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.

I suffered a lot in the 80s/90s as a young person. I was anorexic right through. I did spend some time in hospital for anorexia, but received no real help, was forced to "just eat", told I took up a bed from a more worthy patient, had my private diary read, was SAed by a doctor. So I made sure I never ended up there again, by simply eating enough to stop looking so thin. Of course all the underlying issues went unresolved. I am now in my 50s, I think I still have issues, but over the years have developed coping strategies.
I do not live a "full life" though, not by usual standards.

I work in higher education and have often thought similar when comparing my experiences as a university student in the '90s (v little mental health support available) to what we offer now.

I totally agree with the comments about social media driving a lot of the increase in mental health issues, and it's very hard to compare the past to now for that reason. At the same time, if I'm being very honest, I think in the past people who were really struggling didn't get the support they needed at university because the services just weren't there, but there was also a benefit for those of us in more of the middle ground of having to 'get on with it' and push through/work out problems for ourselves. It's a fine balance, but I think it did help build resilience and self-reliance. Maybe now we've swung a little too far in the other direction, where any uncomfortable feeling is pathologized and needs support to be managed. Really trying not to sound all 'snowflake generation' though, as that's not at all where I'm coming from!

This is true, but help is largely inaccessible without the school safeguarding team being involved. My eldest ds went through a terrible time with suicidal thoughts. I went to different agencies. In the end the SENCO (my ds has asd/adhd) fast forwarded the process. It's a nightmare trying to get CAMHS to help

I agree OP that part of the issue is their is no escape and petty arguments follow them home and often escalate. There is no sanctuary for them. However this is where parents need to step in, make sure that they have a break, sit with family at mealtimes, take the dog for a walk, do homework, watch tv, do hobbies or sports and most importantly that phones are not in their bedrooms at night. How on earth can they get any sleep with the constant stream of messages all night.

*there 🙄🙈

@Tiredallofthetime You are absolutely right about the realities of 89s/90s schooling. Happily I can confirm that bullying, prejudice related incidents, teacher conduct and safeguarding have improved massively in schools. I can barely believe that pre 2000s safeguarding wasn’t a recognised “thing” in schools. School staff are in such a good position to highlight concerns. We see these kids every day and are well placed to notice when things are going wrong and ask questions and take action.

I was born in the late 60s, and I self harmed in the 70s 80s and 90s. I didn't know anybody else did it till I was 21, when I met a couple of other women who also self harmed then. There was no real awareness of it. Sometimes the school alluded to me having mental and emotional health issues, but nobody ever did anything about it. I went to Mind in the early 90s to try and get help and they told me they couldn't help me if I self harmed I had to come back once I'd stopped. I also went to the GP as a young-ish adult but she told me I was lying about it. It was grim.

@GladysGeorgina OP do you feel that parents and family circumstances play a role in your experiences?

Did anyone experience mh issues during this period and what was it like for you?

Awful. I had depression and anxiety when I was in high school in the mid 80’s. I was also self harming although wasn’t aware there was a name for what I was doing tbh. As for school refusing, I didn’t refuse - I wouldn’t have dared ‘refuse’!-but frequently bunked off. It was easier to do then I suppose as they didn’t have text messages to inform parents, just go to registration then disappear. I bunked off so much for one subject the teacher asked if I had moved away. There was no MH help and no pastoral care. Maybe if there was I wouldn’t have spent the last 15 years with such terrible MH issues. Who knows?

In sixth form college 94-96, one girl killed herself, I knew a couple of girls who were bullemic, one of whom I'd say did have quite serious mh issues. She was a bit violent and had been done for ABH as a minor so it did exist.

I think there's a lot more labeling and taking things seriously now which is a mixed blessing. Someone who was 'a worrier' in 1995 'has anxiety' in 2022.

I also think that things are more full on for kids now, both socially (because of social media) and academically because of a much stronger focus on exams and a feeling that things generally (economically, politically, climate wise) are getting worse.
It's a combo of things I think.

@SilverGlitterBaubles I think sometimes parents/family circumstances play a role in a child’s mh issues. Sometimes this is clear to see when we are aware of traumatic incidents, abuse or bereavement (though of course the issues may have arisen anyway- who knows?) I think parents can do two really important things - carefully limiting and monitoring social media from the very start - in conjunction with your child. Don’t just randomly go through a child’s phone without them - in my mind it’s the equivalent of my mum in the 80s rooting through my bedroom drawers and reading my diaries without my permission. The other thing is supporting your child with their mh. Even if you don’t know exactly what to do, listen and let them know it’s important to you. There’s no magic answer for parents. I know alot of the theory and still have a teen dc needing to take antidepressants. Like any illness, sometimes it just happens..

I taught in the 90s. The big MH issues then were anorexia, bulimia and heavy drinking in 17 and 18 year olds, including girls , perhaps mirroring the ladette culture. I think fewer children came forward.

There was less impact in school though and far less onus on the school to support, let alone solve.

And I must add the exam pressure was nothing like as huge as it is now. The number of students suffering from exam related anxiety has rocketed.

The internet, social media and pornography is what happened. Plus the disintegration of society and real world experiences.

Teens feel rootless, lonely and hopeless. As a parent the best thing you can do for them is ration/ban the internet and facilitate real experiences - sporting clubs, guides, scouts, go ape, games workshop - whatever gets them doing real things, having accomplishments and making actual (non internet) friends.

I don’t think it’s ‘just’ social media. I think it’s having access to the internet and just so much information at the tips of your fingers. It can definitely heighten anxiety or send you down rabbit holes that just weren’t there in the 90s.

