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Comment by forgottenpass | Hacker News Reader

>What explains the epidemic of teen depression and suicide?

When the go-to theories this guy mentions are are cyberbulling, drugs and alcohol, I've got a problem. Either he's not being honest about the current theories, or shows there exists zero insight to today's teenagers' experience of the world.

>We should have universal screening of teenagers at school, with parental consent, to identify those who are suffering from depression and who are at risk of suicide.

Perhaps we should add "living in a world structured by boomers who think mandatory psychiatric intervention of all teenagers for the purpose of identifying a disorder characterized by bad mood and lack of self-esteem is a good idea" to the list of reasons teens might experience depression.

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Yeah, just off the top of my head; I think there may be some more compelling reasons: inheriting a planet primed for environmental disaster, technology addiction and constant inundation of information which frustrates the addict, knowledge that they'll enter into the game of capitalism against opponents with stacked decks, the utter nonsense that is our binary and extreme politics - and the infighting which stifles progress for all, the ever weakening power of labor relative to capital and the realization that most people aren't able to contribute meaningfully to nor influence the trajectory of human progress and are instead destined for adult day-care etc.

I don't think any of those are direct causes, the day to day realities of the world trend harsher as we look back at older generations.

I will grant that they are indirect causes, in that the way adults process the issues among themselves inadvertently create the society that the young are growing up in.

Whether things are causes, consequences or side-effects is overly-simplistic, linear thinking that isn’t helpful when there are many real pains. Don’t bikeshed on labels or categories, please.

Inverted totalitarianism imposed by the consequences of extreme greed by the very rich has created ALL of these conditions: divided-and-conquered polarized populace, learned helplessness and corrupt government.

The only viable solution is, unfortunately, violent overthrow of the established order because peaceful revolution has been made totally impossible. It’s the rich’es fault for creating the status quo and ours for accepting it. It’s not an anarchism vs. capitalism vs. communism trinary choice, but a difference in continuum of corruption of the established order working for the people on one extreme and working for only the elites on another. Incrementalist “hoping” nibbling on the periphery or peaceful change aren’t going to happen because the elites concede nothing (except crumbs) without a fight.

Sadly, I feel much the same; but I think the population is too sedated and/or divided to fight in the near-term.

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