Why is mental illness trendy with teenagers?

[Boethius]

Considering that only 52% of gen Z are non-Hispanic white and the rest are youth of color, might it have something to do with the fact that the US has yet to dismantle its system of white supremacy? A lot of young people are stressed out by things like climate change, racial injustice, and political instability. If we wish to support the young (as compared to bashing them for the sake of propping ourselves up), then maybe we should do something to fix the environment in which they are growing up.

[bloomer]

@ZzzleepingBear

1 hour ago, ZzzleepingBear said:

Every youth have an increasing price to pay, because they where born to late to keep up with the curent competition.

I don't get what you're saying that post. If you're saying gen z has it harder because they don't have the same material goods and have a harder time with work and buying property etc... I could agree with that.

@Boethius

9 minutes ago, Boethius said:

Considering that only 52% of gen Z are non-Hispanic white and the rest are youth of color, might it have something to do with the fact that the US has yet to dismantle its system of white supremacy? A lot of young people are stressed out by things like climate change, racial injustice, and political instability. If we wish to support the young (as compared to bashing them for the sake of propping ourselves up), then maybe we should do something to fix the environment in which they are growing up.

You think the youth are mentally ill because of white supremacy and climate change? fucking lol. Probably the hysterics around those issues and everything being made politic thanks to cultural hegemony doesn't do them much good. 

[WelcometoReality]

@bloomer I believe that it's the other way around. Technology like mobile phones and computers are harmful and social media apps (and apps in general) are programmed to be more and more addictive.

Also these apps are being used as a substitute for human interaction which is also causing an increased depression rate.

Basically this kind of technology causes a dopamine overload on big population, mostly teenagers and makes healthy activities like social interaction and physical activity seem unattractive. 

[Boethius]

17 minutes ago, bloomer said:

You think the youth are mentally ill because of white supremacy and climate change? fucking lol.

If the youth believe the problems of the world are overwhelming and there's no hope of them being solved, then yeah I would expect to see a lot of mental illness develop as a result. There are also millennials in their 30s who are declining to form families because they think this isn't a good world to bring children into.

[ZzzleepingBear]

19 minutes ago, bloomer said:

@ZzzleepingBear

I don't get what you're saying that post. If you're saying gen z has it harder because they don't have the same material goods and have a harder time with work and buying property etc... I could agree with that.

Yes, and not only gen z. Imagine your unborn grandchildren if you will. There is no sign ahead that future generations will have any fair chance in the economic race by working a regular job. (speaking of the majority of people)

[Carl-Richard]

Once something gets destigmatized enough, it starts getting seen as edgy or cool, and then over time, it just becomes normal. Another example of this is skateboarding. It went from being outright illegal to being edgy, and today it's normal.

 

 

 

[Siedah]

Hmm! Interesting view . I am a psychotherapist working for national health services in the uk so I have a few things to say about this topic I suppose .. it’s true that more than half the people I see at work are people under the age of 28. I often wondered why! Being 40, I am a different generation , i didn’t grow up in the technological era with apps and social media. I actually went out and played voleybal in the park where I would stay all day with my friends, having real interactions ..
What I notice more and more is the lack of resilience, lack of basic coping skills .. so it’s interesting to think what the hell has happened that the young people fall apart at the sight of the slightest obstacle .. not always but often! Are we forgetting how to have a bit of a skin and wanting to live a life full of avoidance and delusion ?! 

[Daniel347]

sussy amongus big chungus 

[ZzzleepingBear]

31 minutes ago, Siedah said:

Hmm! Interesting view . I am a psychotherapist working for national health services in the uk so I have a few things to say about this topic I suppose .. it’s true that more than half the people I see at work are people under the age of 28. I often wondered why! Being 40, I am a different generation , i didn’t grow up in the technological era with apps and social media. I actually went out and played voleybal in the park where I would stay all day with my friends, having real interactions ..
What I notice more and more is the lack of resilience, lack of basic coping skills .. so it’s interesting to think what the hell has happened that the young people fall apart at the sight of the slightest obstacle .. not always but often! Are we forgetting how to have a bit of a skin and wanting to live a life full of avoidance and delusion ?! 

