8月31日,湖南新化一12岁初二男生从某家属楼坠楼身亡。
在本该开学报到的那一天,他结束了自己年轻的生命。
然而,这并不是个案。
自新冠疫情暴发以来,青少年自杀的案例急剧增多。
A 12-year-old boy from central China killed himself on the first day that school reopened after a month-long closure due to the pandemic. At the end of August, he jumped off a residential building where he lived, dressed in school uniform. His case is one of many suicides by young people over the past months since the coronavirus broke out.
#形势有多严峻?#
今年1月至5月,仅广西省就发生46起中学生自杀身亡事件;据上海市教委消息,自复课起至5月,有24名中小学生自杀身亡,比过去三年全年的数量都多……
北京大学第六医院临床心理科副主任黄薛冰在接受CGTN的采访时表示,“过去的十年里,中国青少年自杀案的数量正以惊人的速度增加,而新冠疫情放大了这一问题。”
北医儿童发展中心的数据显示,在中国,每年有约10万名青少年自杀身亡。
抑郁、焦虑、恐惧、自责等情绪及其引起的躯体症状都折磨着儿童及青少年的心理和身体。
In south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region alone, 46 middle school students killed themselves between January and May. In May, the education commission of Shanghai reported at least 24 suicides by primary and secondary school students after school reopened, including 14 in the city's glitzy Pudong district – a number already larger than the annual figures for the past three years.
Those numbers may just be the tip of the iceberg, though there is currently no exact figures nationwide for suicide among children and adolescents since the pandemic hit.
“Teen suicide has been increasing at an alarming pace in the last decade and the pandemic has magnified this problem,” Huang Xuebing, a psychiatrist and clinical psychologist at Peking University (PKU) Mental Health Institute, told CGTN during an interview.
The suicide rate among young people in China is unusually high. Statistics from the PKU Healthcare Children Development Center show that around 100,000 children and adolescents die by suicide every year.
#少年的TA为何烦恼?#
北京师范大学针对疫情的心理支持热线和网络辅导服务自1月27日开通以来已经为6000余人提供了心理疏导服务。其中儿童青少年占总服务人数的6.3% 。相比而言,高中生是儿童青少年中使用服务人数最多的群体,占儿童青少年群体的73%。
数据显示,不同年龄段的儿童青少年在疫情期间呈现的主要问题类型相似,但是所呈现的严重比例不同;随着年龄段的增长,遇到的问题类型呈现多样化的趋势。
在小学年龄段的求助者中,64.29%的来电者存在家庭关系冲突,50%的来电者因为受疫情的影响有一些焦虑、抑郁的情绪,而14.29%的人有一定的学业焦虑。
初中年龄段的求助者中,焦虑抑郁等情绪的议题占53.26%,家庭关系冲突为39.13%,学业焦虑占到27.18%。
高中年龄段中焦虑抑郁等坏情绪的问题表述多达61.97%,学业焦虑次之,占47.88%,家庭关系冲突为第三位,占26.06%。
Beijing Normal University launched a mental health hotline in late January to help people cope. “In over 6,000 people who sought help through the hotline, primary and secondary students made up for 6.3 percent, among whom high school students account for 73 percent,” Chen Shitao, a psychology teacher at the university, told CGTN.
More than half of them said they were struggling with anxiety and fear, followed by depression, grief, despair and psychological trauma due to school bullying or sexual harassment.
Emotional distress among this young population is getting worse as the pandemic takes its toll. “COVID-19 deals a heavy blow to teenagers because it has totally upended their lives,” Huang, who specializes in clinical child and adolescent psychology, said. “Stability is essential to their growth.”
During the pandemic, teenagers must face disruptions to their daily routines and their sense of stability. As classrooms have gone virtual, many students, especially those who lack self-discipline, have fallen behind while adapting to new ways of learning and interacting and suffered serious hits to their self-esteem.
