China’s strict zero-Covid measures take a large-scale toll on youth mental health
- The impact of youth mental illness caused by prolonged lockdowns, family separation, remote learning and dim job prospects may affect China for years
- Doctor says most mental health symptoms abate but he has seen young people develop gaming addictions, sleep issues and reluctance to go outside
The lockdowns meant she was mostly confined to her room and unable to meet friends. There were also strict curbs on when she could visit the canteen or take a shower. Describing herself as someone who craves in-person social interaction, Zhang said the restrictions had “removed the safety net that was holding me up and I felt like my whole being was falling down”.
That month, she was diagnosed with major depression and anxiety.
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Delayed ‘gaokao’ exams begin in Shanghai after city’s recent Covid-19 lockdown
Yao, also 20 and who asked that his first name not be used, had his first breakdown in high school where he was a boarder, unable to understand why lockdown policies were so tough. He said that one day he had to take refuge in a school toilet, crying so hard “it felt like my insides were crying”.
In early 2021 while at university in Beijing, unable to shake that depression and also unhappy he had not taken the courses he wanted to for fear of upsetting his father, Yao attempted suicide.
China has employed some of the world’s harshest and most frequent lockdown measures in its determination to stamp out every Covid-19 outbreak, arguing it saves lives and pointing to its low pandemic death toll of around 5,200 to date.
Beijing has shown little sign of abandoning the effort but the policy’s impact on mental health alarms medical experts and as Zhang’s and Yao’s experiences have shown, it is already taking a toll.