Tangled Up in Blue

The Deleterious Effects of Ambiguity and Uncertainty

Each day seems to send differing signals about the pandemic, the economy, the workforce, national security, education, and youth mental health that contradict those proffered just the day before.

Indeed, ambiguity reigns.

And where there’s ambiguity there’s uncertainty … which breeds anxiety that can quickly morph into depression. It’s a vicious and seemingly never-ending cycle.

While this morass affects people of all ages, its ravages are most acutely felt by young people for whom predictability is a gold standard.

Elliot Kukla, a rabbi working on a book about the power of rest in a time of crisis, describes the nation’s fatigue (Kukla, 2022).

America in 2022 is an exhausting place to live. Pretty much everyone I know is tired … We’re tired by unprocessed grief and untended-to illness and depression. We’re tired of wildfires becoming a fact of life in the West, of floods and hurricanes hitting the South and East. We’re really tired of this unending pandemic. Most of all, we are exhausted by trying to keep going as if everything is fine.

Increasing numbers of people are refusing to push through this mounting weariness … This trend is being led by young people; millions are planning to leave their jobs in the coming year … I am cheering young people on in this Great Resignation.

I have seen the limits of the grind. I want my child to learn how to be lazy.

While “lazy” has held negative connotations dating back to the Puritans, Kukla views it in a different light and clearly believes our kids need more unburdened time just to be kids and to rest!

Our helter-skelter, they’re on, they’re off, they’re up, they’re down national environment represents the antithesis of what Kukla is talking about. And the ramifications for young people is almost incomprehensible.

Reflecting on the state of American youth during the pandemic, Dr. Harold Koplewicz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and founder/president of Child Mind Institute, said, “‘During COVID, it became very important for us to look at how the kids are doing, and our kids are not all right ...’” (Wigfall, 2020).

Similarly, in January a Chicago school principal, Seth Lavin, wrote the following about this school year (Lavin, 2022).

Now school is open again, mid-surge, and it is the wildest stretch in two years of pandemic schooling. COVID is everywhere. Kids are in and out of quarantine. Teachers are online and in person at the same time. Yesterday we COVID-tested a line of students 300 children long.

But this surreal circus is not the main plot of this year. The surge is ending. The crisis will still be here.

Children are not okay. Teachers are not okay. Schools are not okay.

We need help and we need understanding.

It may very well be the case that young people, including college students, are in most need of that understanding, as recent data on youth mental health is, well, depressing.

• A 2020 Total Brain study, which included more than 1,100 high school and college students who took the Total Brain assessment, found that 48% of high school and college students are at risk of general anxiety, 45% are at risk of social anxiety, and 39% are at risk of PTSD (Total Brain, 2020).
• SOS Illinois reported, “The COVID-19 pandemic challenged most people, but reports suggest that the impact on teenagers has been especially significant. While adults have also reported that COVID-19–related fears and stress have impaired their mental health, young people have been particularly susceptible because of school closures and distance learning, the inability to interact closely with friends, stress, and loneliness (SOS, 2021).
• According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in six U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year; 50% of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75% by age 24 (NAMI, 2019).
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 10-34?(NAMI, 2019).

For many, that last topic is one of most concern.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital detailed the following.

The number of kids aged 5 to 11 in the United States who have died by suicide in recent years has increased significantly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate has increased 15% each year from 2012 to 2017, making it the eighth leading cause of death for children in this age range.

Researchers in our Center for Suicide Prevention and Research determined that if we’re going to impact the suicide rate of children in this age group, we must first understand if there are common themes for why children are dying by suicide.?

In a recent study, we looked at 134 suicide deaths of children aged 5 to 11 years between 2013 and 2017. Most of the children were between 10 and 11 years old, and 75% were male. Among the children who died by suicide, we found that:

• 31% had a mental health concern or diagnosis, with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and mood disorders such as depression being the most common diagnoses?
• 24% had a prior psychiatric hospitalization?
• 78% were receiving mental health treatment before their deaths?

