Teen Mental Health Crisis

Here's a radical idea:Rather than blame it on the latest kid obsession (in my day it was the TV) maybe look at the world they are growing-up in.Maybe they're depressed because the world is burning down.

Can't this just be the effect of teens being more aware of their own mental health issues and reporting them more?

I would say society doesn't paint a happy picture of the future. It's hard to find positive stories of things working out well where we win against climate change, and we stop shootings in school etc. I also feel it's very hard to have real connection in a lot of modern culture, with phones and internet and tech sometimes just talking to your neighbor seems strange. I think society itself doesn't really really feel that healthy so I can imagine a lot of teenagers with mood sw

That's an interesting perspective. I also did not like it when things I liked in school like TV and video-games were blamed for ruining my generation.What do you think about the evidence that more teenagers than ever are suffering from severe anxiety?(https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/1

There's been an mental health epedemic since about 2013, partially attributed to adolscents not having sufficient opportunities to be independent: https://time.com/6255448/teen-girls-mental-health-epidemic-c...

I gather that it seems to be a growing issue amongst the younger demographics [1].[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/magazine/why-are-more-ame...

I can't imagine you'll find a single reason for this. There was an study this week about the decrease in drug and alcohol use amongst young people. Which I'm sure is just one of many contributing factors.https://arstechnica.com/health/2024/12/the-kids-are-maybe-al...Mayb

Growing up, I knew maybe two or three kids that had emotional problems. Now (as an adult with grown kids) I hardly know any families that don’t have such a person. I’m sure part of it is we’re more open, which is great, but I can’t attribute all of it to that. The rising generation is really struggling. My guess is social media, but maybe it’s environmental pollution or something similar. I live in the US for what it’s worth.

Eh, the phones don't help, and surely contribute to the problem, but fact is, young people are growing up in a cyberpunk dystopia with No Future but the Jackpot. Anxiety and depression are perfectly normal reactions to that. Trying to be a Pinker Thinker and claiming that everything is rosy is just sticking your head in the sand because you personally benefit from the status quo.

My experience is the same, back in the 1990s.There was a ton of depression and even suicides when I was growing up. I felt like 50% of teens at my large HS were suffering from some kind of mental issue. And then you had major events like Columbine. The US school system has always managed to produce a lot of very miserable people, and no one seemed to care or do anything about it.And now we have these studies all blaming social media, like there is some kind of epidemic that never existed b