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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

#331

Post by jibe »

brookst wrote: post #204
jahsome wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you honestly see value in comparing scars? Does that matter in any meaningful way? The worst stress of someone's life is the worst stress of their life. It's unproductive and petty to bicker about who has it worse. If life is stressful for anyone, regardless of status, title, age, etc. there's a good chance it's undeserved. The takeaway is to treat people better, not dismiss their stressors as less significant.

The parent comment was asserting that STEM types are “high anxiety” and implicitly dismissing non-STEM people as somehow having less anxiety. I think it is fair and healthy to acknowledge that, as you say, everyone has “the worst stress of their life”, regardless of STEM-ness.

I don’t think it dismissed non-stem people, but there is plenty of data supporting anxiety correlates with intelligence. It is not surprising that HN is an anxious group.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3269637/

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#332

Post by kitsune_ »

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).…

You're making the mistake of extrapolating from your own personal experience.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#333

Post by neuronic »

jimmaswell wrote: post #293
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).…

Public school schoolwork is so easy. So is applying to a college. How is anyone stressed by it?

This is a tad bit insensitive. I have excelled at public school for the first years, then there was a rough patch in life caused by parents which TANKED my grades and social life for years.

I recovered and eventually got an excellent Master's degree in Bioinformatics but it is condescending to assume that everyone was dealt the same hand as you in life and that anything at all is fair.

Maybe schoolwork isn't so easy if you're being abused by a parent once a week?

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#334

Post by kitsune_ »

kypro wrote: post #226
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…

I think the opposite could be true – that we're too quick to diagnose mental illnesses in kids today. In the last few years I've witnessed several kids in my family get referred to doctors for potential mental illnesses and then end up on a cocktail of drugs as a result. It's something I've found really difficult because I was never personally convinced they were mentally ill in the first place and in many cases thes…

ADHD is underdiagnosed, especially in women.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#335

Post by [deleted] »

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).…

[deleted]

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#336

Post by BoorishBears »

kitsune_ wrote: post #332
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).…

You're making the mistake of extrapolating from your own personal experience.

Yeah... there's nothing wrong with growing up with a bit of a bubble, but yikes by 24 you'd think this person would start to be aware that their experience wasn't exactly universal

As other comments pointed out, a large portion of society doesn't go to college, let alone "stress out about extracurriculars to make sure my app looks extra good"

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#337

Post by codeslave13 »

My daughter hit her teens in2012. It was a horrible couple of years not just for her but from about 8th grade up.

Our HS had a suicide wave. Many attepts (my daughter being one) and quite a few of those attempts were successful later. Thankfully my child responded well to therapy.

This was in a high competitive HS IN NORTHERN VA.

My thoughts on factors:

Crazy parents pushing kids to try and get in TJ who had no business there. (We did not)

Peer pressure to over perform at everything (If you did t have a 4.5 gpa you were stupid)

And the big bad social media really started going for teens then. And it was brutal

Over scheduling for activities. We played travel soccer. Super competitive. We had girls that played travel basketbal,soccer and softball. One of those is almost year round. Three? Your never home

We balanced it all with camping. It helped so much. One weekend a month minimum. No excuses.

Rambled a bit but from about 2011 on kids have been fucked.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#338

Post by sammalloy »

officeplant wrote: post #329
sammalloy wrote: post #292

I think this idea that the teen mental illness epidemic began in 2012 is probably wrong. What is far more likely is that society began to open up more to these ideas, more people got diagnosed than before, and more young people identified with these struggles and felt more comfortable talking about them. Susanna Kaysen's 1993 mental health memoir "Girl, Interrupted", which recounts her experience as a young female ad…

>society began to open up more to these ideas I'm a late 80s Gulf Coast America kid and any talk about therapy of depression growing up in the 90s/2000s was met with disbelief or family being upset that I'm not praying enough to Jesus. Those same people are now gladly taking anti-anxiety meds and dabbling in therapy. It was obvious to me as a kid that plenty of people need some form of help or therapy even if it's ju…

Well said. Do you follow Kitty Tait and the Orange Bakery? I just bought her book "Breadsong" as a gift. Her story about dealing with mental illness is incredibly inspiring. Check it out.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#340

Post by monknomo »

strawpeople wrote: post #259
faeriechangling wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a contradiction, I'm saying that an underlying increase in mental illness plausibly explains some of the effect, but I'm unconvinced it explains the entire effect.

What could explain the increase in suicides if not mental illness?

I'm not sure suicides strictly are the result of mental illness. I, for example, have an uncle that killed himself. He may have been clinically depressed, but mainly, he was an alcoholic. I think it's likely what depression he had would have resolved if he successfully dealt with his substance abuse problem.

Did he die because he was mentally ill, or because drinking can be a pretty bad problem?

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