Teen mental health in the 80s and 90s

[GladysGeorgina]

I work as a pastoral and safeguarding lead in a high school. I was at high school myself in the mid eighties and very early 90s.
I work with so many students who are struggling with their mental health. I also have personal experience with my teenage dc. The AMA thread last night from a school housemistress talked about the wave of mh issues within her school, particularly self harm.
I look back to my time in high school and I just wasn’t aware of peers experiencing mh issues. It just wasn’t something we talked about or knew anything about. I remember one girl who used to have what I now know to be probably panic attacks and she was collected from school when this happened.
I’m not naive enough to think teens at this time didn’t experience mh problems but what happened to these children? Were there really fewer issues like I remember? School refusal also wasn’t something I remember happening.
I guess what I’m asking is am I remembering correctly? Did anyone work in a high school at this time and can remember what teen mh was generally like? Did anyone experience mh issues during this period and what was it like for you?
I feel like I face such alot of significant need at school and it troubles me. Was the need just “hidden” in the 80s and 90s or have things really got so much worse for our young people? I’m not a journalist or reporter by the way. Genuinely trying to make some kind of sense of what I see every working day.

Teen suicides have risen 70% since the existence of social media. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
Social media is designed to affect how our brains work.

I had huge mental health problems in my last couple of years of high school (late 90's) and struggled to get through them. No one seemed to notice or care, my parents included. There was no pastoral care available and no one I could talk to.

There was no social media in the 80s but there were plenty of girls with boyfriends in their 20s some who left school early and you never saw them again and there were several members of staff known to be having sex with pupils and no one seemed to care.

I am sure it was around, it just wasn't highlighted or given any importance. Lots of DM's had depression and anxiety, they were just given Valium. My DM was on tranquillisers her whole life. I had quite a long episode of not wanting to leave the house, and not eating anything other than crackers. Having panic attacks if required to go somewhere. I was just left at home, and occasionally, if it was somewhere we really had to go, given a good physical shake by my DM, pull yourself together sort of stuff. So I went, shaking and retching, and not eating whilst out. I also school refused for a while, as I was being bullied and beaten up at school, school told me to toughen up. Eventually I did sort myself out, because I realised I was missing out on so much! This was 80's. Today I would probably be given counselling.

(p.s. I still get don't like leaving the house, or going away, or holidays, and still panic and don't eat very well during travel, but I do go, so it is still with me, I just handle it).

The film Rita, Sue and Bob too reminds me of my teenage years.

At my all girls high school there were many girls with eating disorders, there was at least one teacher having sex with a pupil, there was another teacher known to look up girls skirts, I think several girls were self harming, there were several abortions.
Well off, middle class area. No pastoral care at school, at best you might talk to a friend. I was one of these kids feeling dreadful, bulimic and occasionally self harming and despite my Mum being lovely and easy to talk to, it never occurred to me to talk to her or that this was anything that could be dealt with or helped. It was very lonely.
Despite this and a highly dysfunctional home environment I came through it and am (I think!) a happy and well balanced person.

@JazzleRazzle Has it righ too with her observation that our parents lived through the war, and their experiences therefore coloured their tolerance for self indulgence. If they could fight, watch their friends being blown up, see endless misery and death, then we had nothing to worry or be anxious about, just pull yourself together, and get on with it.

I was in senior school in the 80’s and didn’t know anyone or know of anyone who was struggling with their mh.

I was there. I was a school refuser but unable to communicate it (ASD) with my abusive parent so I just walked out. Repeatedly. I was punished. I needed help. Support. I got detention. I got punished at home. I was the token bad kid. I was disliked by most and told I was off 'off the rails' far too many times. Deep down I was desperate for help and the only reason I didn't SH or worse was fear.

I was diagnosed with c-PTSD which began in my mid 20s. I was living it in the late 80s early 90s as a teen. Nobody was helping me. I'm so pleased there is better help and awareness for our children.

