine's impressive ability to encourage new connections in the brain enhances communication amongst brain cells, improves brain function, and minimizes inflammation.

To learn more about exactly how ketamine infusion therapy works to treat and even reverse the underlying cause of depression, head over and read the article How Ketamine Infusion Therapy Can Help Depression: What You Need to Know.

Stellate Ganglion Block for Teen Anxiety

A stellate ganglion block, also referred to as SGB, is a local anesthetic that can be injected into a collection of nerves known as the stellate ganglion. The injection of local anesthetic into this bundle of nerves is able to block the nerve impulses that create feelings of fear and anxiety in your body. This essentially calms the nervous system and dramatically reduces feelings of panic, worry, and fear that accompany anxiety disorders.^8,9

To learn more about stellate ganglion blocks and how they can be an integral part of treating anxiety disorders you can read through our Stellate Ganglion Block Q and A.

Mindfulness, Meditation, and Breathwork

The intentional practice of controlling your emotions and emotional responses can help “rewire” your brain – essentially training the brain to more easily access states of peace and calm. Some ways to reset and rewire these neural pathways include regularly practicing:

Mindfulness: A therapeutic technique of maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of emotions, thoughts, and bodily sensations to bring the mind back to the present moment during states of distress
Meditation: A practice similar to mindfulness that entails quieting the mind, clearing it of thoughts, and focusing on the present moment to induce relaxation and calm
Breathwork: The practice of controlled rhythmic breathing that not only calms and soothes your mind, but also stimulates the vagus nerve – signaling your heart rate to slow and your body to relax

To learn more about breathwork and how it can help with feelings of anxiety and depression, click right here.

Are You A Teen or the Parent of A Teenager Struggling With Depression or Anxiety?

The pandemic has taken a significant toll on the mental health of teenagers across the country. Depression and anxiety can feel overwhelming and all-consuming – to not only teens but the whole family. If you’re a teen or the parent of a teenager concerned about depression or anxiety and searching for answers, don’t go at it alone.

Having guidance and the right tools can make a world of difference in navigating the challenges of any mental health obstacles. Our board-certified physicians and medical staff at Strive MD Wellness and Ketamine are well-versed in helping teens struggling with anxiety and/or depression. So if you’re ready to take the next step in overcoming post-pandemic depression or anxiety, please reach out and make an appointment.

"We see patients in the following locations: Skokie, Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, Miami Beach, Florida, Miami Florida, Frisco, Texas, Dallas, Texas, and surrounding areas of Illinois, Florida, and Texas. Call us to book your appointment today."

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