I think that often, people who are in some sort of mental distress follow pre-existing cultural tropes in how they express that distress. People in one culture run around and rip their clothes. The Americans seem to shoot a gun into a crowd. And maybe in Germany it is this car thing.
These start for reasons of their own initially, but it becomes a kind of learned response to express some kind of inner problem.
Overall people seem more distressed now too. I don't think it's just stuff like CoL. But we've also lost a lot of the social supports that help people manage these things. I am not thinking of stuff like state welfare or even the medical system - though that's an issue too. But stuff like increasing isolation, neighbourhoods full of people you don't know, lack of charitable or religious or other civil organizations, or really, lack of people joining them.