In December 2021, the US surgeon general issued a rare public health advisory on the rising number of youth attempting suicide, singling out social media and the pandemic, which had “exacerbated the unprecedented stresses young people already faced”. The Covid pandemic could be a contributing factor, says Dr Christine Crawford, a psychiatrist and associate medical director at the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “It caused this significant hit on our young people in terms of acquiring the social skills and tools that they need,” she says. “They were at home, they were disconnected from their peers and from the elements that are so critical for healthy development in a young person.”
