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nigel99

Mental health problems

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Is it just that I am more aware of things or are mental health problems on the rise?

Self harm, eating disorders, alcoholism and suicide seem to be much more prevalent than when I was young.

2 teenage girls on our road have self harm problems, 1 of them is constantly hospitalised for eating disorders. This year alone 2 skydivers have committed suicide that I know of.

Is the breakdown in society to blame? I grew up going to church twice on a Sunday, family meals around a table etc. We don't live like that anymore.

At the risk of turning this into a normal god exists/no he doesn't threadB|. I believe that our gradual loss of religion and the social framework it provided, has caused a problem. The problem to me is that there has been no viable and healthy alternative. A 'me' culture, centred on selfishness and unattainable celebrity status is not healthy.

I look at my current lifestyle and for a family, there is next to nothing that ties us together on a regular basis. I personally see sport as a potential family outlet.
Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

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Alot more stress in this world today, social stress, work stress, financial stress, very difficult for kids to choose a career path that will get them a job, let alone a good paying job, social stress of teens , social media, facebook ,,,, a lot more stress in the world means a lot more triggers for people to react toi,,,,lets not forget also people don't eat healthy, we feed ourselves and our kids processed fast foods that are full of chemicals and little nutritional value,,,,,both parents need to work these days to make ends meet, and of course that's even if both parents are even still together, less parenting time to kids,,,,no surprise the world is as fucked up as it is today :S>:(


"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo

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I think it's mostly I think mostly it's due to an increase in awareness to the issues. For example, 30 years ago you wouldn't be hearing about majority of the teen suicides that occurred outside of your town. But due to the internet, things like suicide from bullying that would only be a local news story back in the day, is visible to many people over the internet.

The internet has allowed a lot of information which would have never been visible decades ago to become viral and in turn seen by millions.

People also seem to be a lot more open with information. Things that one would have found taboo to talk about publicly is now spoken about quite freely. This also leads to an illusion that more of these previously 'private issues' are occurring.

With that said, it's also possible that society is causing an actual increase in things like that. But I see no reason why one would link it to anything religious. A family dinner or going to church does not change anything, it's what is occurring on the other 23 hours a day. Blaming the media is cheap, but it's not hard to see how shows that constantly promote the idea that image is everything can work on some people's minds.

Essentially it will all come down to parenting and personality. In my experience I've seen nothing to tie religion to a close-knit family. I've seen Christian families who while maintaining strong Christian values don't have a strong connection with their kids or spend time getting to know what's going on in their minds, I've also seen Atheists who have family dinners daily and enjoy time with their family and are actively engaged in each other's lives in a healthy way.

Children aren't just now becoming self-destructive 'rebels' though. It's been going on forever. But I imagine it becomes more apparent when one is a parent and identifies these issues with their own children and pays more attention to it.

That's my take on it at least. But I agree there are elements of society that can exacerbate it, but don't see how religion related to it.
due to

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Self harm, eating disorders, alcoholism and suicide seem to be much more prevalent than when I was young.

2 teenage girls on our road have self harm problems, 1 of them is constantly hospitalised for eating disorders



Do some reading into child abuse and sexual assault, which have strong correlations with these sorts of disorders. In a lot of circumstances I would say, "Live through that see how you would be doing."

I think the first step is to find a way to eliminate the abuse which is horrifically underreported. Women face this shit commonly. These mental health problems are, in my estimation, nothing more than the scars of what was done to them for perhaps the MAJORITY of them.


My wife is hotter than your wife.

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Self harm, eating disorders, alcoholism and suicide seem to be much more prevalent than when I was young.

2 teenage girls on our road have self harm problems, 1 of them is constantly hospitalised for eating disorders



Do some reading into child abuse and sexual assault, which have strong correlations with these sorts of disorders. In a lot of circumstances I would say, "Live through that see how you would be doing."

I think the first step is to find a way to eliminate the abuse which is horrifically underreported. Women face this shit commonly. These mental health problems are, in my estimation, nothing more than the scars of what was done to them for perhaps the MAJORITY of them.



I agree, but with the caveat that you need to be careful that it is not always a result of abuse.
Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

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That's my take on it at least. But I agree there are elements of society that can exacerbate it, but don't see how religion related to it.
due to



I'm not religious, but I do see that religion can promote (but not be the only source of) a moral and social basis for people to get along and feel more happy and confident in their lives.

But, I suspect the reduction of the (quietly and truly) religious population isn't the cause, but rather a symptom of society developing more and more isolated and dispairing individuals.


That said - I always consider "organized" religion to be a great way to completely undermine any societal benefits that a belief based in "being good to each other and always maintaining hope in life" could actually bring to the world.

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maintaining strong Christian values don't have a strong connection with their kids or spend time



this really is a conflicting statement to what those values are really 'supposed' to mean

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

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The appear to on the rise because we are inundated with news 24/7 from all over the World.

A girl in Tokyo kills herself from online bullying and we know about it in hours. That kind of news might NEVER have made it to the mainstream media over here 20 years ago, and would not 50 years ago.

I DO think that it has to do with how soft some people have become. I watched a special on the "dust bowl"... those people lived for 10 years in hell. Old and young were dying everyday. If you had a baby sister the odds of her surviving were terrible. Today people freak out over losing internet on an airplane.