I do think social media and the glamorisation of certain conditions has a negative effect, but not always, there is some good in there too.

I think there are a lot of people, adults and kids, nowadays, who make a big fuss about manageable things they could just suck up and get on with, whereas in the past you wouldn’t find out someone was struggling until everything went to pieces. Somehow we’ve swung from mental health being something that wasn’t spoken about or understood, to kids having a complete glossary of terms by the time they start secondary school that get trotted out so often now that they’ve become meaningless. There needs to be a middle way between being able to talk about mental health, but still just getting on with it wherever possible.

as for self harm: I went to school in the early mid 90s, I only knew one girl who ever mentioned self harm and I have no idea whether she actually did or not, it was just something we didn’t know about or talk about. I’m not having it for a second that just as many kids were self harming back then but we just didn’t know about it. If they had been we would have known because lots of things ‘weren’t talked about’ back then but they still happened and we still knew. We didn’t know what it was so we didn’t do it, whereas now it’s all over the Internet and it seems to be expected.

Basically the musical width and breadth and richness of those days went a long way to giving a sense of belonging to teens. Today it seems a lot more fractured.

Totally agree with this. I was a teen in the 90s rather than the 80s, but music was definitely tribal still, and there was a genre you could hitch your star to that reflected and validated your emerging self.

There was also less choice in terms of popular entertainment which allowed shared experiences. I always remember discussing ‘Soldier, Soldier’ in chemistry class on a Thursday morning. It was compulsive viewing (God, it seems crap now 🤣). My point is there was a shared rhythm to life that is missing now which I think helped young people to feel they belonged and anchored them a little.

It’s also interesting that people have mentioned diaries. I kept a diary from 11-19 and looking back I think it saved my life. I was severely depressed at times, but the catharsis achieved through thrashing it out in my diary seemed to help me ‘hang on’. There was no outside help. It wouldn’t have even occurred to discuss my feelings with parents or teachers. You travelled it alone.

I just wasn’t aware of peers experiencing mh issues

Gosh, I was aware. I was born late 60s. Everyone had angst &/or something. Have you not seen The Breakfast Club ? That was a hit because it resonated. I think cutting is relatively modern, that kind of self-harm wasn't so ordinary.

I'm a millennial and my school was rife with mental health issues. Eating disorders among the girls mainly including 3 hospitalisations through the year group. By adulthood I'd say a third of the year group have had some level of mental health input that I know of, it may be a higher number.

I was a teenager in the 90s. Mental health issues were less visible certainly. I loved junior school and hated senior school. Was probably low level depressed for much of seniors because it was just a bad school and I had few friends. I'd often just skive off lessons.

It helped that you'd go home and escape school until you next walked through the gates. Now they're all on social media all evening as well.

It helped that you'd go home and escape school until you next walked through the gates.

So right! And vice versa. Nowhere to escape to now.

I was a teen in the 80s. A girl in my class died from anorexia aged 15. I was very anxious and a school refuser. There was no pastoral care. I got punished, not helped. Continued after I left school.

@GrinAndVomit Would you be able to attach a link to the statistics for that - not being narky, genuinely interested in the stats.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2021registrations

This is the ONS statistics which breaks down age groups/sexes since the 80s - interesting that young women are one of the only groups that have seen a rise, mostly it's a reduction across age groups.

I was at a highly selective private girls school in the early 90’s and anorexia was absolutely rampant with lots of girls hospitalised for significant periods of time. Bullying was terrible and I certainly suffered from anxiety about all sorts of things. One girl had a breakdown and was never seen again and with hindsight there were a disproportionate number of girls who clearly had ASD and ADHD

Nope, plenty of mental health issues in my high school class (late 90s).

One self-medicated with weed, alcohol and other drugs daily after his dad died suddenly.

One self-harmed and stopped eating because her parents were controlling and she was a closeted lesbian.