I think part of what may puzzle older generations, is the fact that kids that grows up in a modern part of the world today no longer have the luxury of full privacy that older generation could take granted back then. What comes to mind is not really the public cameras that are increasing. But that basically every person have the ability to film and take pictures with their phones today, and any risk of embarrassment or public ridicule is at risk to spread like wildfire amongst friends and classmates in schools today. 

An adult can argue that: " So what? What's the big deal if you do something embarrassing, I did many embarrassing things at your age?"

The difference is that your embarrassment that may have been watched by a few people, and could be used as rumors about you. Has today the risk factor of being immortalized and shared across the whole globe even. If it is "cringeworthy" enough to be a viral thing. What I want to say is, that I fully believe that kids today becomes hyper self aware of themselfs, with the risk of getting any wrongdoing captured and imortalized on video. Filming and photos can be a bully tool that wasn't available for older generation to be shamed by. And even if many forget, kids will always be more sensitive in general when it comes to embarrassment and public shaming it has always been a big deal. And even more so now.

[flyingguitarist]

Watch The Social Dilemma documentary 

[EdgeGod900]

It seems to me that the answer is obvious, but is emotionally difficult to do so no one wants to do it. That is, to only use the internet for important things. You could maybe use distraction free apps or go back to the old school ways of going to the bank physically, going to the bus station physically for the bus schedule, etc.. as examples. There's really no other way to fix this until teenagers and people in general do what is the most emotionally difficult thing to do.  Leo, Stoics, Cynics, and many more have been advocating to do the emotionally difficult thing for a while now.

Again the issue here is that the majority of people are going to keep living a miserable fucking life until they actually bite the bullet and remove news, social media, and any of these distractions from their lives. Leo has a lot of quality videos answering this question (although indirectly) such as, doing the emotionally difficult thing to do, setting up a meditation practice, etc.. Like he has tons of content that answers this question --so please go to his main website and click the "start here" tab and that should answer this question.

 

Also I want you to know that, as long as you just follow everything your culture does without questioning it (which is like 95%+ of the human population) then you will live a horrible life. And this is not going to change anytime soon or ever. 

 

[bloomer]

@Carl-Richard

On 4/19/2022 at 8:57 PM, Carl-Richard said:

Once something gets destigmatized enough, it starts getting seen as edgy or cool, and then over time, it just becomes normal. Another example of this is skateboarding. It went from being outright illegal to being edgy, and today it's normal.

100% you summed up the phenomenon better than I could have.

@Siedah

On 4/19/2022 at 9:35 PM, Siedah said:

What I notice more and more is the lack of resilience, lack of basic coping skills ..

They never have the chance to develop them because they're always inside and away from people spending time on addictive social media. 

On 4/19/2022 at 9:35 PM, Siedah said:

Are we forgetting how to have a bit of a skin and wanting to live a life full of avoidance and delusion ?! 

This avoidance was mandated by world governments for the past two years using military psychological operations to terrorize the youth into hysterics so they would all cower in their homes. We've been told not to live, not to have any skin and balls and to hide. Government and police enforced. Not just culturally and then you wonder why younger people aren't as social?

[Leo Gura]

Modern society is dysfunctional in many ways and teens are not given the guidance necessary to develop a good life in a modern world. They are basically sent through a factory-farm education system which doesn't teach anything about how to live virtuously or happily. Teens are left on their own to figure it out and most of them never do, or they fall into one form of dogma or another.

It's not easy to figure out how to live well and healthy. Especially not when so many adults set a bad example and business systems are literally designed to feed off of and perpetuate the dysfunctions of people.

[ShardMare]

There are thousands of traps they can fall into.

But the one is that they think badly. If u create awareness in them, u teach them meditation few months and they realize oh thats whats making me depressed! Why do i keep telling myself these things? F.e.

If u have awareness with time u ll find the cause whats making you depressed.