Young people from Bonn in times of Corona "Time seems like a big black hole"

Bonn · Loneliness, emotional emptiness, shattered dreams: Young people from Bonn report that the crisis has changed their nature and their feelings. The counselling centres also notice that the lockdown is getting to young people.

 Even sitting in front of the computer is no longer fun for young people. They long to finally be among people again.

Even sitting in front of the computer is no longer fun for young people. They long to finally be among people again.

Foto: Sofia Grillo

Her mood got worse and worse, she retreated more and more into her room, lost motivation for her schoolwork, then also the desire to meet with friends. Now 14-year-old A. just lies in her bed most of the time and does nothing - even when she thinks of something she could do, she finds no motivation to do it. The Corona crisis and the lockdown have changed the nature of young people. In an interview with the General Anzeiger, three young people from Bonn tell us what the lockdown has done to them. They want to remain anonymous.

Like the other two young people, 14-year-old A. went to the Protestant counselling centre for education, youth, marriage and life issues in Bonn during the Corona crisis. Her teacher and her mother became aware of her increasing withdrawal and made an appointment for her, says the girl from Wachtberg. Now she is receiving psychotherapeutic treatment. She wouldn't be if it hadn't been for the lockdown, she says. "I used to meet up with two or three friends every week. We went to town or did things together at home. Things were going well at school, too. I had a very relaxed life. Now I'm really just in my room. I try to put everything off for school and don't do much that I enjoy anymore," says the eighth-grader. She has lost contact with many friends and only has one good friend whom she sees once a week. She can hardly remember the past year, she says. Nothing happened.

This is also described by 16-year-old J.: "Looking back, the time from summer to Christmas seems like a big black hole to me." He notices that he is lonely during the lockdown and that goes hand in hand with an emptiness of feelings. At the beginning of the crisis, the situation just seemed strange to him. "I never dreamed I could experience a pandemic," he says. And the feeling of being cut off from reality still lingers, he says. In the meantime, he meets up with his friends much less often than before. "In general, I'm no longer used to dealing with people outside my family, and I haven't felt like dating for a long time. But every now and then I have to, so the time isn't so awful," says the ninth-grader.

When asked what he most longs for, J. says he would like to meet several people again naturally, talk face to face - preferably without a mask. "A physical distance has developed in our dealings that almost borders on a phobia," says the teenager from Dottendorf.

"When I see people shaking hands or touching each other in series and films, I almost get a bit of a shock because I'm no longer used to it." J. wishes that this would no longer be the case and that he would soon be able to remember events again.

15-year-old H. from Gronau also misses the social get-together the most. She would like to be among her classmates again, to celebrate carnival or to have the opportunity to spend her birthday among friends. She feels that the time of her youth spent in Lockdown is irretrievable. "After all, you are only that age once. And I think it makes a bigger difference at our age than, say, to someone between 30 and 40," says H. Since Lockdown, she experiences many lows, she says. And then the brooding begins. "Sometimes I wonder what you live for in the first place. Corona just eliminates so much that gives meaning," says the ninth-grader.

(Original text: Sofia Grillo / Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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