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I could not stand being home doing work because I was living with best friend, so we had like 14 people in one house.

And like half of those people are kids.

It's just loud.

I just couldn't focus.

Everything is hard because there's no end to it.

It just, it's really sad to, like, see what was supposed to be, like,

the best years of your life, like, go down the tubes. That was E, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia,

and before that, you heard Kay, who lives in New Orleans. They're both 16 years old. We're not using their full names

because the topic of this episode is how adolescents are struggling with mental health. And you're

going to hear from them, as well as some therapists, about why this time has been so tough, especially

for some teenagers, and how caring adults can help.

Amanda Kamenetz, a reporter for NPR, and this is a parenting episode of Life Kit.

It's been about a year now since schools closed all over the country.

Things are still pretty far from normal in a lot of ways, whether that's sports or parties or travel or jobs.

And all of this is taking its toll on teenagers.

What I've seen happen, and in 25 years I've never seen this, is I've seen my anxious kids become more and more depressed.

And the level of suicidality I'm seeing in kids is the highest it's been.

So that's Alyssa Nebel scene, a therapist who works with teens in the D.C. area.

And she's describing what she's been seeing in her practice.

...