Additionally, more than 25% of children in the study had experienced one or more traumatic events, and many children in the study faced one or more family-related life events including divorce or custody issues, parental substance abuse or a family history of psychological problems or suicide.?

By way of prevention, Nationwide Children’s offers the following suggestions.

1. Family-based interventions and a trauma-informed approach that helps children and parents/caregivers process thoughts and feelings related to traumatic life events may provide promising treatments for children at risk for suicidal behavior.
2. Suicidal statements should be taken seriously in younger children. More than 10% of children in the study made comments to parents, teachers or school employees on the day of their deaths.
3. Educational programs, youth-focused firearm laws and safe firearm storage public awareness campaigns could improve safe storage practices. Evidence suggests that this would protect against unintentional firearm shootings and suicide attempts across all age groups.?

It is also important for parents and/or other caring adults in young people’s lives to talk with kids about suicide. While many are reluctant to do so, fearing the incitement of suicidal ideation, not doing so only puts kids at greater risk.

Some professionals believe that preparing youth for that inevitable crisis and reassuring them there’s a way out of the darkness is critical. After all, many young people lack the life experience with immediate trauma to know that things will, after all, get better.

U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin, author of the new book Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy, lost his only son by suicide at age twenty-five. He warns that not talking with kids about suicide is like not talking to them about sex (Raskin, 2022).

Regardless of the topic, meaningful conversations with our children can go a long way toward ameliorating the deleterious effects of ambiguity and uncertainty.

Stephen Gray Wallace, M.S. Ed., is a doctoral candidate in the Institute for Ethical Leadership at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. He is also an associate research professor and president and director of the Center for Adolescent Research and Education (CARE). Stephen has broad experience as a school psychologist and adolescent/family counselor. He is a member of the professional development faculties at the American Academy of Family Physicians and American Camp Association and a parenting expert at kidsinthehouse.com, NBC News Learn, and WebMD. He is also an expert partner at RANE (Risk Assistance Network & Exchange) and was national chairman and chief executive officer at SADD for 16 years. Stephen is an award-winning writer and author of the books Reality Gap and IMPACT. Additional information about Stephen’s work can be found at StephenGrayWallace.com.

REFERENCES

CDC. (2021). Facts about suicide. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html (9 Feb. 2022).

Kukla, E. (2022). The most valuable thing I can teach my kid is how to be lazy. The New York Times. January 20, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/opinion/teach-children-to-be-lazy.html (9 Feb. 2022).

Lavin, S. (2022). I’m a Chicago principal. Our schools are not OK. Chicago Sun Times. January 24, 2022. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/1/24/22899360/chicago-principal-our-schools-are-not-ok-mental-health-pandemic-seth-lavin-op-ed (9 Feb. 2022).

NAMI. (2019). Mental health by the numbers. National Alliance on Mental Illness. https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-by-the-numbers (9 Feb. 2022).

Nationwide Children’s Hospital. (2021). Understanding why kids die by suicide. 700 Children’s. September 9, 2021. https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/family-resources-education/700childrens/2021/09/understanding-why-kids-die-by-suicide (9 Feb. 2022).

Raskin, J. (2022). Unthinkable: trauma, truth and the trials of American democracy. New York, NY: Harper.

SOS Illinois. (2021). Teen mental health: a vulnerable stage of life. SOS Children’s Villages Illinois. https://www.sosillinois.org/teen-mental-health-a-vulnerable-stage-of-life/ (9 Feb. 2022).

Wigfall, C. (2020). Our kids are not all right: new report finds teens struggling due to school closure and isolation. Center of the American Experiment. November 20, 2020. https://www.americanexperiment.org/our-kids-are-not-all-right-new-report-finds-teens-struggling-due-to-school-closure-and-isolation/ (9 Feb. 2022).