Mental Illness & the Teen/Young Adult

[busymom]

We've got a smart bunch here, & I'd love to hear your opinions on this.

My DD is currently a college student, & suddenly we're hearing a lot about friends/high school classmates who have either been diagnosed with depression or mental illness. Not the kind where they're taking guns to school, but the type where they are currently unable to cope with changes in their lives. Juggling college courses, work, boyfriends/girlfriends. I remember being stressed at this point in my life, but with the actual diagnosis, I'm wondering if life IS actually more stressful for this generation, or as parents are there failings in how we're raising our kids now, compared to previous generations (more coddling, everyone gets a trophy, etc., no child is supposed to feel bad, etc.). Your thoughts?

(BTW, I personally know 2 of the kids with an actual diagnosis, & they were the "good" kids in school. No drug habits, well liked by their teachers, etc...)

[Deleted]

uh. I'm not sure I can participate in this conversation. Its a big issue with me.   I think its an issue. I think its a big, big issue. I think we redefine and try to drug childhood and adolescence. I'm worried. But I don't know how to stop it on a societal scale.

(Although stopping the pharma lobby might be a positive first step...)

[Peace Of Mind]

I'm torn between thinking kids are not allowed to do enough on their own when dealing with RL situations so they are freaking out now that they are kind of out on their own to thinking if anybody has any emotion or feeling at all you must be medicated for it. 

[mmhmm]

I think this phenomenon is comprised of elements of several things. I do think life is more complicated for young people today than it has been in the past. I also think helicopter parenting removes the advantage to young folks of making their own decisions and dealing with the results of those decisions. There's also less stigma attached to mental illness than there was in the past, so parents are more likely to get professional advice/treatment for their kids if they notice something that strikes them as alarming, or concerning.

There is also the matter of more freedom allowing more experimentation with all kinds of things, including drugs. Even something as relatively innocuous as marijuana can, in some young people, cause a pseudo-schizophrenic psychotic break. I've seen that in action and it's horrifying. You don't know, for sure, if your son/daughter is schizophrenic, or not, and neither do the doctors. The symptoms are the same. The young man I know who went through this was a good kid, not a druggie. He tried marijuana a few times and it finally bit him. He's fine now and doing well. Thankfully, his episode was not indicative of true schizophrenia; however, his parents will always be aware and on guard. It scared them silly!

[kittensaver]

Interesting article:

www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/genetic-link-found-between-pot-schizophrenia-n139576

[Malarky]

I feel pretty strongly that we are doing our kids a huge disservice by raising them in bubble wrap.  

Everyone gets a trophy.  Don't say or do anything that might hurt their little feelings.  Don't let them play outside by themselves.  

Every moment of their time is scheduled.  

Helicopter parents stepping in at the first hint they might be struggling.  

Without experiencing failure, there is never any hope of developing coping skills.  

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

I strongly agree with a lot of what Malarky said.

Kids/teens in this day & age are either ignored, or the parents have them so overly-protected/sheltered under the umbrella, they don't get to experience some set-backs or failures by the time they're older teens/seniors in H/S.

Like she said, nowadays, it's an "everyone gets a ribbon" society with kids - no matter how poorly they perform (instead of guiding them to do better), and parents keeping them so sheltered there's now room for them to learn to spread their wings and sometimes fall when they're growing up into adolescence.

When they finally venture off to college or to live on their own, they're clueless on coping skills - and if they do fail at something they fall into what (when we were kids) was called a funk.

It doesn't help that the medical profession is quick to rush in and prescribe anti-depression meds for kids/teens that probably aren't even needed.

They simply haven't been taught that sometimes failures or setbacks come as a part of life - and how to deal with and overcome them.