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The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

afterbabel.com

221–230 of 937 posts

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#221
The answer you're looking for is that woke culture arrived. Your God is not dead, you've just abandoned him (again). Social media is obviously a catalyst for patterns of communicated harm that have always been around. The communists have been unraveling the nucleus of family and faith, to be replaced with isolated rage and hate, with government to provide 'proxy support', whereas once was family. We've been divided into us vs them teams on issues that used to bring harmony and coherence.

Damn, maybe there is just too many people now? and we're all connected all the time. The brain can only handle so much (much less than I think we admit).

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#222

People blame social media, but they never ask why social media is like that. I think that the cultural changes that lead to that have been running for far more time than people give credit for, and that social media is just the proverbial canary on the mine that made things explicit. Those changes are multi-generational changes, and more probably there are a multitude of factors behind it. Family structure, economy f…

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Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#223

The DSM-5 was published in 2013, redefining the 'mental health' diagnosis landscape substantially. You will see in some pf the graphs arpid onset of the climb in 2023. Could changes in diagnosis and treatment be a factor in this?

This is a huge possibility. One should not even begin to discuss this topic without factoring in what you brought up here.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#224

The increase in depression numbers might be a rational reaction to the current environment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Never_to_Have_Been

Depression is not a rational response though, is it? It's an irrational response that persists even when there is no reason to be unhappy.

That's why I give little credence to ideas like those in your link. I don't consider the worldview of depressed people to be valuable to my own life experience.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#225

I think all the social media stuff is missing the mark. It's 100% bad but it's just trash filling the hole society is making. Looking top down at the problem, humans need self actualization or propose to be happy. Originally we evolved to live in medium sized social groups that worked together to ensure their survival, we took care of each other and that was what drove our purpose, or rather why that need evolved, it…

Running clubs and associations and churches and any nonprofit oriented community organization is hard work.

Throw more parties. That’s one solution. It’s not easy either, but it isn’t pure hedonism. It’s creating real social bonds. And it takes real work!! Underappreciated.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#226
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Well, if the Big Government was not so hellbent on helping making billionaires trillionaires at the expense of the working class, maybe the poor could learn to be more self-reliant. Pretty hard for a lot of people that doesn't make multiple hundreds of thousands dollars an year to not depend on the government, when lax fiscal policies completely devalue their money while inflating the assets and the pockets of the ol…

fiscal policies in the US have been very far from "lax" -- they have been highly engineered via "quantitative easing" to artificially grow the economy (the debt, really) through massive money-printing and asset inflation programs.

"Lax" policies would have avoided repeated and continuous intervention and let the chips fall where they may.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#227

I think all the social media stuff is missing the mark. It's 100% bad but it's just trash filling the hole society is making. Looking top down at the problem, humans need self actualization or propose to be happy. Originally we evolved to live in medium sized social groups that worked together to ensure their survival, we took care of each other and that was what drove our purpose, or rather why that need evolved, it…

All this talk about “community” - what “community”? It simply doesn’t exist anymore even if you wanted it - short of arranging to stay near your extended family and in laws, what else is there in the modern western world? Churches, I guess is the only other true community left…

I agree, young people don’t invest in others anymore. It has emotionally become a consumer world. E.g., try getting some volunteers at your local sports club.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#228
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly think a drinking age below the driving age is appropriate. Either by increasing driving, or lowering the drinking age.

When I grew up in Germany you were allowed to drink beer and wine at 16. It's hard to drink yourself into the hospital with those and you are still living with your parents. It provided a safe environment to experiment and learn how to deal with alcohol. At 18 you were able to get a driver's license and start drinking stronger drinks. However, you weren't as excited about the novelty of liquor. It's the only policy a…

"At 18 you were able to get a driver's license and start drinking stronger drinks"

You must have lived in a different german reality then.

For us it was always easy to get someone else to buy your booze, if it was not already given to you somehow by the older guys. Or if you looked slightly older(I was NEVER asked for ID while buying drinks). Many people in my age group developed a drinking habit - and big surprise, quite some of them turned into alcoholics later. Also no surprise, with so many adult role models being drinkers as well.

The general principle of gradually allowing more, might help a tiny little bit preventing early access for some people, but it absolutely did not help prevent alcohol abuse. There is just a general culture of alcohol abuse (Oktoberfest and co). So yeah, we had also fun, but I strongly reject the idea, that alcohol could help preventing smartphone addicts or is somehow better. Rather the contrary as teens still drink today and can just get addicted to both.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#230
post #125

Not just social media, but always online mentality. Spending all your time online gives you a skewed perception of the world and I believe being online always is a major negative. Spending time outside is good for you. Socializing with real people in front of you is good also. Not sure if we can ever go back to that without some major catastrophe.

I feel like there must be some generation coming that feels like being highly online is weird and embarassing, having grown up and seen the way their parents and other adults behave, and use the internet more as a utility rather than a place to try to primarily live. What makes this hard I think is how addictive it is for children, so by the time they might realize how embarassing it is they have already been addicte…

I can see it to some extent in gen Z. Once alpha ages a bit, I could totally see that being their counterculture.
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