Yes, it happened. It just wasn’t spoken much about. I had anorexia and self harmed in the late 80s/early 90s. My brother took beta blockers for anxiety. Just wasn’t called mental ill health. I also knew other friends who were depressed and I probably was too. Perhaps not so much mental Ill health as now (although I don’t know) but it certainly existed.

TW:

My sister attempted suicide as a teenager in the early 90s. Absolutely nothing was done afterwards - no mental health intervention. Stomach pumped and sent home from hospital. I was away at university at the time. My parents were obviously upset but the idea of, say, counselling just didn't seem to be on anyone's radar.

I'm happy to say she is now a thriving and as far as I can tell, contented, adult in her 40s.

I agree OP sometimes things just happen but having a supportive parent will make all the difference for these teens as they navigate through this stage in life.

I am forever thankful that I was a teen in the 80s/90s, yes there was moods, we thought our parents were ridiculously stupid, we had insecurities and seriously bad makeup but mostly we didn't take ourselves seriously and we laughed a lot. That's my abiding memory.

It's true we didn't hear much about mh in those days (I was at school in the 80s), but there were always some people who we probably, ignorantly, thought were a bit 'weird' or who didn't make friends and they were most likely suffering with their mh.

I went to a very small girls'boarding school and there was definitely social contagion going on around eating disorders and suicide attempts. The school was very small, as I say, but well over 50% of the girls in my year had eating disorders and I'd say 25% regularly wrote suicide notes which they left lying around. Several girls made attempts with pills (paracetamol but one girl took all her fiber tablets and left her room mate a note starting "When you find me dead in the morning...". Nobody made a successful attempt.

The term mental health wasn't used but two girls were admitted to an adolescent psychiatric unit (some of us went to visit)- one came back to school and one went to live with her parents abroad.

The weird thing was we were all actually pretty happy most of the time and despite it being a boarding school we weren't under much pressure and spent an awful lot (most) of our time having fun and being daft.

I remember a conversation with a friend when we were both 15 about what was essentially social contagion (we called it copy catting and mass hysteria and didn't know that hysteria was a misogynistic old Victorian diagnosis obviously) although we didn't know the term. We definitely thought it there was something weird going on and that everyone had "cabin fever".

That was late 80s.

Very similar experience.

We just didn't talk about it.

I was aware some pupils struggled (absenteeism seen with those students).

I found out years later who was being abused at home too, which looking back explained why they acted up during lessons. At the time I just didn't think that sort of thing could be happening, makes me feel sad. I bumped into one of the girls from my year group a few years after we'd all left and we went for a drink and she randomly talked about all her struggles at school and what various people were going through. If you were neurodiverse I think it would have been overlooked as well and some of the girls were so nasty to those that may have been on the spectrum.

Bullying was frequent and I must have had a good teacher because he would ask us to fill in forms to see if we were being bullied and he'd talk to us and then tackle it. Unheard of at that time, I never saw any other teacher do that (mid 90s).

I was at secondary school late 80s to early 90s. There was a lot of mild/moderate eating disorders but I hadn't even heard of self harm.

I feel like kids are brought up to feel if they feel a bit anxious they have a long term problem that needs a label and this is very much pushed by social media and to some extent the educational environment. I wish there were more older mentors, youth clubs etc.. The kids need to know that what they are feeling is normal and that life gets better.

This is all very thought provoking and useful. Thank you to everyone who has shared their experiences and been so respectful. I’m so glad society has reached a stage where we can have these open and honest conversations rather than pretending that mh issues aren’t a real issue for many people. Keep posting….just wanted to say thanks. I feel quite rejuvenated for what the New Year brings at school.

I was at high school throughout the 90's. I'd never heard of MH at that stage. There was no pastoral care. There was a school nurse. I had issues with not wanting to eat but my parents shouted at me to "snap out of it." Classmate became pregnant at 13 and again a couple of years later, teachers didn't seem to get involved in that. Seemed to be a race in who was last to lose their virginity. ("Middle class" area).

But, with the greatest of respect, it hasn’t helped has it? There are more kids with diagnoses now than ever.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other?
80s schoolkid here.

On the one hand - more exercise (if only because cars were more expensive and less reliable and if you wanted to see a film, you walked or took the bus to the cinema - no VHS even).

Fewer economic opportunities for women, so more SAHM and part time Mums - until I was 12 maybe my Mum worked PT and was home before me so we could chat over tea and biscuits.

And no internet. Bad influences spread very slowly by post!

On the other hand...
Kids were expected to be seen and not heard ,and weren't particularly nurtured, until some time in the 90s (I think I even recall a Graunie article about how we should treasure our little darlings at about the time this sea change happened!)

Like a PP I had trichotillomania - this was "just a bad habit", NOBODY thought "Hey, her parents hate each other, her stepDad despises her, she's just moved schools and knows nobody and does 3h homework a night, maybe she's a bit tense?" We were all left to sink or swim really (mostly swam).

But I do wonder whether if kids' MH did get really bad, they'd just vanish out of school and die/end up in jail.
I was sent off to a "nice" school in my early teens, and MH usually starts tanking when puberty hits, so if anything went pearshaped with people from middle school I wouldn't have heard.
Don't recall any anorexics in my year of about 100 girls but we all knew it was a thing.

But mostly my guess is phones/internet/social media. Smoking for the brain. She said, hypocritically (am now going to put the phone down and do stuff though!!!).