Let’s get real about mental health. I am a Licensed Psychologist with over a decade of experience as a Clinical Psychologist.
Fixing the mental health crisis in this nation by increasing mental health services is equal to fixing the mass shootings by increasing our thoughts and prayers. It ain’t workin.
Currently 70% of today’s teenagers say that Anxiety and Depression is a significant problems for their age group (Pew Research Center)
I get in trouble when I speculate on the origin or cause of this massive amount of anguish. But I am going to do it anyway because as a Clinical Psychologist I have treated these symptoms for the past 12 years in my private psychology practice and also had 5 years of graduate training in this area.
Number 1 likely cause of increase in mental illness? The economic downturn in the US. When families and young people are struggling to get their basic needs met a midst the pressures of the American School and Working System this is a recipe for absolute disaster. To put it another way, when Americans do not have enough money to take care of themselves and their families they begin to feel worthless. When young people, teens, and children struggle in every aspect of their lives starting with not having food, clothing, medical and dental care they struggle. Notice how I did not yet even mention the stressors that derive from broken homes, feeling hopeless if they are not good at school, and difficult social situations (including bullying). The American Dream begins with having options. These options have decreased dramatically due to economic downturn factors with horrific mental health consequences.
So the problems faced by youth, teens, and young Americans can now easily be predicted by someone like me. I can predict with eerie accuracy what symptoms a person has a why with very little information shared with me. It’s equivalent to beating our heads against a wall on purpose.
I throw this one over to the business and financial communities. Our economy needs to recover for the sake of the nation’s youth, teens, and young people to provide the base for positive mental health.
Number 2 likely cause of increase in mental illness? A completely antiquated education system. Just because we added ipads (which btw was a terrible idea) does not mean that the education system is matching the needs of today’s youth. Making children of any age sit for 7.5 hours (the majority of their precious childhood) a day learning questionable things is not working for mental health. Requiring children to sit in classes with in-person and online bullies is not working for mental health. Making teenagers into stressed out anxious people by having ridiculous artificial college requirements and expectations is not working for mental health. Making children who are not good at academics think they are worth less than those who are good at academics is #1 just not true and #2 is not working for mental health. I have a rather simple solution for children, teens and young people.
I think that all districts should have an online program offered with smaller in-person hubs (with teachers for support) that anyone in the district could elect to attend. Kids could do their basic classes half the day and do electives or hobbies that they actually enjoy half the day. Because let’s be real-- one great thing that COVID taught most of us is that when kids actually attempt to get their work done for the day at home, most of them can do it in 2 hours or less (unless they are in gifted or enriched learning of some kind, which in this case would be elective). Part of the learning hub would be to celebrate strengths academic and otherwise. Every child is special with incredible gifts. We should be celebrating these. The hubs should help the teens work towards a plan for post high school so that they have direction and a good chance at financial and emotional success.
Number 3 likely cause of increase of mental illness: I’m going to say it-- something with COVID. I’m not sure what it was exactly. Perhaps getting COVID and perhaps just a stress reaction to the entire thing. But what I know for sure is that youth, teens and grown ups are all more fragile than ever before. And there is no pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We have to get the word out that right now when we have highs and lows---our lows could be dangerous and produce dark thoughts. Even thoughts of self harm. Knowing this fact could save you if you heard this was possible and the low feeling is playing a trick on your mind. Do not follow the thought or believe it. Seek help immediately.
Number 4: Get rid of YouTube. As far as I am concerned it is a source of evil where you can be sucked in for hours watching mindless videos. It’s not the content itself but something we are exposed to on YouTube is addicting (so you don’t want to stop watching), it’s mind numbing (so you are desensitized to violence and scary stuff), it is interfering with executive functioning (linked to fuzzy thinking and lack of focus), and is linked to increasing anxiety and depression. NO YOUTUBE (or social media)! I dare you to take a month off of youtube and social media. If you do the 4 weeks and completely disagree with me I would love to hear it. Most people notice during the 4 weeks that they were in fact addicted, and that they went through some sort of withdrawal.
Number 5: All of us need something to be interested in (or to make life worth living) such as a sport or a hobby outside of a computer screen. More and more the opportunities presented through school are cutthroat sports in which the meanest or fastest kids get on the team by their actual merit or because the parent knows the coach. There I said it. I think that the smaller learning hubs offer an incredible opportunity to increase the extracurricular learning and hobbies even during part of the school day (which many private schools are doing already). There should be noncompetitive rec sports opportunities available for pure fun. The hubs should also provide some choice in that for a child that has been bullied they could be placed at a hub that does not have any bullies there and even could choose the hubs where their friends are at. Honestly, I think that could solve a lot for young people.
Number 6: Clearly, we need mental health services currently. In this day and age given the high amount of mental health symptoms it would actually be beneficial if all young people touched base with a mental health professional as a regular check up focusing on prevention rather than treatment at the point of crisis or near crisis. They would have a check up with a psychologist twice per year—same as a dental cleaning supporting and fostering growth, development, mental health so that we can ensure all kids grow into healthy grown ups. I also think this model, if put into place right now (meaning insurance pays for it and encourages it even though its prevention) could prevent many of the tragedies and violence by the professional conducting risk assessments at the appointments and following up immediately with care if necessary.
