>I don't deny any of that either. These matters are complex and I cannot reasonably argue them here without discussing other factors in detail such as changes in life expectancy over the past century, the more fatalistic approach to life pre-war (big families meant survival insurance, pre-penicillin times meant many more [expected] deaths in childhood, harder times financially, etc. etc. The whole social milieu was different.
My grandmas two sisters died before they even reached 16, but I don't know if it was before or after war. Some respiratory system infection. It what just happened to people. Especially if you were poor and lived in rural area.
>Let me say just this: when I was growing up in the 1950s and '60s what I said above wasn't quite 'dead' yet as my childhood was pretty much similar to that—and it was often damn hard times back then (moreover, from where I came from it was so for many of the kids my age, I was no exception). Several weeks ago I gave an account of my own childhood on the HN story Old Enough: the Japanese TV show that abandons toddlers on public transport and there's no doubt that by age six I was an independent agent— that is, walking miles to school across busy roads by myself at that age and so on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30951723#30953588. We had to be more resilient just to survive—and we were.
When I was in pre-school I had to go by myself to it, but it was a rural area. Forests, farmlands and so. But my friends from city, have similar experience(but with less forests and farmlands, but with more cars, streets and public transport). No one was taking kids to school by car, because parents had to go to work early while kids had to start school at 8am. We survived it. But I was, afraid of shadows kind of child. Sometimes on my way I had panic attacks, but I was alone and either I could go back home(not an option) or continue on my way to school. So I went to school every day.
>The fact is I'm old enough to have witnessed these changes firsthand. Leaving aside the reasons (which, no doubt, will be argued about for years to come), there is no doubt that mental health issues among the young have increased substantially in recent decades.
>Edit: Incidentally, during my teenage years I cannot ever recall any mention of childhood or teenage suicide. No doubt it happened, but even the concept thereof would have been anathema to us kids back then.
If you weren't part of family or right circle of friends you just didn't learn about stuff like that. There were negative consequences of other people knowing if someone committed suicide, was mentally ill, was gay. My grandfather committed suicide, but I only learned about it in my thirties and someone accidentally mentioned it. I was part of family and still didn't know about it. Back then Catholic church had problems with burying suicide victims on consecrated cemetery.
What I'm also afraid of, is possibility that with all the chemicals that finds its way into drinking water, we might poison ourselfs and our children literally out of our minds. I should learn more it, but I'm afraid it might be too late to do anything about it.