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

[Newmama29]

I’ve been scrolling through some threads recently & I find people are talking a lot about their kids/teenagers having mental health problems. Why is this so prominent now? I, myself, was only a teenager 10 years ago so I am baffled as to how many people claim their teens have mental health problems. Is it just that we talk about it more or is society causing this?

I haven't read previous posts. As someone who has worked in CAMHS 10 years plus, I have noticed that more and more parents want professionals to diagnose normal human emotions and distress in their teens as mental health. Parents aren't coping with their own stresses, that has a knock on effect on parenting and modelling coping behaviours. Medication is seen as a quick fix but of course we know it comes with side effects. I spend most of my working day normalising and validating teens thoughts and feelings, 'of course you are feeling sad as you are being bullied', 'of course you are angry as you feel your parents don't have time for you' etc etc. The cutbacks and pressures in schools/ primary care/ social care mean families aren't given early intervention/ support.

Nothing should be pathologised though.

@WeeWillyWinkie9

Agreed and certainly not in adolescence.

Who says it is being pathologised. The last thing most parents I know want is their kid on medication. 🤔

Littleguggi

What was your time as in my experience you have to be pretty unwell to get any contact with a professional.

And as for stressed parents, try coping with a struggling unwell teen alongside battling for support yourself.

Role

By naming it you are pathologising it.

Naming what?

So many reasons.

Social media
Covid
More awareness
Lack of services mean teenagers/their parents are self diagnosing
Some people consider things to be mental health issues that never used to be e.g. Someone I know posted on social media that biting your nails is a form of self harming.

@Tincan5555 I work in a frontline role. It may vary area to area but certainly where I work, majority of parents ask for medication, probably because they know the wait for therapy is ages. If there was more early support, the waiting times in CAMHS wouldn't be so ridiculous. It's very rare that I see a child/ young person who is 'pretty unwell'/ acutely unwell, in most cases they are still functioning in daily activities i.e school, sports, socialising etc.

Parental micromanagement, a child cannot be left alone to gather thoughts or create an imagination, my friend will not allow her 8 year to not have something to do or be out of her sight, the kids are being suffocated.

Littleguggi

My daughter has attended school and socialised the whole time in between admissions and having regular psychiatry and therapies, even when she moved to adult services rated as red. 🤔My son has dragged himself to school throughout. Forcing yourself to plod on doing hard things doesn’t mean you’re well. Parents do not want medication we want well children.

What frontline role?

@Tincan5555 I'm not here for an argument nor am I here to disclose my profession. I am talking as a parent also. I don't know your situation, but like I said in MOST cases the children/ young people we see in CAMHS are still functioning in daily activities, and of course we would want them to unless there was a high risk of harm to self/ others. There are a range of mental health conditions as there are physical health conditions. Some are more debilitating than others i.e. psychosis or eating disorders. As a parent I would not want my child medicated unless as a last resort, I am sharing my experience as a professional.

Littleguggi
But not saying what that time is so it’s pointless you saying you have a frontline role. It could be anything and frankly your views are worrying.

“It's very rare that I see a child/ young person who is 'pretty unwell'/ acutely unwell, in most cases they are still functioning in daily activities i.e school, sports, socialising etc.”

You are suggesting most people under Cahms aren’t unwell because they go to school. I’ve never ever come across a professional with such dismissive, ignorant and concerning views.

My DS' cohort seem quick to self diagnose wirh social anxiety when they are awkward / uncomfortable, anxiety when they are nervous about driving tests, depression when they split up with girlfriends

It's good people are more open about mental health and stigma has reduced, but too much self diagnosis, I think

We didn’t have a pandemic and mass isolation 10 years ago.

Is it really so hard to imagine how that might impact mental health?

🤣🤣🤣

I did wonder what I'd said wrong!

@Tincan5555 I can see you are pushing for an argument not just with me but other people on this thread. Plus you have twisted my words and decided to make a sweeping statement. You don't know me and you don't understand my views. Clearly you are an expert by experience and therefore will have views of your own. Have a good night!

@NeedToChangeName I agree with you. Lots of my sons friends are self diagnosing. Also I'm finding they are using words like self harm, crisis, suicide attempt etc when a "milder" word would be more appropriate.

When my son attempted suicide a few people assumed he wouldn't have done much physical harm to himself. They seemed quite shocked when I explained that he was unconscious in HDU. I know some people talk about suicide attempts that I would describe as self harming rather than a suicide attempt. Also I wouldn't say that biting nails would be self harming. My 9 year old has autism and he keeps biting his arm. I wouldn't call that self harming but I know others who would.

Not read all the replies.
People have always struggled.
Just now there is more awareness , more being able to connect with others, more sharing and reaching out so we see it more.

I haven't read the whole thread and I'm not qualified to comment about serious MH conditions, just the general climate of unhappiness/anxiety with young people.

I think social media has made young people's lives much more difficult over the last 20 years. Bullying, for example, now follows them home and there are so many new ways for bullies to persecute their victims. Also, 'influencers' etc present a totally false and unattainable version of life, making naive youngsters feel inadequate for ridiculous reasons.

I've noticed over my lifetime that standards of personal presentation have sky-rocketed too. Watching old TV series, the actors were much less perfect-looking - you were allowed to have funny teeth etc in the past - and women had frizzy hair etc etc. But the UK has fallen under the influence of Hollywood so much in recent years, that young women now spend time and money on emulating the supposed (ie plastic) perfection expected there.

Plus - with careers - there's the push to send so many to university when it really isn't right for them along with the growth of reality TV and celebrity culture. This has made many perfectly good careers unattractive to young people, who think they deserve a glamorous and luxurious lifestyle like those seen on TV. They feel they've failed in life if they have to do an 'ordinary' job.

Also, I think we've become a more self-centred culture - where kids obsess about themselves instead of getting out into the world in some way and making a contribution, or following an interest. I remember when labels like 'anorak' and 'sad' started to be used to sneer at anyone with a hobby (that wasn't football). and to portray them as social failures.

Loads and loads more reasons. I'm glad I was young when I was young and I feel for young people now.

My point is neurological disorders are not illnesses. They are not mental health conditions.

They may be disabling for some people but just because you are neurodiverse it certainly doesn't mean you are ill.

@elliejjtiny sorry to see this. I hope your son is in a better state of mind now. That must have been really frightening

Willyoujustbequiet
Nobody has said that however people with neurodiversity have higher prevalences of mental health difficulties and the nature of the conditions can make them harder to overcome, endure and treat.

Loads of reasons, a few spring immediately to mind:

1. There are so many parents with mental health problems. It spirals generation by generation. As a species we have reached the point where we are devolving rather than evolving - negative traits (in terms of survival of the fittest) are not eliminated.
2. Awareness and diagnosys are better.
3. The cult of the child - it's easier for a parent to put their child's bad behaviour down to them having mental health problems than it is to accept that they have raised them badly.
4. It's fashionable. Mental health used to have much more of a stigma attached to it than it does now. It's similar to the explosion in children who are transgender or homosexual - 20 or 30 years ago they barely existed, even less so openly, because there was a stigma.

The reasons that have caused more mental health issues are not all bad in themselves, e.g. awareness and diagnosys, but they inevitably lead to a greater prevalance (or perception of it).