Many teenagers have spent an entire year of their adolescent life indoors, under restrictions, and isolated. There's no question that the mental health of the teenage population is under extreme pressure - and while this is a topic that is becoming more openly and commonly talked about, it's not a discussion that's being presented or led by teenagers themselves. Instead, it's become a case of adults effectively telling or assuming the emotions and attitudes of teenagers, as if every single teenager thinks the same, lives in the same house, has the same family, and has the same friends.
It seems as though teenagers are either being constantly told that they have extremely poor mental health, and that they are suffering so much, or their feelings are being invalidated, their struggles overlooked, their emotions amounting to nothing more than “teen angst”. Teenagers are being infantilised, and constantly told how they feel and what they think.
Teenagers and young people deserve to be part of an open conversation about their own mental health, instead of having their thoughts and feelings told to them as the assumptions of their parents or the adult community. It seems restrictions have expanded not only to our physical capabilities, but also our emotional ones.
Written by Isa Edwards Buesa
Artwork by Delicia
