Anxiety, fear, worry about the future, increase in eating disorders and episodes of self-harm: 9 out of ten students show severe discomfort, some also have significant critical issues for their mental health after the pandemic. Just as many believe psychological support at school or university is useful, of these more than one in 3, the 35%, would like to use it.
These are the main results of a survey promoted by the Middle School Students' Network, the University Union and the Spi-Cgil pensioners' union, entitled "Ask me how I'm doing", That it involved 30 thousand high school and university students in one month, and was conducted by the Ires research institute of Emilia Romagna.
Returning to discomfort, i28% of students declared they had eating disorders, 16% of which were triggered by the pandemic, while 14.5% had experiences of self-harm, half coinciding with the pandemic period. 10% has taken substances and 12% has abused alcohol.
The pandemic has also produced a change in behavior and habits, with an increase in the use of social media (78%), video games (30,7%) and smoking (18%). On the other hand, meetings with friends, both online and in person (48%) and taking care of one's physical appearance (37%) have decreased. The 64% experienced a change in sleep patterns. 26.2% of those interviewed have already turned to a psychological support service during the health emergency.
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