Post-pandemic child behavior

It is something to be concerned about, as it was two years of isolation, loss of family and friends, a completely altered social life, changes in routines and an increase in fear and insecurity about the future. In the old days when we asked a child - What do you want to be? The answer was immediate. Nowadays most of our children and teenagers are undecided about the future. 

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Children who are in the process of social learning and development are reaping the fruits that the pandemic has brought us in a negative way. They have difficulty in socializing, when trusting other people, among sharing toys or food with each other, complying with orders and rules and learning, delay in reading and among other teachings. 

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We can notice that the behavior of the children has changed with the return to school, some are agitated and others withdrawn. 

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With a serious factor like Covid 19 on a global scale, the pandemic affected the cycle of child and adolescence development due to brain issues, immunological and even hormonal changes. Children and adolescents are suffering every day from psychological problems:

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• Increased anxiety, with increased heart rate;

• Depression;

• Eating disorders (having more appetite or decreasing appetite); 

• Shortage;

• Dependencies and addictions to electronics (video games, cell phones, computers and television)

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The negative factors are diverse, but we cannot fail to mention the family and social stress that impairs child development. With social isolation, many families stayed at home longer, many parents were fired, also affecting psychological and financial problems, with that the children absolved their parents' problems, and ended up having the same psychological problems, only demonstrating differently than adults demonstrate. 

Teenagers also suffered in these two years of the pandemic, with the absence of face-to-face classes, and the beginning of online classes, many of them will find it difficult to recognize their emotions in the near future, or let's say in the present, they will start negative thoughts more often, thus being a youth in the state of survival and not of experience, that is, surviving day after day, and not living with different thoughts and positive yearnings about the future. And all this leads to factors of behavioral disorders, mood disorders and depression. 

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WHAT SHOULD WE DO TO HELP THE MENTAL HEALTH OF OUR GENERATION?

First, have patience and empathy for what they are going through and/or have gone through. Second, keep more dialogues and show that the real world is better than the virtual one, because the virtual world makes children more aggressive, antisocial, anxious and competitive. 

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Don't be afraid to seek help, and say you can't, after all no one can be strong all the time, we need each other to win. Accepting help when needed is not failure, it's good for our mental health. Let's take care of the emotions of our children, adolescents, and even ourselves (parents and guardians).