Colman Noctor: Responding to the fourth wave of anxiety in our young people

I have been struck by how many young people do not talk about the presence of sadness -  instead, it's the absence of happiness or joy

Picture: iStock 

There are different metrics to measure the impact of Covid-19 on our lives. For many, it is daily case numbers, hospital admissions, occupied ICU beds or deaths; for me, it is the number of referrals arriving in my email inbox. I saw a big peak in queries in January 2021, and it seemed like the whole country was struggling with mental health problems. But a week into January 2022, and I have almost as many queries as I did in the whole month last year.

As spring of 2021 sprung and the schools reopened, we all smiled again as we queued for our vaccine and our hope reserves began to refill. However, as autumn came around and the clocks changed, things became considerably darker. The new Omicron variant and the return of restrictions brought a wave of frustration, upset and disillusionment. The spike in cases in primary schools, the ramping up of in-class tests in secondary schools began in earnest. As the fourth surge of anxiety began, the young people of Ireland began to struggle once again.