Coping with Anxiety in the Age of COVID
By Caroline Renas
We're all at home with nothing to do, so why are teenagers so stressed in quarantine?
The week where everything started to close down was honestly pretty exciting in my opinion. Musical recital cancelled - great, that’s one less thing to practice for. School dance cancelled - cool, I was only going because my friends wanted to. I don’t like dances otherwise. And then, on that Friday - 3 weeks off from school. Every single student was jumping around that day, freaking out that we had 3 weeks to just do nothing. I, myself was included in that. I thought, 3 weeks, great. I’ll just study for AP tests and hang out with friends.
By that Sunday, lockdown had truly come down. I had plans to see friends the following week, but everything was cancelled. Netflix and Snapchat were all I had. At first, I enjoyed the sudden change. I’m an introvert (granted I still need social time), so I really enjoyed all the time to myself, at least for the first two or three weeks. Teachers and parents told us to relax and enjoy the time off, so that’s what I did. Eventually though, online school came. With this, my anxiety spiked. I wasn’t as focused on tv shows and perfecting my Spotify account, I was focused on school again. Suddenly, I was reading the news every day. Constantly studying for AP exams. Trying to find activities to add to my college resume. My social media time went down, my youtube history of watching Crash Course videos went up. My parents told me to slow down, that I was going too fast. That I was doing too much. My anxiety was increasing as I added more activities to my plate. Makes sense, right?
But, that’s not the full story. I think that, at the root of it, the reason my anxiety was increasing was because this was a “new normal”, and I didn’t really know what to do. If I didn’t do anything, and was simply relaxing, I felt that I was being inefficient. That I was wasting time. So, I added new activities to my plate. Yet these new activities caused a different form of anxiety. I was constantly questioning my schedule. Why am I doing so much? Should I be doing more? These friends are on Tiktok 8 hours of the day, relaxing, should I join them? But, on the other hand, these friends are now working with an SAT tutor everyday, should I join them? Before quarantine, you had an idea of what’s asked of you. Go to school 6 hours each day, see friends for an hour or two, a few hours of homework, a few hours of a sport, and then sleep. But that structure we all had personalized for ourselves collapsed, and we didn’t really have the chance to rebuild it or anything. Just kind of “wade” through the pieces of it - math class is having a zoom call at 10am, then I’ll facetime this friend. Then I have a history class, then I have an online stretch class. For most of us, our anxiety is from that. It wasn’t really a “new normal”, it was just our normal life, all broke down.
From speaking with friends and from my own experience, teenagers’ anxiety got worse around June or so. Summer was coming, and we wondered about what would come. Do we do nothing, or do a gazillion online activities? Over the summer, I was working 6 days a week at a restaurant. I worked on Model UN, I took a college class, I worked on a voting campaign, and of course my normal dose of music practice. I had decided it was better to do everything than nothing, so having one day off felt, wrong. It also didn’t help that teenagers weren’t really “unified”. We all kind of ditched any summer plans we had, and started fresh. Some were going to the beach every day, ignoring every safety precaution. Others were spending 15 hours a day online, attending college essay workshops and getting a head start on their AP studying.
I don’t think it was just the lack of a typical summer that caused my anxiety to rise around June, but I believe that a large part of it had to do with the upsurge in kids my age voicing their opinions on social and political issues. I can expect to go on Instagram everyday and know that something political will be reposted by a friend of mine. I’m not trying to say this is bad - I’m even writing this paper on behalf of a youth voices movement. Youth voices matter. It’s important that we talk and speak up. Rather, I feel that my anxiety drawn around youth involvement in politics is just not knowing how to involve myself “correctly”. Should I repost this? Does it look bad if I haven’t put anything on my story in a few days? I didn’t post anything about this, but I’m not trying to say I don’t care. Is that bad? What is the standard to say “I’m active, I’m liberal, I care” but not look crazy?
Nobody knows what to do right now. Teenagers included. These were supposed to be our best days, a time in our life we’ll never get back, and that idea is gone. We are struggling to adjust, to understand, to know what to do with ourselves. How to interact with others. How to live. We really don’t know.
I’ve always lived by a routine, a set schedule, as have many other people my age. I always expected that the way I’ve felt since March, this sense of confusion, loneliness and worry wouldn’t hit me till I graduated college. I guess it came soon for all of us teenagers. So, you know what? I can’t fully say that I accept this, but I’ll continue to use this as my mantra:
“It’s a different time. It’s okay to feel different.”
If you are struggling from the anxiety and stress that has been set upon you in the last multiple months, it’s okay. You’re not alone. We all feel a little weird. And while there is no simple cure to our anxiety, we can take steps to care for ourselves. When you feel low, remember to:
Call someone you care about. Take an off day every once in a while. And, of course, stay inside. If we stay inside, sooner rather than later we can return the way we used to feel.
We will get through this. You are not alone. It’s gonna be okay.