# “疫情对他们而言是一种创伤”#
黄薛冰博士表示,“新冠疫情对儿童青少年而言是重大打击,因为他们原本的生活习惯和作息都被打乱了。稳定性对于儿童青少年的成长是至关重要的。”
疫情期间,学生们不得不努力适应“虚拟教室”和线上教学;缺乏自律的学生由于没有了老师的监督成绩出现持续下滑;远程上课增加了学生们待在家中的时间,这导致他们可能将面对更多的家庭冲突。
以上因素都给青少年心理带来了负面影响。
黄薛冰博士还提到,青少年之所以对外界的变化如此敏感,其中一个原因是他们的大脑前额叶还处于发展成熟过程中,相较于成人,青少年认知控制能力还不成熟。
河北省邯郸市第一医院心内科主任李志梅在接受CGTN采访时表示,过去几个月里接诊的青少年比以往任何时候都多。他们出现了心慌、气短、胸闷和心率快等症状,但是经过检查后并无躯体疾病。
李志梅主任认为,新冠疫情对青少年而言是一种创伤,由疫情引发的心理问题导致他们出现了以上躯体症状。
Since their frontal lobes – the part of the brain responsible for controlling and regulating thoughts – aren't as developed compared with that in adults, adolescents may have greater difficulty in coming up with ways to cope with rapid changes to their environment. Moods and phrases that people often say teens will “grow out of” are in part due to the vagaries brought about by developing brains, according to Huang.
Li Zhimei, a cardiologist and psychologist at a public hospital in the northern province of Hebei, recalled that several months ago, a female high school student lost more than 10 pounds after losing sleep for a month. Because she had set impossibly high standards for herself when taking online classes, the teen became extremely anxious, harming her studies.
“Over the past months, more middle school students than ever before came to me citing heart palpitations, chest pain or shortness of breath and other cardiological syndromes,” Li told CGTN over the phone. “But physical examinations show they are OK.” In such cases, their mental problems give rise to physical symptoms, which, in turn, add to their deteriorating mental state. Such symptoms are psychosomatic, Li noted. For instance, anxiety often manifests as bowel diseases, insomnia and irregular heartbeat.
#从重视做起#
“克己复礼”在传统文化中是一种美德,但是对于有心理疾病的青少年来说,让他们明白这不是他们的错,也许是帮助他们走出阴霾的第一步。
黄薛冰博士认为,青少年日益严重的心理问题应该被看作整个社会的“公共卫生危机”。同时他指出,虽然近年来人们对于精神和心理疾病的“羞耻感”在减弱,但相关的“污名化”依然存在。
青少年的心理问题是一个复杂的社会问题,它的解决需要社会各界的联动。如果有更多的人能够重视这一问题,越来越多的学校及社会机构能够为学生们提供心理咨询等服务,那么问题的解决就有了希望。
眼下,上海市教委已严禁给学生成绩排名,以避免成绩落后的学生产生羞耻感;武汉市要求学校开设“生命教育课”,课上学生们将有机会谈论自己的各种负面情绪;海南省则宣布将逐步实现所有中小学校开设心理健康教育课,确保所有班级每月至少1课时……
虽然挑战很严峻,但是我们依然有理由相信,当我们开始朝着正确的方向努力,明天就一定会更好。
These snippets of teenage mental health capture only a small part of a larger problem in society, one in which a public health crisis has caused major disruption to everyone's lives, especially to the youth. Instead of putting the onus on the teens themselves, Huang recommends that their growing mental health problems should be recognized as a major public health issue.
“Subduing one's self and returning to propriety” is traditionally viewed as a virtue in Chinese culture. But for teens with mental health problems, having them start by thinking it's not their fault might be the first step to help them out.
The silver lining in this situation may be that more people will take these problems seriously given their scale. This awareness is seeping into more places, including schools, with more of them now providing counseling, mental health check-ups and other services.
A slew of schools in Shanghai is considering not publicly posting test results that often leave poor-performing students feeling ashamed. The adjacent Anhui Province has even canceled some exams. Also, the local government in Wuhan now requires schools to give “life education” classes that allow students to talk about their grief and anxiety.
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