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

Lockdown after effects

Parents mollycoddling, lockdown and social media.

Whole combination of things.

Screen time, social media, digitally distracted parents

covid & the knock on impacts of that

a rush to diagnosis & medicalise vs recognising we all have to deal with uncomfortable situations at times

24/7 news cycle that is hard to escape

A desire for our children to be happy all the time meaning as parents we solve lots of problems for them until we can’t and then the problems feel a lot bigger

lack of meaningful connections, poorer social skills in general

better recognition & diagnosis

lack of support services & health services in general

I think there sre quite a few things.

1. Children being in full time childcare from a very early age and having very long days away from their primary carer.

1. A really really stressful curriculum in schools with expectations put on children that are beyond their years. Like, in order to do well in the y6 sats at age 10/ 11 you need a reading age of about 14.

1. Touchscreen technology being a primary source of entertainment. Looking at a screen instead of actually physically playing.

1. They are bombarded with doom riddled information all the time. Constantly being talked to about the environment and global warming and how we are all going to die .

1. At the same time, they are being protected more than ever- allowed very little freedom and independence and not given the space to problem solve.

1. Social media . What a shit show for kids.

1. Crippling student

The social media thing has actually been evidenced - https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55826238.amp

It has a really negative impact on mental health.

Social media started it. Before then, you’d have a fall out with someone, go home and it might have been forgotten by the next day, or you’d try to avoid that person. Now it’s relentless. People can see into every corner of your life and use what they perceive to be power, over you.

Coupled with the pandemic and lockdown, which felt like a cruel punishment, it’s not surprising that the effect on mental health has been so appalling. Unfortunately, there are few resources to deal with it.

I said, right at the beginning of it, that the bigger issue would be mental unwellness. Now it is.

No resilience and no grit.

We also now pander to the minority in really odd way- see transgender issues and allowing normal life to be dictated to by a small minority who shout the loudest.

delusions of perfection perpetuated by social media.

Poor parenting in the sense that there’s perhaps not great discipline and now instead of children “being seen and not heard” they’re “seen and heard all the time”. There’s a happy medium there in that we should always be mindful of children and their opinions but also aware that they’re not decision makers or rulers of the roost.

I think it's lots of factors.

Sure start centres closing and no early help for parents.

Covid.

Social media and an ever increasing digital world - we are still human with human emotional which gets overlooked when you can hide behind a screen.

Zero tolerance schools. Kids being afraid to make mistakes makes them anxious.

Ever ready world news 24/7 with a definite feeling of it being edgy currently

But added to that sorbets aren't as strict as they were when we grew up. Kids aren't left to their own devices as much to learn the real way and learn to risk asses.

It's not just kids mental health that's deteriorating - society as a whole has changed and human emotion hasn't evolved with it.

The internet

Poverty , family breakups, school pressures, social media etc. The sanevad there is an incease in adult mental health

The Internet

I think it's that dc don't play out properly anymore/teens don't hang out. Lack of fresh air, getting up to mischief and belonging to a group of kids/teens. We were up to so much mischief and had so much fun. Now they sit around on xboxs all day - or go out to take photos. I genuinely believe they would be happier drinking white lightning and messing about on a park bench somewhere.

Teens are supposed to rebel, to create their own identity, to go against their parents.. teens nowadays (inc mine) go for bike rides and paddleboarding days out with their parents. I'd have dropped dead with embarrassment to hang out with my parents.. whereas my teens actively want to hang out with me! I've gone wrong somewhere!

It was be nice if some actually answered the OP rather than pffft at her.

Social media, crappy diets, lack of sports/exercise, parents who don’t parent so kids go looking for validation/guidance from their peers. Self-diagnosing.

But also on the other hand, more attention, more understanding of what children could be going through.

I think Covid and social media are two huge triggers.

Teens didn't get the skills in socialising that we did in a critical time of their life which has impacted on their development (for some of them).

What with AI and influencers, they aspire to things that aren't real which can l make them feel 'less than'.

Someone has said it is just getting picked up more and it is. But it is also more prevalent. It has gone from 1 in 10 in 2013 to 1 in 4 in 2023.

There is also something about some teenagers not being willing to sit with uncomfortable feelings. Teenage girls especially go through huge hormonal changes and sometimes present in front of me for treatment, but they are actually experiencing your 'more normal ups and downs' of teenage hood rather than a clinical condition.

I think social media has a lot to answer for!

Not to mention bullying via anonymous messaging accounts, messages being sent portraying to be from someone else, or kids being excluded from chat groups.

There are many more factors nowadays that can lower the self esteem of youngsters.

We have had the police involved at our school on several occasions when vile anonymous messages have been sent, or sexting!

On the plus side people are more aware of MH issues so can spot signs and intervene.

Oh come on op try harder. Baffled?

Just say what you mean if you're gonna be really prejudiced at least have the guts to say it. What you seem to mean is have we gone all soft and focused too much on emotions and feelings in the modern day. With all these people 'claiming' to have mental health issues.

Social media and the pandemic/ lockdown will not have helped.

But also a lot of MH issues were either not reported/ dismissed in young people for decades. So it is hard to get reasonable comparative stats.

I had major MH issues as a teen... And that that was back in the last century. I was not the only one by any means, but there was an 'its a phase' or 'they're being dramatic' or 'pull yourself together' and 'grow a thicker skin' attitude from both teachers, parents and medical professionals back then.

Personally I think it's because kids aren't taught resilience any more. It used to be normal to expect children to sit with bad feelings from a young age. Now parents mither over them assuring them they don't want to have to do anything they don't want to do, don't have to be bored, don't have tobe polite.

I think the circuits that lay down the ability to handle horrible feelings aren't being used at appropriate developmental stages and when puberty hits and kids meet the unforgiving real world that doesn't care if you are mummy and daddy's most D-est C they're stuffed.

Even DC, cmon. Imagine our parents calling us this 🤣

Lock down had a massive negative effect on young people's mental health. You may have only been a teenager 10 years ago, but you did not experience being kept apart from your friends at a time when peer friendships are so important. For a lot of young people, school is a lifeline,with that affected it is no wonder their mental health is affected. Add this to possibly experiencing the loss of family members due to Covid and the effects of in some cases being in lockdown with abusive family members and it is no wonder children and young people's mental health is at an all-time low.

😂 good for you @Newmama29

My dd did her dissertation on how social media impacts mental health. In her research she had 1500 unistudents who responded to her survey (from several universities her friends spread it around) 100% said they had felt negatively influenced by social media.

10 years ago it was not as prevalent these days its with us everywhere.

It's not his fault