Fixing the mental health crisis in this nation by increasing mental health services is equal to fixing the mass shootings by increasing our thoughts and prayers. It ain’t workin.
Currently 70% of today’s teenagers say that Anxiety and Depression is a significant problems for their age group (Pew Research Center)
I get in trouble when I speculate on the origin or cause of this massive amount of anguish. But I am going to do it anyway because as a Clinical Psychologist I have treated these symptoms for the past 12 years in my private psychology practice and also had 5 years of graduate training in this area.
Number 1 likely cause of increase in mental illness? The economic downturn in the US. When families and young people are struggling to get their basic needs met a midst the pressures of the American School and Working System this is a recipe for absolute disaster. To put it another way, when Americans do not have enough money to take care of themselves and their families they begin to feel worthless. When young people, teens, and children struggle in every aspect of their lives starting with not having food, clothing, medical and dental care they struggle. Notice how I did not yet even mention the stressors that derive from broken homes, feeling hopeless if they are not good at school, and difficult social situations (including bullying). The American Dream begins with having options. These options have decreased dramatically due to economic downturn factors with horrific mental health consequences.
So the problems faced by youth, teens, and young Americans can now easily be predicted by someone like me. I can predict with eerie accuracy what symptoms a person has a why with very little information shared with me. It’s equivalent to beating our heads against a wall on purpose.
I throw this one over to the business and financial communities. Our economy needs to recover for the sake of the nation’s youth, teens, and young people to provide the base for positive mental health.
Number 2 likely cause of increase in mental illness? A completely antiquated education system. Just because we added ipads (which btw was a terrible idea) does not mean that the education system is matching the needs of today’s youth. Making children of any age sit for 7.5 hours (the majority of their precious childhood) a day learning questionable things is not working for mental health. Requiring children to sit in classes with in-person and online bullies is not working for mental health. Making teenagers into stressed out anxious people by having ridiculous artificial college requirements and expectations is not working for mental health. Making children who are not good at academics think they are worth less than those who are good at academics is #1 just not true and #2 is not working for mental health. I have a rather simple solution for children, teens and young people.
I think that all districts should have an online program offered with smaller in-person hubs (with teachers for support) that anyone in the district could elect to attend. Kids could do their basic classes half the day and do electives or hobbies that they actually enjoy half the day. Because let’s be real-- one great thing that COVID taught most of us is that when kids actually attempt to get their work done for the day at home, most of them can do it in 2 hours or less (unless they are in gifted or enriched learning of some kind, which in this case would be elective). Part of the learning hub would be to celebrate strengths academic and otherwise. Every child is special with incredible gifts. We should be celebrating these. The hubs should help the teens work towards a plan for post high school so that they have direction and a good chance at financial and emotional success.
Number 3 likely cause of increase of mental illness: I’m going to say it-- something with COVID. I’m not sure what it was exactly. Perhaps getting COVID and perhaps just a stress reaction to the entire thing. But what I know for sure is that youth, teens and grown ups are all more fragile than ever before. And there is no pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We have to get the word out that right now when we have highs and lows---our lows could be dangerous and produce dark thoughts. Even thoughts of self harm. Knowing this fact could save you if you heard this was possible and the low feeling is playing a trick on your mind. Do not follow the thought or believe it. Seek help immediately.
Number 4: Get rid of YouTube. As far as I am concerned it is a source of evil where you can be sucked in for hours watching mindless videos. It’s not the content itself but something we are exposed to on YouTube is addicting (so you don’t want to stop watching), it’s mind numbing (so you are desensitized to violence and scary stuff), it is interfering with executive functioning (linked to fuzzy thinking and lack of focus), and is linked to increasing anxiety and depression. NO YOUTUBE (or social media)! I dare you to take a month off of youtube and social media. If you do the 4 weeks and completely disagree with me I would love to hear it. Most people notice during the 4 weeks that they were in fact addicted, and that they went through some sort of withdrawal.
Number 5: All of us need something to be interested in (or to make life worth living) such as a sport or a hobby outside of a computer screen. More and more the opportunities presented through school are cutthroat sports in which the meanest or fastest kids get on the team by their actual merit or because the parent knows the coach. There I said it. I think that the smaller learning hubs offer an incredible opportunity to increase the extracurricular learning and hobbies even during part of the school day (which many private schools are doing already). There should be noncompetitive rec sports opportunities available for pure fun. The hubs should also provide some choice in that for a child that has been bullied they could be placed at a hub that does not have any bullies there and even could choose the hubs where their friends are at. Honestly, I think that could solve a lot for young people.
Number 6: Clearly, we need mental health services currently. In this day and age given the high amount of mental health symptoms it would actually be beneficial if all young people touched base with a mental health professional as a regular check up focusing on prevention rather than treatment at the point of crisis or near crisis. They would have a check up with a psychologist twice per year—same as a dental cleaning supporting and fostering growth, development, mental health so that we can ensure all kids grow into healthy grown ups. I also think this model, if put into place right now (meaning insurance pays for it and encourages it even though its prevention) could prevent many of the tragedies and violence by the professional conducting risk assessments at the appointments and following up immediately with care if necessary.
