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The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

jonathanhaidt.substack.com

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Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#141

Post by imbnwa »

nluken wrote: post #103
carabiner wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40% of high school students don't go to college (of any type). Of those, only a tiny portion are focused on elite universities. Many are just going to Long Beach State, University of Redlands and other 4 year schools that you've never heard of. They have lax admissions. Among adult Americans, only a third have bachelors degrees. Certainly the high pressure scholastic environment of certain high schools is not common.

A good point that exposes some major bias behind my anecdote. With that said, if these expectations start at elite schools and slowly trickle down, would that not cause a rise in the aggregate across all teenagers over time?

> and slowly trickle down

Seems like a strong assumption that it necessarily does splash damage beyond a certain cohort. I went to a public HS of 4K in the 00s only AP Juniors/Seniors were concerned with this kind of thing and AP kids were only friends with other AP kids (for obvious reasons); I'd doubt that've changed by 2012.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#142

Post by hinkley »

banannaise wrote: post #25

Okay, data is great, but the conclusions at the end have almost nothing to do with the data. They're a bunch of unsupported assumptions about what we've changed that must have caused all of this. It includes two separate links to his article about how we're ruining the children by coddling them with woke bullshit. Here's the tagline: "In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding pr…

Boomers are full of men white knuckling their way through lives of quiet desperation (is the English way. The time is gone, the song is over. Thought I’d something more to say). Their children were brought up that way, and maybe only started to question it in adulthood, with their own children, or before grandchildren came. As long as the kids don’t get parenting advice from grandma and grandpa, there’s more permission to ask for help.

I’m surprised the numbers for girls are still so high relative to boys, but not surprised that the rate for boys is catching up.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#143

Post by LarryMullins »

faeriechangling wrote: post #102
arp242 wrote: post #2

Another possible explanation is that we are simply diagnosing these kind of mental health issues better – due to decrease in stigmatization and/or more attention to it – but that our treatment is worse than doing nothing, and is leading to higher rates of self-harm and suicide. I have no idea if that's the case – and if it is a factor at all it probably doesn't account for all of it – but it seems something worth exp…

Why is more diagnosis better diagnosis? I hear this constantly, literally every time people point out we might be calling people mentally ill now that we wouldn't have called mentally ill 20 years ago people go "wow we must be diagnosing people better". To me better diagnosis would be reflected in things like the suicide rate dropping, drug abuse falling, general health metrics improving, and so on, not in simply inc…

> It seems how we diagnose people is totally unconnected from any empirical data on if a culture more willing to diagnose people is making people healthier on a population-wide level.

Speaking of an absence of empirical data: People are being told by doctors that their brain has a "chemical imbalance" which medication can fix, despite those doctors not performing any chemical tests on the patient's brain at all. Supposed "chemical imbalances" for which the science of chemistry can produce no empirical data. My brother lost years of his life in a drug-induced haze before he questioned the wisdom of doctors, got off the psyche drugs, and saw a massive improvement in his outlook on life all around. Turns out he had real problems to address and the drugs were only helping him to ignore those problems instead of actually confronting them. He never needed drugs, he needed a mature mentor.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#145

Post by roundandround »

eecc wrote: post #129
nluken wrote: post #79

While I don't doubt that social media can drive some of these mental health issues, I think most teenagers are simply stressed from the constant work that's necessary for the college admissions process. I'm 24, so I would have been a teenager in 2012, but I didn't have a smartphone until I was 16 or so. My high school experience consisted almost entirely of school, studying, and running (my primary extracurricular).…

very well said, although allow me to make a minor correction. Where you wrote “Today's society demands so much from adolescents for so little in return. “ I would simply generalize to “Today's society demands so much from anyone for so little in return.” There, perfect

I don't agree. If you past the point where you are rising new potential and you have any income or some kind of right to income virtually nothing is expected of you. Kids in the mandatory school years face a fair amount of expectations in return for nothing tangible and only receive a smaller portion of the modern ultra conveniences.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#146

Post by [deleted] »

1234letshaveatw wrote: post #121
ok_dad wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we want a healthier society, we need to take a step back and give teenagers a chance to actually live life. We (American here) need to take a step back and let everyone enjoy life. That means providing healthcare, food, and shelter to every single person so that they can live their life and work in a non-anxiety-inducing way. Every therapist I've talked to in the past few years has told me that they think the nu…

right, teen kids are so worried about healthcare costs! Gimmie a break, your comment has nothing to do with the article, it's low effort and a better fit for reddit

[deleted]

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#147

Post by purpleblue »

nluken wrote: post #79

While I don't doubt that social media can drive some of these mental health issues, I think most teenagers are simply stressed from the constant work that's necessary for the college admissions process. I'm 24, so I would have been a teenager in 2012, but I didn't have a smartphone until I was 16 or so. My high school experience consisted almost entirely of school, studying, and running (my primary extracurricular).…

My son is 10 and is naturally accelerated across many subjects (12th grade proficiency in ELA, 9th grade proficiency in Math, talented in music, writing, etc).

We have been actively indoctrinating our kids with the idea that college is not the be-all-end-all, that they should NOT apply for Ivy schools, 3rd tier schools are very good and if they want to go abroad or even eschew college altogether, we will support them. I've seen the effects that college admissions have on kids, especially in schools like Gunn and Palo Alto high in the Bay Area. Children committing suicide because they screw up a test is disgusting.

There is NO WAY I'm letting my kids go through that mental hell. And from some of the TikTok videos I've seen, you can dedicate your entire life to having a top application (sports, grades, extra curricular activities) and still get completely rejected by all Tier 1 schools. I won't allow my children to go through that just to be subjected to the whims of a racist, capricious admissions board.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#148

Post by mouse_ »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #100
carabiner wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40% of high school students don't go to college (of any type). Of those, only a tiny portion are focused on elite universities. Many are just going to Long Beach State, University of Redlands and other 4 year schools that you've never heard of. They have lax admissions. Among adult Americans, only a third have bachelors degrees. Certainly the high pressure scholastic environment of certain high schools is not common.

You’re going to get a bias in here because a lot of folks are STEM focused / high achieving high anxiety types :)

I guarantee most of these "high achieving high anxiety types" live with significantly less anxiety than customer service reps/bag handlers/food service workers.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#150

Post by tasspeed »

1234letshaveatw wrote: post #137
tasspeed wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're ignorant or extremely privileged if you think kids dont worry. have you ever had a parent be ill and your family has no money for their treatment?

OK, you got me. A lack of socialized everything that started in 2012 is the cause of the teen mental illness epidemic. Get out and vote everyone!!!

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