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a3n

I have absolutely no doubt that Colorado and elsewhere needs greater immediate treatment options.

And that the pandemic had contributed to the crisps.

However, the article says this problem had been increasing for years.

What in society causes so many kids to kill themselves? Why is it getting worse? What should be done?

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I can't say for sure is causing the crisis in teenager, since I don't have one, and haven't been one since the Clinton administration. However I have a hypothesis.

I have seen a decline in mental health among my peer group, myself included. One common thread is an existential dread. Climate change, the current state of political discourse, the pandemic, the declining middle class, the raising costs of medical care, out of control education costs, and so on. It just leaves you with a feeling that you are screwed and there is nothing to do about it.

Teenagers are pretty aware of what is going on in the world, probably more now than ever. All this plus the normal teenage problems, and new problems like cyber bullying. This is just too much for someone who hasn't had time to build their coping skills.

Agreed.

> One common thread is an existential dread.

Am Gen-X. I grok Millennials and other cohorts.

FWIW:

My nephew was born 2000. He's basically checked out. Because What's the point? Hard to disagree.

I asked him: But what if you're wrong?

I related that I had felt more or less the same. Punk, Raygun & MAD, No Future, etc.

No one is more surprised than me that we're all still here.

I'm sure there's some kind of Pascal's Wager, choosing to live for the future, despite everything you know.

I agree with your theory and personally I feel that social media is a major contributor. When I was a teenager, the only place people were getting information about world politics and the economy was from the news, which I rarely watched or read, so I didn't worry about that stuff. The world has always had problems, but now we have social media feeding the news of all the world's ills to us in an easily digestible format 24/7, not even mentioning all of the other issues which come along with social media. Platforms like Twitter and Reddit have some pockets where great discussions are taking place, but I feel like 90%+ of it is just way too toxic and a waste of time to read or engage with.

We also live in a much more competitive world than before.

Just look at the number of spots at top universities (didn't scale with population growth) and the number of applications the average student sends.

But how does this compare to living in a developing country with fewer prospects? Are they committing suicide at even greater rates, yes, no, why?

I’ve had the unfortunate reality of knowing quite a few people around my age that either killed themselves or tried when I was a kid and teen. My school was known for the number of suicides it had and I knew almost all of them. For one it was a cry for help. For the others? They were trapped. Trapped to go to a school where they were bullied every day, for instance. I didn’t know it at the time but I was one of the few people that was at all friendly with him - he was just the guy I talked about Animorphs books with on the bus. There was only one escape that he knew of, and he took it at the age of 11.

If you’re a parent and you think your kid might be suicidal, give them an out. Let them skip school occasionally, or go to one of those online schools. Let them know that they can do what they want with their life and they don’t need to live up to your expectations. Whatever they’re feeling trapped by, find an exit with them.

> What in society causes so many kids to kill themselves? Why is it getting worse? What should be done?

Here's a radical thought: ask kids what's wrong. Find commonalities in their responses and then enact real change to address the issue. What we shouldn't do is give them platitudes like "things will get better, just wait." They don't have time to wait. This isn't a problem that we can solve by deduction from first principles.

Students have certainly reported that being cut off socially from friends during the pandemic has been extremely distressing, and that online replacements for in-person interaction have not been an adequate substitute.

Intense pressure in high school to get into the "right" college vs. be declared a failure in life certainly doesn't help.

Nor does the intense pressure in universities combined with minimal mental health support (e.g. only paying for a few weeks of counseling, while ignoring many of the root causes of student distress.)

Social media use, and mollycoddling by parents.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/10/by-mol...

Reverse of cause and effect. Social media use is the effect.

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