But not all of the problems facing young people during the pandemic can be explained in terms of mental health impacts – or assumed to have uniform or long-term consequences. Researchers at University College London followed families with children across the UK during the first and second lockdowns.

“Young people did show a great deal of resilience, but at the same time, they told us that the biggest challenge they faced was learning to try to cope with huge amounts of uncertainty in different parts of their lives,” explains Dr Humera Iqbal, associate professor of social and cultural psychology. “This was everything from levels of uncertainty around education, their own and family’s health, the future, for many their parents and family finances and even their friendships.”

Sarah Standish, a school counsellor in Harrow, north west London, has perceived a big improvement since regular service resumed. And as kids have regained their lives, they have been experiencing more of the ‘normal’ problems of growing up.

“I’m not seeing the numbers I saw a year ago; the anxiety presentations, the tics and so on,” she says. “Now I’m talking to them about relationship break-ups and parents getting divorced.”

Both Standish and Iqbal draw attention to the anxieties experienced by young people with regard to job losses and financial hardship: something that has gained relatively little attention. “The stress issues now are more about the economic crisis,” says Standish, citing “huge issues” with parental employment, and worries about how to pay for heating and petrol.

To the extent that wider social events affect young people, we should be wary about scripting a response that is driven by our own anxieties, not theirs.