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?

Covid, pressure on children academically, labelling normal feelings as anxiety etc and lack of opportunity to build skills and develop resilience.
I’m a guide leader (girls 10-13) whole point is to make new friends, try new activities, develop skills.
Have had several parents this year trying to insist their child is in a group with their ‘best friend’ Trying to micromanage so child doesn’t experience any upset or inconvenience doesn’t help them learn skills long term.
Children need to practice skills in safe environments. It’s normal to have butterflies in tummy doing a little talk about your hobby age 10.
If they don’t practice and build up they suddenly get to 16 or 18 and don’t have the skills to cope as they’ve never been outside comfort zone.

@fishonabicycle

Bollocks
3 bit years ago we were told a killing virus was coming like some real life Armageddon movie and kids were removed from each other surrounded by shit on social media with only family for company. This went on for two bloody years on and off. School shutting every month for outbreaks. No exams no fun no friends

No wonder many kids are now suffering as are many adults.

Have some compassion in your profession please!

Absolutely spot on @ HeBeaverandShebeaver
I'm a psychologist and I'm shocked at what some "professionals" are saying on this thread.

@islandofserenity

Thank you 😊

There are many mental health ‘professionals’ who go into their profession because they have lived experience. There’s this us and them mentality and people look to them like their experts which is complete and utter bollocks and many of them are definitely not right in the head themselves. Everyone ‘in’ the MH profession knows this lol. It’s all just a shitty power dynamic with some really damaged individuals who work within it.

Mental illness is fashionable but not the ‘real and genuine kind’ (where you lose the plot and go through a psychosis) no, no, no that’s not fashionable at all.

Exactly right well said.

Yes agree. It's imo a general decline in health in the population of most of the world. Physical health; the body as a whole, not just the mind. That's just one symptom. Poor health passes through generations and then poor diet and stress of all kinds on the body and all the other above factors exacerbate it (hence people harking on about a lack of resilience - it's really true, but it's not all our fault).

People no longer know what good food is. Seed oils in everything are making us all ill (it is SO hard to avoid them now).

Lots of other things too, but the main offender imo is poor gut health (see gut/brain connection).

don't even know where to start with this rubbish, so I won't

@chilledtuesdays

Ahh let me guess. You’re a trained professional? Lol.
Rubbish? Nar, mental health IS fashionable these days, no doubt about it. Only the vanilla kind though. When the shit hits the fan and someone is actually mentally Ill with psychosis or severe suicidal ideation that they end up in hospital, then it’s not definitely not cool or fashionable.

Other than that the whole brain chemical nonsense has been debunked and psychiatry exists mainly to oppress females. You should educate yourself on that and whilst you’re at it, you might discover how racist the whole sector is.

@noblegiraffe

Of course you’ve hit the nail on the head there.

Why people think it’s just a problem in kids is beyond me. Their parents are miserable as fuck no doubt because they either have shit lives, are living in poverty, working too hard etc etc. Fuck all to do with seretonin and everything to do with society.

some absolute nonsense on this thread.
Mental health problems fashionable?
Bollocks. Perhaps people talking about how they feel encourages others to do the same, but that's not a fashion thing. It's a human thing.

I would have thought lived experience makes you a better therapist. Out of all the professionals I’ve come across it’s the ones with lived experience who have been the best.

They have supervision.

There are some who post on social media about their adhd for example (undiagnosed of course) for content- most of which is ignorant and not based in reality at all. Funny enough there aren't any claiming to having schizophrenia and the like for likes.

Of course some MH illness is fashionable for teenagers. It also has contagion. Suicide for example has a social contagion on the way it can be reported in the news. We can see trans contagion is certain schools and groups.

Sorry - suicide needs to reported in a specific way to avoid social contagion.

Not seeing it seemed as fashionable here. It has cost my daughter everything- education, career,travel, loss of a normal life, a job an alongside unbearable stress on her family, guilt, deep misery, discrimination, physical health and pain. Nobody envies that.

A doctor friend told me she has a queue out the door of 15 yr old girls that come with their mental health issues and anxiety. She tells them first to turn off their social media and go for a walk or join a sports club but they don't like that answer - they've come for pills. I don't think it helps that mental health is talked about SO much at school.

Nice doctor.🤔Glad our GP was so much better. How awful. I’ll always be grateful for the understanding our GP gave my Dd and the CAMHs referral she had. She wouldn’t be here now if she’d had a GP like that.

But it IS true that more fresh air, exercise and less screen time has a massively positive effect on mental health. For one, it helps sleep better which again has a massively positive effect on mental health.

Do you not think struggling families have tried that. Didn’t make a blind bit of difference in our case.And let’s look at screen time. I had restrictions.It’s incredibly hard for teens to reduce as everybody uses screens for everything and teen social lives are heavily tied up with SM.

Incredibly dismissive and lazy of a GP to treat all struggling 15 years olds like that and then brag about it.

"I have mental health" has become a mantra for a generation. It used to be that your identity was related to the music you listened to, now it's what mental health problem you have. It's good to talk has got out of hand as has mental health awareness. There's increasing evidence to suggest that the proliferation of mh awareness in schools is actually making it worse for teenagers not better.

All the while those with severe and long term mh disorders, schizophrenia, bi-polar, severe depression languish with no support as their needs are overlooked and often end up in a revolving door situation of hospital admissions or an even more tragic outcome due to neglect by services that are drowning in referrals.

You move in different circles to me then. I’m supporting 2 very unwell children to the extent I’m having support myself. I don’t discuss my mh with anybody other than the person giving me support and haven’t come across any friend or colleague bragging about their mental health either.

I agree with a lot of this. Young people just don't have the freedom to develop socially and negotiate different situations like my generation did in the 60s and 70s.

Kids are also overindulged, being the centre of attention and never being told 'No.' Many have a sense of entitlement and behaviour at school is dire.

I also agree that Covid had a lot to do with it. Young people missed out on so many landmarks in their lives- my own son had to celebrate his 21st at home with his mum and dad.

Then, social media. As the saying goes, 'Comparison is the thief of Joy.' If everyone else's life seems so much better than yours and they (appear} to look so much better than you, it damages self-confidence.

They also have easy access to porn which gives unrealistic, misogynist and damaging impressions of sex and relationships.

They're never going to be able to afford to buy a home and many will struggle to develop a career.

Then there's climate change and the destruction of much of the natural world.

I wouldn't be a young person now for anything.

Definitely, the shit food had an impact on your brain development.

They get diagnosed. And the world is more open so those things become more obvious. And we talk about them instead of quietly moving the child into an institution to rot.

Well said.