PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Since the start of the pandemic, the National Alliance on Mental Illness reports, many young people are experiencing anxiety and depression. The organization attributes this, in part, to social isolation.
The inability for young people to spend time with friends, have a normal school year or engage in their extracurricular activities is hurting their social development, says addiction counselor Gregory Koufacos.
"Maturity is achieved through experience and through nothing else," he said. "If you're not getting those experiences you have no way to mature. You have no way to grow."
And it's through life experiences and relationships that teenagers develop their identity.
"They're in a stage of life where they are supposed to be growing in a certain direction, they need to be. So to abruptly stop that growth is going to have consequences," said Koufacos.
Koufacos doesn't know what the long-term psychological consequences of isolation will be, but he says not seeing peers can cause anxiety, bitterness, apathy and frustration.