Why I think that mental health during Covid 19 is deteriorating
by Imani (14), UK
I have been very lucky to be accepted into the Teens in AI Accelerator of 2020. Our team created ‘Eleos’, an AI Assistant designed to recommend young people to specific resources based on the answers they provide to mental health questions. This opportunity has opened my eyes to the current issues within my own generation. I am 13, turning 14 in a couple of days, and throughout this 3-week journey, my passion for the emotional wellbeing of others has been my one and only focus. And by spreading surveys, expressing our emotions within the team and researching statistics, it has come to my attention that the mental health of young people during self-isolation has deteriorated.
I can say that from my personal point of view, my emotional wellbeing has been continually fluctuating throughout quarantine, where one moment I feel fine, then the next, I’m overwhelmed by stress. The root of this stem from the stress and fear over the current pandemic: Covid 19, and also the cabin fever that has sprouted from seeing the same walls everyday, staring at the same laptop screen and not seeing my friends and family. On top of that, there is online school, which adds to the thoughts piling up in my mind about all the reasons I should be stressed!
Through our surveys, we were able to identify a common pattern embedded in the answers of those who took it, and it showed that they felt the same way that I earlier described, which is the confusing spiral of fluctuating emotions. Feeling these emotions also adds to the issue of feeling alone, and craving emotional support, which was expressed by 67.5% of the survey participants. This very obviously sheds light on a serious issue, which I am very passionate about.
I’m very grateful for Teens in AI, because they have opened the door to this opportunity which I never would have thought I would get to experience, so thank you especially to Elena Sinel, and all of the mentors who helped Eleos to be where it is today, and will continue to help us to grow and improve!
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For more information about the AI Accelerator: https://www.teensinai.com/accelerator/
