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The Blue Bubble student newspaper article: Mental Health during times of Uncertainty

The Blue Bubble student newspaper article: Mental Health during times of Uncertainty

The Blue Bubble - Editors' Statement

As editors we want to make sure that we represent our school and its ideals in a professional and educational format, including a diverse range of opinions from a large group of students. We encourage our writers to think outside the box and produce thought-provoking articles that are well researched and written.

Mental Health during times of Uncertainty 

To be honest, as a surly young teenage boy, I did not expect to be thrown by lockdown and this period of disconnect and uncertainty. The whole thing seemed like a huge rest break for me to mooch about the house, skip GCSES and have fun whilst waiting everything out until the return of ‘normal’. But as many things go, what I expected was far from the truth.

I think all of us have experienced some form of difficulty or other because of COVID-19 - it has hindered normal daily function. Although I don’t think that anyone could have predicted their own, personal reactions to lockdown - it was a unique experience for all, especially for people my age. Growing up, you’re already being forced to navigate the harsh realities of life, juggle work with friends and deal with hormonal changes that biologically fuel poor emotion. So the experience of being alone or ‘trapped’ for months on end really changed the dynamic for our, and most peoples’ lives.

The truly worst part about lockdown was not the boredom or the dullness, but the difficulty of having too much time to dwell and reflect. Stuck, alone, stationary in my room there came a point where there was nothing more stimulating than just simply thinking. At first, this thinking was just meaningless self reflection and question asking, yet the longer I had of just thinking, the more I would tend to over-think and over-analyse, which is an incredibly unhealthy place to be because overthinking breeds doubt; and doubt feeds doubt. With an unforeseeable end to lockdown, my motivation continued to drop and as a consequence my overall happiness, which is a hard thing to cope with. 

I didn’t want to address any specific mental health issues in this article because we all differ, but I just wanted to use this platform as an acknowledgement to people who have gone through their own difficulties during this strange period and when I say you are not alone in your worries, however challenging or irrational they are, you are definitely not alone. As I hope you are all starting to experience moving on from the full lockdown that lasted from April to June, is the understanding that time heals so despite the complete absence of optimism a lot of us had when we couldn’t see the end, just remember everything gets better with time. 

Time is the antidote for mental instability, and this probably sounds like the most unhelpful cliché ever to be mentioned because when you are in a place of uncertainty and hopelessness, a saying like this seems like the most useless and untrue conclusion anyone could make. 

Personally, I felt exactly the same but I can promise you it is not. 

With that being said, to all of you out there facing different struggles at the moment, remember: Stay positive and always hopeful because no matter how bad things seem in whatever scenario you are in, I, and many others who have come through the other end, can promise you that moving on they will eventually get better. Hold onto this truth when the going gets tough.