What We Can Do About the Rise of Depression in Kids

Emotional and physical isolation has taken a toll on children in the era of COVID. Sondem/Shutterstock

I just returned from a funeral of a patient who died from a drug overdose. I’m a pediatrician, not an internist. This girl was too young to die and to be depressed. Her life was filled with trials but she had great parents and supportive siblings. And I want to be very clear here: Her parents did everything right. They were fabulous parents and are in no way responsible for their daughter’s death. And that’s the real scary part. Sadly, this is a story that has become far too frequent.

I’ve been practicing pediatrics for 32 years and have never seen the prevalence of depression in kids that we have now. We can blame COVID and the isolation it mandated as the cause of rising depression and anxiety, and in part this is true. But before COVID, many teens we primed for this suffering by many factors at work.

Devastating Loneliness

First, our kids have been slowly lured into emotional and physical isolation over the past decade. If we believe that each of us is born for the purpose of being in relationships with God and loved ones, isolation is devastating—particularly to the young, tender heart. Our need for real connection runs deep. The insidious invasion of screens has shown them a different and easier way to relate to friends. We can think that kids are more connected by texts and social media but this is a ruse and we, and they, know it. Screens cause profound loneliness. We cannot overestimate this. Kids turn to phones to find connection, but they don’t deliver. It leaves kids feeling worse.