Our Young People’s Mental Health

You don’t have to look far to see that young people are struggling.  Many of them look like goofballs, they engage in frivolous behavior, they have trouble doing well at school or getting a job.  Living with parents well into adulthood is common.  And research confirms what we all observe with our own eyes.

Who can blame children and young adults for struggling.  They have grown up in an educational environment and social media milieu that constantly indoctrinates and lies to them and portrays everything in the darkest possible terms.  They are also told to constantly focus on their feelings and indulge in self-pity and wallow in sadness.  This article is an interesting exploration of the damage done by the current approach to mental health issues among children, which overtreats most and ignores some of the truly serious cases.  (CJ Article)    Other authors including Abigail Shrier have described how the focus on feelings only makes people “feel” worse.  Jonathan Heidt has done yeoman’s work on the damage done by social media, which I strongly believed should simply be banned for children and teens.

And it is showing up in the suicide statistics.  Most alarming is this study of suicides among pre-teens.  From 2001 to 2022, among children aged 8 to 12, although there was a slight downtrend in the early part of the study period, for 2008 til 2022 suidides in this group increased by over 8% annually.  I can hopefully be forgiven for noting that this exactly coincides with the Obama administration and the intensification of child sexualization, gender confusion and demonization of males, whites, Asians etc.  And of course the social media, TikTok, etc., mania was in full bloom.  While males historically have higher suicide rates, girls in this age group saw the largest increase.  And many suicides are likely mischaracterized as accidental deaths to respect families’ wishes.  A truly tragic statistic.  I view every one of these deaths as due to Congress’ failure to rein in social media and the pro(re)gressive takeover of public education, turning it into an anxiety and depression-inducing brainwashing tool.  (JAMA Study)

Another study in JAMA regarding suicide among those aged 10 to 24 found that 60% were among children who had no prior mental health treatment or diagnosis, suggesting that despite all the resources directed at children’s mental health, the ones at risk aren’t being reached.  Maybe because why would they trust the people who are driving them crazy to help them deal with the problems.  A frightening 40,600 suicides were recorded in this age group from 2010 to 2021, and for the reason I gave in the prior note, I suspect the actual total is higher.  Males were far more likely to commit suicide, consistent with the ongoing demonization of this sex, and their deprivation of equal opportunity in every sphere of life, most importantly, higher education and good jobs.  (JAMA Article)

This analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation relies on self-reported survey data, so take it with a grain of salt, but it is likely directionally correct.  In 2022 an astounding 23% of adults said they received mental health treatment, up from 19% in 2019.  Even more worrisome is the number receiving mental health meds–19%.  So one in every five adult Americans is on a mental health med.  Makes the drug companies really happy but these drugs are not associated with long-term resolution of mental health problems and they have significant side effects.  Young adults, ages 18 to 26, are struggling the most, with 26% reporting treatment for mental health issues.  (KFF Analysis) 

Here is a big part of the problem.  Like everything else in this country, mental health treatment has been turned by ideology.  Mental health professionals have their heads filled with woke gobbedlygook, they learn nothing about how to help people conquer their feelings and live meaningful lives.  If you are anxious or depressed or have even more serious issues, you must be the wrong gender, or oppressed or an oppresser.  The earth is burning up, the entire country will be flooded by a rising sea, and so on.  Hard to help people with mental health problems when the “helpers” have them in spades.  The key to a successful life is to learn to deal with your feelings rationally, set goals, stay focussed on them and constantly be doing things that will help you reach those goals.  Don’t make excuses for yourself or blame others or fixate on the bad things that happen to all of us in life.  Accept it and move on.

Those life goals should include ones that have been definitively shown to be associated with greater life satisfaction–find work you enjoy and that allows you to have a good quality of life, find a person that you can have a long-term, hopefully life-long relationship with and commit yourself to that person, have a family–nothing makes people happier than children, find leisure activities that you give you pleasure.  The framework is pretty simple to understand, and people suffering from mental health problems shouldn’t be given drugs that only dampen their appreciation for life, they should be helped to adopt this framework for their lives and encouraged to accept responsibility for their lives.  Not happening as long as the whackos have control of mental health professionals and training programs.