To ask why there are so many kids with mental health problems?

Social media. Lockdown. Under funded services. Poor /absence of permanent housing. More awareness.

Totally agree clement. Some of these posts are so lacking in compassion and understanding. Makes me mad! 2 out of my 3 children suffer from anxiety. Some posters on mumsnet should walk a mile in someone's shoes before commenting!!!
And that's me being polite!

I agree with the job thing too. At 14/15 I was working Saturdays and at 16 I worked part time around college.

These days places don’t seem interested in taking on anyone under 16 often even 18. So even opportunities to earn for themselves and gain some work ethic is lacking.

Disagree tbh. I'm damn resilient and so was my father.

I'm talking about from an early age.

I don't stress over my kids falling over unless I see a major head injury/concussion for eg. Some parents are literally pandering over a cut knee. Brush it off, walk if off, it's fine, chop chop. Kid at my daughter's tennis was in crying hysterics having been hit by a ball in the shoulder by surprise (not even hard) - Mum ended up rushing onto court and making matters x10 worse removed her from the match due to a possible fracture (!!!) My kid slipped during a rally and cut open her leg on a hard court- carried on playing and simply wiped the blood away at change of ends. Politely asked for a plaster. Even the coach commented to me thank god there's one kid who's not so bloody dramatic and over emotional.

We created these weak children who then have turned into weak 20 and 30 somethings.

I'm proud to be resilient. There's worst things happened to people but we over sympathise and over indulge all the time.

XelaM - what the actual duck?!!! your lack of compassion/understanding is astounding! i hope none of your kids ever suffer with depression/anxiety. one of the most unbelievable posts ive ever read on mumsnet.

and lack of exercise. There's research that shows that exercise impacts mental well-being positively.
Drs 'prescribe' that along with getting out in nature therapy.

I've done school inset training on this recently. Most recent stats are that 20% of, i think, 8-18 year olds have diagnosed anxiety. And that's without all those who struggle and aren't diagnosed. I thought it was a typo for 2%. Really couldn't believe it. But apparently not.

2011 was the start of the first bug increase in mental illness in young people apparently. Coinciding with the invention of the smart phone. They took away young people's escape, privacy and alone time.

Totally agree stickybackplasticbear!
My son was diagnosed with anxiety aged 9.
one of my daughters diagnosed this year with anxiety.
Ive suffered with my mental health since age 12. Diagnosed with EUPD in 2018 but ive always thought i had ASD [ high functioning asperger's) and a new psychiatrist is testing me for this now.
Was absolutely devastating seeing my son so anxious from aged 2. ( HE was our 1st born).
Someone has listed all the reasons why young people are diagnosed with mental health problems -I'm not going to repeat them.
To be honest OP, your post touched a raw nerve, I've been on anti depressants since i was 18 ( MY Mum became unwell with breast cancer then died from it!)
Please walk a mile in someone's shoes before judging. My 12 year old daughter has struggled with social media comments since starting high school.

Your ignorance is astounding.

They just demonstrates a lack of understanding and empathy. Nobody is helped by being told to 'get on with it'

But sometimes they are. Depending what it is of course but so many parents shelter their kids from everything they find uncomfortable.
They don't do chores, dont need to do homework well, don't need to visit grandparents, dont help out in any capacity. Just numb themselves with screens.

Covid didn’t do anything. Lockdowns did. It was a choice to lockdown healthy adults and even children who are virtually no risk at all.

You just need to go back and read the threads on this very forum, where morons who frequent MN were screaming demanding harsher restrictions. Oh well, you got what you asked for.

👏🏼 All of this!!

1.social media and doing adult things earlier.

1. Diagnosing anxiety when the feelings are normal for the situation. E.g. kid is worried about friendships and doesn't want to come to school is described as anxiety and requires mental health support.

My son has severe anxiety due to his autism and severe learning disability including society not catering for his needs. The mental health of people like him was not even considered until very recently.

