Why is there so much anxiety in kids?

[JudesBiggestFan]

Spoke to a family member earlier who is a teaching assistant.
Said the number of kids off with anxiety at her high school is phenomenal. Anecdotally I know of so so many severe issues....panic attacks, school refusal etc. 'Because Covid' seems to be the answer..along with why there is so much bullying/poor behaviour in schools. Is this why or is there more to it?
My own three boys seem fine thus far, but as I'm an emergency services worker, they only missed a really minimal amount of school.
But the poor behaviour of others does impact on the classroom environment/teacher stress so still has an effect on them.
So what is the reason? And what can be done? School days are supposed to be happy and carefree and it just feels like kids are just so sad.

No I’m not a professional in the field far from it. Just what I have observed over the years now my kids and their peers are coming out the other end of being parented. Am sure there are lots of other reasons too as per this thread - but sorry it’s what I’ve seen. What do you want me to say? Lie?

My view is;
-Lack of appropriate mental and physical stimulation for children- eg: playing outside not on a screen

• Preoccupied, burnt out parents who don't give children enough 1-1 time, listening/understanding and spend too much time away from them, which can also affect attachments.
• More awareness of the condition means just that....we are more aware
• Children are often overly exposed too young to things they shouldn't be now, especially though social media, and are forced to grow up too quickly.

-The scrapping of the schools three tier system and three term intake, meaning children are going to both primary and high school before they are emotionally and mentally ready. -Pressures such as the cost of living crisis feeding down in families to the children, causing anxiety for them

It's practically de rigueur to have anxiety/depression/phobias/eating disorders etc, as a teen. Really so awful for all concerned. Normal human emotions are given a label. It's horrifying that our culture has inadvertently fostered this.

Or, is it horrifying that our culture has inadvertently fostered abnormal human emotions in young, developing brains??

I think more this.

What are abnormal human emotions?

I agree with helicopter parenting, I also think the internet and social media has a huge part to play.

For me its not the emotions that are warped but the way our culture feeds into them.

For example, the unrealistic expectations around bodies, aging, sex, wealth. Our culture seems to force a very empty way of life that if you find yourself too sucked in is incredibly unsettling.

I think that too many people believe that they should be happy and succesful the whole time and believe the social media and tv program happy happy joy joy warm and fuzzy feeling family shit. It's normal to occasionally feel down/fed up/ugly/akward/angry/insecure/lonely et cetera. If people can accept those feelings as part of normal life (instead of labelling everything mental health related that needs treatment or special handling) then they probably feel a lot better about the lives of themselves and -in the case of parents- their children. Of course depression and such need treatment but many stuff that people and kids complain about is a normal part of life. We need to normalize feeling "not happy" and muddling through till it passes.

Because we keep telling kids how scary & stressful everything is so now they believe it. The trouble is there is a kernel of goodness in it - eg destigmatisimg mental illness etc, which is great for the few who need to hear it but for the rest I think it can actually make them sad, scared and depressed.

I read a study years ago - can’t remember where so can’t link - where they talked about bulimia in girls and how after supposedly “preventative” talks in schools, multiple girls started doing it, they had no idea about it until they were told it was something other girls were doing. Similar with self harm, now trans stuff.

Victimhood has a great deal of social currency these days, all the fuss and the “you’re so brave” and getting out of boring shit you don’t want to do because of your victim hood is addictive. Year 11 girls at my child’s school swan into class whenever they want and just have to say they were with their “mentor” because they had a panic attack or were too stressed to come to class. No one says a word to them Disruptive for all in the class and will they do that on the day of the exams?

Ok so resilience steps in and kids need to learn you can’t have everything and it’s a load of shite anyway. So many parents expressing concern over their kids watching Tiktok and getting body image issues - so fucking take the phone off them! Confiscate it after school and at weekends. Get them doing other stuff, get them outside and spending time with family. Try to get a grip on it rather than just shopping them off to the GP and getting them diagnosed and ‘treated’.

On so it is a load of made up shit then, I thought so but thanks for confirming.

Thing is though if it is neurotic parenting (and I don’t think in many cases it is) then doesn’t that imply that it is our generation who are suffering from anxiety and given the indisputable rise in childhood anxiety reflect a rise in ours.

for all the same reasons- add in a PP eloquent look at the impact of always been filmed and photographed it is a perfect storm

there was recently a thread about what you missed from the 90s and overwhelmingly it was the optimism that things were going to get better.

we now live I think with the knowledge and understanding that it has peaked and things are only going to worsen. Imagine being young and realising that

It's the gradual decline in health of the (particularly western) world's population due to inheriting increasingly poor microbiomes, poor diet (seed oils/UPFs etc), medicalised births, general poor gut health, passing down through generations and worsening year on year.

Most mental health problems are the manifestation of a physical problem in the body (albeit worsened by trauma/stress etc in some).

I'd say all these other things mentioned are minor contributing factors to this wider issue.

All opinions are ‘made up shit’ that may or may not be right 🤷🏼‍♀️ including yours.

"I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but there seems to be a significant number of middle aged people (but primarily women) who have, later in life, been sucked in by the ‘feelingz’ bridgade. They’ve decided their parents were abusive (even if they were just more typical of their age group), all their exes are toxic narcs, they’ve diagnosed themselves with ND/MH conditions and now spend a lot of their time ruminating over everything and posting inspirational quotes on Facebook. "

IGNORANT BS

Every woman my age reckons they've got ADHD because they sometimes forget to hang their washing out

🤷🏼‍♀️

Its something I’ve seen time and time and time again. It’s my opinion and what I have seen.

@lyson

Again people self diagnosing same as always with depression/ anxiety/ocd because they have felt down a couple of day/ felt jittery before an impotent meeting, like to keep their house tidy.

Then it creates a bandwagon idea These people fuck over the validity of diagnosis where it's absolutely right to be recognised.
Nobody wants to have a ND label out of choice in a NT society.

@Cuppasoupmonster how do you know they are wrong / making it up? Are you a qualified psychologist?

Genuine question

Of course I’m not. You don’t need to be a professional to comment on a general discussion thread with your opinion. This old ‘are you a professional coz I don’t like what you’re saying’ is just tiresome now.

'London' is a group of areas, so where specifically? Leytonstone, probably shit, Wimbledon, not so much

you Know that there’s a different way of expressing an opinion to a fact? If you express it as a fact it’s no longer ‘an opinion’

Children cooped up indoors, don't get out to play with others, form relationships, deal with 'life', use imaginations, have a laugh.
Fast forward a few years to teen age.. glued to phone 24/7 and seeing a bizarre plastic world on their 6 inch screen rather than the real world where you can chat, laugh, deal with problems , use imagination and learn things.
My observations in a nutshell.

Do you not infer that it’s an opinion from the fact this is Mumsnet and not Psychology Today? If not then your critical thinking skills need a reboot.