One self-harmed and was depressed because her father had untreated bipolar disorder, was threading the family but couldn't legally be sectioned for it, and her brother molested her.

One had the bad luck of both clinical depression and difficult relationships with his parents. He tried to take his own life three times before confessing to his mum what was happening and finally getting the help he needed. A friend of mine used to call him every day to check on him and make sure he was still alive.

The boy I dated in high school was misdiagnosed with a life-limiting heart condition and told he'd be dead before the age of 40. Also had difficult relationships with both divorced parents, and his stepparents, and his several half-siblings. He was obsessed with having control over a situation and over people he interacted with (including me). Anytime something challenged him emotionally, he had a "heart attack" that resolved itself without any hospital intervention. His symptoms were very real, but looking back, that was probably panic disorder.

I was undiagnosed ADHD and had both anxiety and horrible self-esteem, rooted in a lifetime of being told how difficult and dramatic I was. I had serious depression for the first time at uni.

TBH... I think at least three quarters of my high school class were either binge drinking, smoking weed every day, or both. The ~25% who weren't numbing with substances were anxiously overachieving at all the things. That is not indicative of a mentally content group of teenagers.

We had AIM and MSN Messenger and email chains back then. We had message boards on the internet. We had chat rooms. We had news websites. But that kind of interaction was limited to enormous computers in our living rooms or bedrooms, it was not carried around in our pockets every day. That is probably a key difference.

But I've also noticed that it's much safer these days for a teenager struggling with mental health to admit they are struggling. It's safer to seek out therapy and counselling. It's safer to ask the doctor for meds. And some of the media in their pocket has been excellent about educating them, and us, their parents.

My parents would have died of shame before they'd have let me go on antidepressants or see a psychiatrist. It would have reflected badly on them. People would have talked about how they'd failed me somehow. My friends and I seriously believed, growing up, that taking SSRIs would medicate our personalities away. So we ploughed on and found our own relief, for better and worse.

I had two friends hospitalised in their early teens in the 90s. One with anorexia and one serious depression. They received lots of help and were kept in for months until on the right medication etc. they are both doing really well now. The hospital they attended has about one tenth of the beds available now due to funding cuts and now you’d be so unlikely to get a place in a mental health facility. Maybe with some more early intervention more people these days could be helped.
I do also think social media is pretty awful. My teen has just broken his phone and instead of being devastated he is quite happy and says it’s peaceful

I was a teenager in the early 90s. MH issues were definitely there. Anorexia was quite common, a friend's sister spent months in hospital due to it. Several friends were prescribed anti depressants to get them through the stress of GCSEs and A levels. Lots of self harm. A couple of people in my year died by suicide before they were 18. Several people dropped out of university or had to resit a year due to breakdowns etc.

*threatening the family, not threading 😑

Social Media is causing this issue. There is no escape from stuff now happening at School, college etc. Our poor kids.

@helloisitmeyourelookingfor The quiet ones are those I worry about most too. This is the sort of situation where plenty of education and encouragement about mh is vital. I’ve had a 15 yo girl sit with me this year and quietly and calmly tell me her detailed plans to end her life. We have also had a significant suicide attempt by a similar aged boy. On both occasions they sought help in school right at the last minute. Without increased openness about mh I’m not sure either of them would be here today. Why are these poor kids reaching this state though….? Your responses are suggesting there was lack of acknowledgement of mh issues in the 80s/90s but also that issues seem to have been less prevalent. Social media really does seem to be a significant factor. Our young people can literally NEVER escape stressors. Had an argument with a friend at school? Go home and find it talked about all over social media and your peers taking “sides” when they have no idea what actually happened. Just awful….

Parents also need to parent and not leave everything to schools to deal with. Parents need to take responsibility for their DCs mental and physical wellbeing and stop leaving them to it in their rooms for hours online sometimes late into the night. Parents should ensure that their kids have limited exposure to social media until they are old enough to understand and deal with the consequences.