It seems like every one we know right now has a child suffering with mental health issues. My two best friends have daughters that are struggling; one is 13 and struggles with anxiety and acceptance and has said she feels suicidal at times, the other is 23 and has struggled with eating disorders for the last 4 years and will be admitted for treatment in a few weeks.
Last night we heard of another friend that has a daughter that has been cutting herself , she is also 13 and yet another friend that has a daughter that struggles with bulimia.
Of course, we also have struggles in our own family with my son, who is 21 that has struggled with anxiety and minor depression this past year. With a lot of work, he is doing much better, but it will likely be a struggle that he will have again in the future at some point.
Why so many? It seems like everywhere we turn we hear of friends, who have children suffering. What is so different now from 30 years ago when I was growing up? Was it just more hidden then and nobody talked about it? Or was there less suffering?
I really feel that social media has so much to do with the struggles that our youth are fighting with on a daily basis. But I also feel that it's the norm to have a mental health struggles and I would never say it's the "cool" thing to have because it's not, in any way, but the more I talk to my friends, the more it feels like their children feed off of their friends struggles. If one friend is struggling they seem to struggle too?
I wish there were an understanding why this seems to be the silent, or maybe not so silent, epidemic that is really going to affect our future. If our children do not have healthy minds, how can they have healthy futures and families?
I really do believe that you are correct about it being "cool" to have a mental illness, as silly as that sounds. Young people are quick to post it on every social media avenue they can find, tell everyone about it, seek attention for it. It's like a massive groupthink where being healthy is outdated. I know that some of the behaviors I see today would never have flown when I was younger. My parents would not have tolerated it, let alone coddled me or given me any attention (that I wanted, anyway) for it. Of course genuine mental illness exists, but what we are seeing today, where it seems like nearly everyone has some sort of problem, is rubbish to me. Trying to help people with sincere problems is a world apart from jumping into a disturbing fad and feeding dysfunction.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a fine line. How do you dismiss a child that says they are hurting, knowing (assuming) that it's likely just wanting to feel like the other kid. I so worry about this generation. And like I said, it's social media. That is their way to connect to the world and get the attention. It's all about the attention. We never wanted the spotlight on us growing up. Such a different world!
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