Mental Health Then & Now

COVID-19 affected young adults in so many ways — some that we have yet to find. The students readying to graduate high school, in particular, had it the hardest and struggled the most. Some of these students continue to struggle today, but some found the strength the stand back up and grow from the experience.

Throughout 2020, students around the globe had a shared experience of struggling through the lockdown. These struggles involved mental health, missing connections with friends, being apart from partners, being stuck inside, grieving what life looked like before, and starting to accept this new reality. Students who were upperclassmen in high school, arguably, had it the worst. Kyndal Johnson and Rowan Schaberg were high school juniors when COVID-19 shut down schools in the United States. They’re now on track to graduate early from Colorado State University, completing their undergraduate programs in just three years.

Kyndal plays with her dog, Goose, while out hiking in Fort Collins, Colorado. Photo by Maddie Seay. March 22, 2023.

Looking back at their final year of high school and first years of college, it wasn’t always this easy for the pair. Johnson struggled with both family issues and mental health battles. State-wide stay-at-home orders kept everyone locked inside and that isn’t a good combination among families who don’t get along. Her relationship with her family only went downhill once being told to stay inside.

“I pin that a little bit on the pandemic. I would like to describe it as ‘The gun was always there. The pandemic just loaded it and shot it.’ It was just exacerbated by the pandemic. It was already on its way to going downhill, but the pandemic was really the worst thing that could have happened for it,” Johnson said.

The struggle with mental health and immense stress, like family issues, can come to the surface as invisible side effects like depression or anxiety, but can also be physical like weight loss or weight gain.

“I lost a lot of weight. I lost about 20 pounds, I think 30 pounds actually,” Johnson said. “The lowest weight I’ve ever been. Lowest mental health that I’ve had.”

Along with struggling at home, Johnson was stripped of her usual routine of seeing friends at school, getting outside, and being in nature. In her home state of Washington, there are many beautiful hiking trails that she liked to frequent with her partner.

“I fill my cup by seeing the people closest to me and I would not say that’s my family. I would say that’s other people, my partner, and her family, I would say, are those people so it was really hard not to see them for a few months,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s partner, Schaberg was forced to watch from a distance as it all unfolded. The couple went from seeing each other every day at school and after school when hanging out with the two families’ dogs, to Facetime hangouts and texting all day.

“It was hard to see her going through that time and because the pandemic was keeping us from seeing each other, I think it was really hard for our relationship,” Schaberg said.

Johnson wasn’t the only one in the relationship who struggled during the pandemic. Schaberg wasn’t able to provide help and be the support system for Johnson during hard times. That took a toll on their relationship as well as on Schaberg herself.

“It was really hard because I couldn’t provide that comfort that she needed in that moment because we couldn’t see each other and that was really difficult for me too. She was going through all these different things and I wasn’t able to help her as best as I could because I wasn’t able to see her. I think that didn’t help my mental health either because I want her to be as happy as possible,” Schaberg said.

It’s now just over three years after COVID-19 shut down the United States and life is almost entirely back to normal. Luckily, both of them came out on the other side with minimal battle scars. If anything, they were able to look back, reflect, and see some of the lessons that they learned and can apply to their lives now.

“Mental health wise though, doing better - no longer depressed. I would say freedom-wise, I really do have a deeper understanding of myself and what I need in terms of going outside and being able to escape and get away,” Johnson said.