I so agree. All the drama about how during Covid kids were asked to not go to school for a few months and now they're apparently forever traumatised by it. Quite ridiculous when you think of what kids of previous generations had to live through.

Fucking hell. I think there was a bit more to it than not going to school for a few months. The ignorance of some people blows my mind.

I think the world has gone from not doing enough for genuine MH issues to way over the top every little thing has a 'anxiety' or some other label attached to and over the top thinking and complicating everything, for example a lot of the threads on here

Many of those young men were broken by their experiences. They drank, beat their wives/children, got into fights, got into other difficulties.

I think they would think today's society was a lot less unsupportive. MH issues amongst those who were in the forces are very common.

I so agree. All the drama about how during Covid kids were asked to not go to school for a few months and now they're apparently forever traumatised by it. Quite ridiculous when you think of what kids of previous generations had to live through.

Increased awareness
social media
social contagion
lack of resilience.

Every child I know that has serious mental health problems is addicted to their phone and TikTok/Insta etc. it might be a correlation but it is enough for me to keep DD off it for as long as possible. She kicks off about DS having Insta at 12 or 13 and it didnt do him any harm, but I have changed my view.

The girls I know that are suffering don’t all have busy, over worked parents or shit diets or lack of fresh air, or too much/not enough money in the house, the social media thing is the one common factor.

I do not understand the attitude of 'I did not think I had depression so am going to act as if the depression other people are experiencing is not real'.

There is so much information online about why there is a big increase in MH problems amongst young people.

In my view as a parent of teens and as someone who is working and studying in mental health I think it’s a number of things. This is not to judge or blame anyone but-
I think that we as a society have a very unrealistic expectation on how we should be feeling and therefore how our children should be. We stop our children developing emotional resilience and neuroplasticity because we do everything we can to stop our children feeling pain, sadness, anger or hurt. This is understandable don’t get me wrong! And I do the same! But unfortunately the brain needs to “practice” these when young on a small scale often in order to create resilience/neuroplasticity. But I see so many parents who will do anything to avoid their child feeling left out/ picked on/ dissapointed/ failing at something/ being bored… but all these things are important learning and practicing opportunities.
I also think this is compounded by societal messages and social media that encourages us to compare, “live our best lives” have the best of everything.. so our expectations and especially those of young people are completely warped.
I also think that we err on the side of caution and over-diagnose normal teen emotions as something more sinister. When we were younger it was written off as “teen angst” which everyone has and then mostly grew out of it once our brains put themselves back together again after teenhood finished. But now we are giving out the message that these feelings aren’t normal. Instead of telling our kids that feelings come and go in peaks and troughs throughout life we give it a name and try and fix it- giving them the message that it’s something wrong with them. That in itself can cause anxiety and make things feel much worse. So now these kids not
only feel that way but also feel worried that its
not normal and common.
I think we have somewhat mollycoddled our kids into this unfortunately.

lastly and probably the most important thing is that we aren’t living as naturally as possible. Kids don’t get outside enough, they aren’t left alone enough to explore a bit of danger, challenge themselves and experiment because of our own fears. Society is now safer in many ways yet how many kids go off exploring in nature with just their friends anymore?? Screens are messing up their circadian rhythm (as is ours) and the overall effect is being seen in kids now.

my nan's generation would have said 'pull your bloody socks up and get on with things'

They just demonstrates a lack of understanding and empathy. Nobody is helped by being told to 'get on with it'

1. Tik tok, Instagram, other social media but especially these two.

2. Covid.

3. we're open and accepting of mental health issues to a fault nowadays. It's gone too far and now everyone has anxiety.

4. parents and schools are failing to instil resilience in young people meaning they struggle to handle criticism or anyone who has a different opinion.

Because every time someone is sad, or a bit anxious they've got 'poor mental health' I do think we create a lot of this - my nan's generation would have said 'pull your bloody socks up and get on with things' I think she'd be turning in her grave right now.

Embarrassing that 20 year olds were fighting in WW2 and were grown men. Can you imagine what they'd think of today's society?

Absolutely. 100%.