The grief teenagers and young people are experiencing is profound – please don’t minimise it

The good news is that the environment can and does shape our brains at this stage of development and there is an inherent adaptability at play, writes Lauretta Cundy

During this time young people are separated from the peers on whom they are so reliant (Getty/iStock)

We are all currently undergoing a grieving process for the life that we knew – each of us mourning a past to which we can’t return and facing an uncertain future. This collective grief we are experiencing is entirely natural and valid.

There is one group, however, for whom this situation is truly unique – our teenagers and young adults.

Those due to be leaving school or university this summer, who were previously approaching the brink of their next, well-defined steps in life – further education, a first job, a gap year – find themselves in limbo, with no real reassurance of what may happen next. For many of these young people, this will be the first time they haven’t had a concrete guide for their future endeavours and that will have left many of them feeling extremely vulnerable.