On March 17, 2020, France was the first time to limit the progression of the COVVI-19 epidemic. A confinement of two months, followed by wearing the compulsory mask, fire cover, university closings … If everyone suffered psychologically from this period, marked by the confinement and distrust of others, an age group suffered particularly, that of young people. And the figures on their mental health are alarming.
In a bar of the 15ᵉ Parisian arrondissement, Maya commands an espresso. Five years ago, at a time of confinement and Covidthis meeting in a cafe would have been impossible. “” I tell myself that it is crazy that we have experienced this, and now I think about it. Me, I love to go out, I am not at all a casserole breech Exclaims the 24 -year -old girl. However, she has a difficult memory of this period. His mother worked at the Regional Health Agency and reported terrible figures every day.
But the worst, for Maya was after. “” I moved into an apartment on my own, but there, for once, I was much more isolated, I think. My studies, it was likely, she says. In reality, I fell in depression at that time. It was weird because, at the same time, it was pleasant to be confined in the sense that I did a lot in my apartment. But I was no longer stimulated at all. I appreciated my day in itself, but I did not see the goal of making it a second. »»
Maya is better and does not miss an opportunity to go out. A way for her to recover a piece of stolen youth.
Read too These young people for whom the COVVI-19 was an opportunity to feel “useful”
“My body can no longer breathe, without knowing why »»
For other young people, however, since confinement, the outside has become threatening. “” I’m not necessarily going to walk around, visit Paris, do museums, things like that alone, testifies Élisa, 28 years old. I would like to do it more, but I don’t feel capable of it. »» The girl has always been a little helmet, she likes to be at home, in her ordered and warm apartment, a book in her hands or in front of a good series. But it was after the confinement that his anxieties began.
“” For example, going to do my shopping is a crazy mental preparation … or if I arrive in a place where I do not know many people and where I will have to socialize, my body reacts, my body can no longer breathe, without knowing why, she points out. It pisses me off to be like that when I am in Paris, that I am young, that I am 28 years old, that I am a lot to live and that in fact, I make anxiety for things where, objectively, it is not much. »»
Confainment leaves consequences – among young people, more than in other age groups. But 5 years later, he is not solely responsible for their discomfort. “” It is true that these particular circumstances have weakened the students, isolated them, and may have anticipated this degradation of their mental health, indicates Melissa Macalli, researcher at theInserm on the mental health of young adults and suicidal behaviors. But it is true that the causes are probably multiple : the worsening of precariousness, the feeling of loneliness, the impact of social networks, but also of the collective environmental factors which have been added – in particular ecoanxiety, international conflicts and the global political situation which worry them a lot … “
Being able to talk about your discomfort is essential. Élisa understood this. His goal this year: to start therapy.
To listen in large reportMental health of young people, the difficulties of management