The week where everything started to close down was honestly pretty exciting in my opinion. Musical recital cancelled - great, that’s one less thing to practice for. School dance cancelled - cool, I was only going because my friends wanted to. I don’t like dances otherwise. And then, on that Friday - 3 weeks off from school. Every single student was jumping around that day, freaking out that we had 3 weeks to just do nothing. I, myself was included in that. I thought, 3 weeks, great. I’ll just study for AP tests and hang out with friends.
By that Sunday, lockdown had truly come down. I had plans to see friends the following week, but everything was cancelled. Netflix and Snapchat were all I had. At first, I enjoyed the sudden change. I’m an introvert (granted I still need social time), so I really enjoyed all the time to myself, at least for the first two or three weeks. Teachers and parents told us to relax and enjoy the time off, so that’s what I did. Eventually though, online school came. With this, my anxiety spiked. I wasn’t as focused on tv shows and perfecting my Spotify account, I was focused on school again. Suddenly, I was reading the news every day. Constantly studying for AP exams. Trying to find activities to add to my college resume. My social media time went down, my youtube history of watching Crash Course videos went up. My parents told me to slow down, that I was going too fast. That I was doing too much. My anxiety was increasing as I added more activities to my plate. Makes sense, right?
But, that’s not the full story. I think that, at the root of it, the reason my anxiety was increasing was because this was a “new normal”, and I didn’t really know what to do. If I didn’t do anything, and was simply relaxing, I felt that I was being inefficient. That I was wasting time. So, I added new activities to my plate. Yet these new activities caused a different form of anxiety. I was constantly questioning my schedule. Why am I doing so much? Should I be doing more? These friends are on Tiktok 8 hours of the day, relaxing, should I join them? But, on the other hand, these friends are now working with an SAT tutor everyday, should I join them? Before quarantine, you had an idea of what’s asked of you. Go to school 6 hours each day, see friends for an hour or two, a few hours of homework, a few hours of a sport, and then sleep. But that structure we all had personalized for ourselves collapsed, and we didn’t really have the chance to rebuild it or anything. Just kind of “wade” through the pieces of it - math class is having a zoom call at 10am, then I’ll facetime this friend. Then I have a history class, then I have an online stretch class. For most of us, our anxiety is from that. It wasn’t really a “new normal”, it was just our normal life, all broke down.
From speaking with friends and from my own experience, teenagers’ anxiety got worse around June or so. Summer was coming, and we wondered about what would come. Do we do nothing, or do a gazillion online activities? Over the summer, I was working 6 days a week at a restaurant. I worked on Model UN, I took a college class, I worked on a voting campaign, and of course my normal dose of music practice. I had decided it was better to do everything than nothing, so having one day off felt, wrong. It also didn’t help that teenagers weren’t really “unified”. We all kind of ditched any summer plans we had, and started fresh. Some were going to the beach every day, ignoring every safety precaution. Others were spending 15 hours a day online, attending college essay workshops and getting a head start on their AP studying.
I don’t think it was just the lack of a typical summer that caused my anxiety to rise around June, but I believe that a large part of it had to do with the upsurge in kids my age voicing their opinions on social and political issues. I can expect to go on Instagram everyday and know that something political will be reposted by a friend of mine. I’m not trying to say this is bad - I’m even writing this paper on behalf of a youth voices movement. Youth voices matter. It’s important that we talk and speak up. Rather, I feel that my anxiety drawn around youth involvement in politics is just not knowing how to involve myself “correctly”. Should I repost this? Does it look bad if I haven’t put anything on my story in a few days? I didn’t post anything about this, but I’m not trying to say I don’t care. Is that bad? What is the standard to say “I’m active, I’m liberal, I care” but not look crazy?
Nobody knows what to do right now. Teenagers included. These were supposed to be our best days, a time in our life we’ll never get back, and that idea is gone. We are struggling to adjust, to understand, to know what to do with ourselves. How to interact with others. How to live. We really don’t know.
I’ve always lived by a routine, a set schedule, as have many other people my age. I always expected that the way I’ve felt since March, this sense of confusion, loneliness and worry wouldn’t hit me till I graduated college. I guess it came soon for all of us teenagers. So, you know what? I can’t fully say that I accept this, but I’ll continue to use this as my mantra:
“It’s a different time. It’s okay to feel different.”
If you are struggling from the anxiety and stress that has been set upon you in the last multiple months, it’s okay. You’re not alone. We all feel a little weird. And while there is no simple cure to our anxiety, we can take steps to care for ourselves. When you feel low, remember to:
Call someone you care about. Take an off day every once in a while. And, of course, stay inside. If we stay inside, sooner rather than later we can return the way we used to feel.
We will get through this. You are not alone. It’s gonna be okay.
Podcast episode can be found here.
Caroline Renas is a junior at Point Loma High School, who hopes to study film in college. Her hobbies include playing classical piano, Model UN or just sitting down to watch a good movie.
Caroline Renas is a junior at Point Loma High School, who hopes to study film in college. Her hobbies include playing classical piano, Model UN or just sitting down to watch a good movie.