BENGALURU: Exams being cancelled, schools declaring holidays, and free-time on hand were wishful thoughts of students. But with the pandemic having turned these into reality, young teens who are dealing with these issues are bogged down with stress, anxiety and worry about what the future holds. So much so, the teen founders – Antara Bhateja, Armaan Bamzai, Divya Mundkur and Minoli Daigavane – of Paper Planes Bangalore, a mental health initiative for teens and by teens, have been flooded with queries from fellow students.
“There is a lot of pressure those our age are going through. On one hand there’s this assumption that there is a lot of time on hand, and on the other there’s anxiety to be productive every single minute. That in itself is a reason for worry, sadness and loneliness,” says co-founder Mundkar, a grade 12 student of The International School Bangalore.
The 16-20 years age group is whom they find forthcoming and willing to open up about mental health even as others find the subject a taboo. “We also struggled with school stress, changing hormonal levels and other personal issues, and understand what others in our age group are going through. This platform is just to show that we are all together in this,” says co-founder Bhateja (17).
The students feel that their platform, where one can share their writings, poems, music, provides youngsters a creative catharsis. “We understand the importance of dialogue about mental health and aspire to create a platform for people to express emotions that are generally difficult to talk about or taboo in our culture. We place a special emphasis on the use of creative expression in relation to mental health,” Mundkar says, adding that they recently expanded to other states to extend their reach.
Being teens themselves and volunteering to help out others their age comes with its own set of challenges, including the risk of not being taken seriously. “There are times we face that, but that’s slowly changing,” says Bhateja. Often, people reach out to them, sharing their issues, but the foursome is clear that their group can always lend a listening ear and connect them with resources and professionals. “We’ve also got a chat feature on our website where the conversation is deleted entirely to ensure confidentiality,” Bhateja adds.
Together in it
Over the weekend, the group conducted ‘Alone Together’, focused on a more general aspect of creative expression addressing mental health issues during the lockdown. It included a range of activities, from reading out submissions received by the audience, to a talk by a consultant clinical psychologist, Dr Preethi Ninan. “It was to have an open discussion with our audience about mental health during the lockdown and discuss different ways of coping,” Bhateja says.