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Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

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241–250 of 489 posts

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There won't be an exact replacement because the circumstances that led to the community cannot (or rather, should not) be replicated. For the sake of the survival of the planet/species, I also don't think any institution based around magical thinking should fill the gap. Keep in mind that high-demand religions require a huge investment of time and money. Devoting even just a fraction of those resources to hobbies, ar…

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I don't help the poor as a hobby or because I was told to. I help the poor because I have compassion and empathy. Animals also demonstrate these same pro-social behaviors, and I'm pretty sure none of them are Jewish or Hindu.

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#242

> Clinical psychologist Camilo Ortiz, a professor at Long Island University-Post, began noticing a few years ago that some of his young patients, mostly children being treated for anxiety, would “fold very quickly” at the first sign of adversity This is a perfect description of someone I met recently on a road trip with friends. From our first encounter he came off as feeling miserable and sorry for himself. He didn’…

How did he get a license?

The bar is not very high.

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#243
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prerequisite for this is a healthy foundation of self belief. Young adults out there are getting hammered by messages that imply that they are fundamentally flawed and will never stack up. It’s a fragile place to be

The messages need to be questioned. Questioning authority, your peers and the society as a whole is an important step to develop a sense of self. It means you might be perceived as a rebel or immature at times. Sometimes you can't give a shit what other people think about you: I do not see that message being reinforced. I see vicious conformity among American youth.

> Sometimes you can't give a shit what other people think about you

That worked when gossip didn't travel farther than the next town.

Just when young people are given more viable ways to live than ever to pick from, they're given fewer chances than ever to start over if they choose unwisely. Are many narrow choices better than a few broad ones?

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#244
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans have tried "we believe in nothing", throughout history, and yet ... I see no Cathedrals, no beautiful songs, no art, no science, no entire civilizations built to the honor of ... nothing. >which is why people are leaving it. Attendance at TLM is increasing , not decreasing.

>I see no Cathedrals, no beautiful songs, no art, no science, no entire civilizations built to the honor of ... nothing. Not believing in God isn't equivalent to a belief in nothing. Of course, plenty of songs, art and literally all of science have been created outside of the religious sphere. It seems regressive to the point of being archaic to dismiss the validity of all human effort not explicitly done in "honor"…

Interestingly, a religious person would agree with you! Nature's/God's beauty captured by the telescope's camera lens surpasses any known man made art.

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something went wrong in the US after 911. I don’t think it’s just the government. The entire capitalist machine realised just how profitable fear can be, and that’s been one of the big marketing angles in the 2000s. Especially in media, but elsewhere like supplements and drugs too. But the society wide impact of that has been a much more fearful people, obviously making parents more protective too.

> Something went wrong in the US after 911. Well before then. I got one of the last chemistry sets around 1970, when they were all emasculated. > The entire capitalist machine realised just how profitable fear can be Oh come on. A huge driver of this problem is the legal system which encourages jackpot lawsuits, along with our culture of it's always someone else's fault (usually the party with money that becomes wort…

The book Where is my Flying Car traces a lot of different developments back to the late 60s/early 70s explosion in number of pages of federal regulations and lawyers per capita. The massive cultural obsession with danger and liability is relatively young and can essentially be blamed on Richard Nixon.

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#246

Kind of surprised I don't see 20-somethings commenting. mid-20-something here AMA

As an early 20-something year old, I don't feel like I can contribute any meaningful solutions or insights. Which ironically the article states as one of the core issues (low autonomy creates a sense of low efficacy.)

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#247
post #36

It's because there's nothing for them to look forward to. People keep asking why is X group struggling? And there's been enough articles about different groups that X is basically nearly everyone. Things are not getting better for anyone except the extremely wealthy.

The kids I know these days are fantastic. They’re empathetic, smart, polite, and all-around much better people than my friends and I were at their age. They’re so good and they give me so much hope. But they’re also troubled. They struggle with anxiety and depression (and younger) more deeply than anyone I knew growing up. My theory is that we’ve simply handed them a more difficult world to grow up in. They’re handli…

I teach outdoor ed for a program where kids come for a week at a time, so I get to see thousands of kids per semester. I would very much agree with this statement. Overall, Ive experienced that today's youth is largely very empathetic and kind, much moreso than I was as a kid, but anxiety absolutely plagues them.

A very notable exception to this is the rich/well off kids Ive been with. They very much do not show the same empathy as even the middle class type kids (or upper middle class) that I work with. There is definitely a massive divide there.

The location of the school also has a significant impact on this too.

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#248
post #221

> Chentsova Dutton said America has an international reputation for prizing autonomy, but her study opened her eyes to a more complicated picture. American parents tend to be overprotective when children are young, acting as if kids are going to live at home for a long time, like parents do in Italy. Yet they also expect children to live away from home fairly early for college, like families do in Germany. The result…

The stereotypical American helicopter-parent/soccer-mom can be viewed as a direct result of poor zoning practices & the resulting suburban sprawl. A typical child is completely incapable of going anywhere without the guidance of a car-driving parent. It is unlikely, either on foot or bike, that they are able to get to school, get to/from sports practice, meet with friends, shop at local stores, run errands, have a pa…

Not that it _should_ be this way, but me and my friends would scooter/bike to school all the time in elementary/junior high (~2002-2008) and it was easily a few miles each way in Western Washington (not rural).

I don't plan on having kids but I wonder if I'd let them do that today.

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure I ever told my parents I did that.

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#249
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Certainly anyone living 'off-campus' and having bills to pay is in a minority. Only among wealthier students: - 70% of students have jobs while enrolled, depending crucially on socioeconomic status: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/18/most-college-... - In typical public colleges, only 36% of students live in dorms, vs. 58% in typical private colleges: https://collegeaffordability.urban.org/prices-and-ex…

Related: I went to a private school and they required you to live on campus until you were a senior. Also: the namesake of the college owned the student housing so he was making serious money from all that forced rental income.

Sounds like you got a really good education

Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

#250

My generation (early GenX) may be the last one to grow up in an environment that didn't systematically screw young people at every possible turn. We didn't have a constant presence of adults and had space to work out issues on our own. We were able to travel for miles in most directions without being barraged by No Trespassing signs - each of them backed up by disproportionate penalties and an ever present risk of li…

> In contrast, my sons grew up in a world that is senselessly unforgiving and penalistic, with few breaks from adults and little chance to explore life on their own terms. Teenage boys in particular now face an incredibly punitive culture in America. Everything is on video. The online mob will form and demand jail time for the slightest thing. How are teenage boys supposed to learn right from wrong?

Can you give examples of exactly what youre talking about here?
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