It's not just college students:
A knowledge of probability is so valuable, yet so rare.Government restrictions on daily life during the pandemic have fueled a youth mental health crisis . Yet, even with many of these restrictions now lifted, young people are still living in a hysterical state of fear.
New polling proves as much. Axios/TheGenerationLab just surveyed college students about their comfort level with various forms of social activity. The poll finds that students, many of whom are vaccinated, are essentially scared of their own shadow — in a way utterly untethered from actual risk levels and scientific reality.
You are wrong, it is not an irrational fear. Spreading misinformation is harmful.
ReplyDeleteWe thought we were having a good pandemic, but when our college junior came home for spring break, that was the end of the illusion.
ReplyDeleteFor the fall and winter trimesters, she had one 30-minute, in-person rehearsal a week. For the other 167.5 hours of every week, she was at home, alone in an apartment, convinced that if she walked out of the door she would kill someone's grandmother.
Six months of nearly complete isolation pushed her and her eating disorder over the edge.
She had been losing weight since 5th grade, and was already underweight when the school year began. By the time spring break came along, she weighed in the 60-70% of normal body weight range, and every system in her body was shutting down. In lieu of other food, her body began eating itself.
She had reached a weight where it actually becomes dangerous to start eating again. The body's systems begin turning back on, but don't do so in unison. You can get chemical imbalances that can lead to life-threatening things like cardiac arrest.
That's the point she had reached, because of covid lockdowns and the paranoia our young people were so susceptible to.
It took us about 10 days of banging on doors to get her into the first treatment program. She's now been through 12 days in the hospital--essentially in ICU--2 months in residential rehab, and another 2 months in outpatient rehab, and still has a long, long way to go.
At least she's on the right path now.
Things we've learned in the last 6 months:
Most of the crisis programs are geared towards adolescents, and finding one for a 20-21 year old or older is very, very difficult. The older you get, the fewer options there are. And most of the programs are geared towards women and girls. Finding a program for men and boys borders on the impossible. And yes, guys get EDs too.
Eating disorders are wide ranging, and affect enormous numbers of people. Most people with eating disorders are actually a normal weight. Stereotypical anorexia is only seen in about 10% of people with EDs.
Few medical professionals are trained in eating disorders. In rehab, our girl made a good friend who has been battling ED for so long, that her heart may not be able to recover--she may be end-stage anorexia. When this woman went to consult with her cardiologist, the idiot told her she should lose some weight. It's hard to find any doctor, who actually has knowledge of the effects of EDs on the body, or one who has the understanding and sensitivity to know what to do and say. (The book "Sick Enough" by Jennifer Gaudiani is considered one of the best guides. I figure every high school and every pediatrician's office should have a copy.)
Even the therapists aren't really trained in ED. Most have said that in all their training, they spent a single day on eating disorders, despite it affecting over a million Americans and being one of the most common forms of mental disorder.
Most scary for us at the moment: most people relapse repeatedly before overcoming the disorder.
First Anonymous, you are correct--spreading misinformation *is* harmful. This is why so many are living in irrational fear.
ReplyDeleteSecond Anonymous: I hope things continue to go the right way for you and your daughter.