Covid and Student Mental Health

By Shaun Kolnacki

Back in 2020, the world went into a pandemic with Coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading, with no vaccine and millions of people. And with coronavirus, people had to stay indoors and be disassociated from human interaction, outside of their family. Some people were able to go through the pandemic easily, while others struggled mentally.

The high school Class of 2023, and now the Class of 2027 entered their freshman year in March of 2020, and fully online/hybrid classes in 2021. Students had to do fully online zoom classes at home, and if they went to school, had to wear a mask and be separated from one another. This ruined a lot of the high school experience for people, and changed their daily school activities. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, they said that, “Many people experienced symptoms of anxiety, depression, and substance use disorder during the pandemic.” It also says that “…people are more likely to develop mental illnesses or disorders in the months following COVID-19.” Two people that were in the high school Class of 2023 went thru this pandemic and ultimately, changed their lives. Morgan, a sophomore in her third semester at SUNY Niagara said, “It ruined my time with friends and without in person exposure it made it harder…”, when talking about high school being fully virtual, and added, “I don’t study as much as I used to because during COVID we didn’t have to do much.” Cam, also a sophomore in his third semester, said “Emotionally and mentally I felt trapped and paranoid for the simple fact that it was a pandemic and they had us quarantine.” He also added to that and said “I think it made me a little less social just because of the whole outbreak and how the world reacted after COVID.” I feel as if a lot of the people that were asked this question seemed to all think that COVID negatively affected them and had a negative impact on their lives, making their mental health drain.

There is another side that thinks that COVID really helped them. Not all people are super social, and others just like the alone time and the peace that they have with taking care of themselves everyday. Kayleigh, a second year PA student at Daemen University said, “My mental health was really good during COVID, I was able to focus on myself and take a lot of time for exercise and self care…now it negatively affects that because I don’t get that same time.” In fact, according to the NORC at the University of Chicago it said that, “Sixty-seven percent have felt proud during the last few weeks…”, meaning that not everyone was really complaining about the pandemic, and more as taking it as a time to really make self improvement.”

What happened with coronavirus is something that we will probably not see again in our future lifetimes that we would hope, but the long term impact of the people that are here right now have long lasting effects. It not only changed the world we live in, but it also changed our current lives forever. Some for the better, and others…not as much.