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I have no doubt that mental health problems are worsening. Never before have kids been so overwhelmed with negative influences. The breakdown of family is a huge factor. I'm not a religion buff, but religion can be a good or bad influence, depending on how radical the faith is....

There is a reason people act or behave the way they do.

I met a psychologist once who told this story. He went to a treatment facility and was shown a girl with severe problems. She was delusional. She would roll her eyes back and go someplace whenever she was pressured. She had the habit of wiping feces on herself. Pretty crazy, huh. Well if you knew the rest of the story you probably wouldn't feel that way....

As this psychologist worked with this girl, he found out that the place she went to to escape, included Dysney characters. She had names for all these imaginary friends. As the therapist dug deeper into her past he found out that this girl's parents had been pimping her out, when she was just a young girl. This girl learned to wipe crap on herself to keep the perverts away. She learned to escape to a happier healthier world by fantasizing.

The problem was, that this girl, couldn't adapt and stop doing this. She hated herself for the way she was.

This hardened, tough, psychologist would go home each night, in tears. Was it any wonder this girl was the way she was.

There are some truly awful parents in the world....I think of this story every time I see someone with crazy behavior. There is often a really sad story behind why they act the way they do....

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I put most of it on crowding. Humans simply don't do very well packed in as tight as urban centers are these days.

And by crowding I mean that very broadly. Population density, too much noise, too much filth, no privacy, too much useless information, too much access to each other, and on and on. We have not had time to evolve to a hive mentality, but that is how at least 80% of the population lives. We still have individuality as a strong defining characteristic, but we live too densely for it to be acted out without causing big problems.

It appears to me we are going thru the same shit as those experiments where they intentionally overcrowd animals to see how they behave. Basically, there is a breakdown of social order.

The only thing we do not have too much of is peace and quiet.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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I agree...overcrowding isn't good. It scares me, with the direction we're headed.

One of the best places to raise a kid is on a farm or ranch, in my opinion. A 100 years ago, most families were on farms. Life wasn't easy there, but (mentally) people were usually better off, particularly kids.

Everyone had to work...this taught a work ethic. Kids often saw their parents. They might not have had a lot of play time together, but at least they worked together. Kids were too busy to get into trouble. Adults tried to watch over their neighbors kids too. There wasn't as many negative influences There was often a sense of belonging to your family and community.

But most of all there was a sense of hope. I think a lot of young people don't have that today...

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I put most of it on crowding. Humans simply don't do very well packed in as tight as urban centers are these days.

And by crowding I mean that very broadly. Population density, too much noise, too much filth, no privacy, too much useless information, too much access to each other, and on and on. We have not had time to evolve to a hive mentality, but that is how at least 80% of the population lives. We still have individuality as a strong defining characteristic, but we live too densely for it to be acted out without causing big problems.

It appears to me we are going thru the same shit as those experiments where they intentionally overcrowd animals to see how they behave. Basically, there is a breakdown of social order.

The only thing we do not have too much of is peace and quiet.



Very interesting angle.
Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

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The only thing we do not have too much of is peace and quiet.



Hear! Hear!



Or better yet, Don't Hear! Don't hear!


IMO, I, too, think it's getting worse and worse without regards to the advancements in world-wide communication.
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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re crowding: I think there's something to that, too. Also, with the sheer number of people, the chances of having that 1 in a 100,000 psychopath/lunatic/sicko/whatever be close enough to you to impact your life is significantly greater. And the sheer number of people means that they are more anonymous, as well.

Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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re crowding: I think there's something to that, too. Also, with the sheer number of people, the chances of having that 1 in a 100,000 psychopath/lunatic/sicko/whatever be close enough to you to impact your life is significantly greater. And the sheer number of people means that they are more anonymous, as well.

Wendy P.



Good point. I think anonymity is fundamentally hurtful to society. Might seem like a contradiction because as we crowd in more and more and have more contact a person might guess we'd become more social. But I think it has the opposite effect.

Too many neighbors and people risk losing their identity, their importance to the whole. A person is nobody special when they feel just a nameless faceless gear in the machine. The grocer/butcher in a small community is somebody special; the same role in the middle of a 3 million person mass is just another bit player.

For better or worse (worse IMO) the bulk of humans appear emotive and needy as opposed to rational and independent. A society where so many needy people are relegated to homogonized and ubiquitous bit roles results in a lot of people feeling marginalized and unimportant.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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We are not wired to deal with the world as it is. That will evolve or fail.



I did not realize you had already made the point in much fewer words.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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The appear to on the rise because we are inundated with news 24/7 from all over the World.

A girl in Tokyo kills herself from online bullying and we know about it in hours. That kind of news might NEVER have made it to the mainstream media over here 20 years ago, and would not 50 years ago.

I DO think that it has to do with how soft some people have become. I watched a special on the "dust bowl"... those people lived for 10 years in hell. Old and young were dying everyday. If you had a baby sister the odds of her surviving were terrible. Today people freak out over losing internet on an airplane.



Really enlightening when I was younger listening to my Grandma talk of her life. She was one of 5 kids, and 1 of the 2 that made it past childhood (she was born in 1896). And the stories of living thru, and raising 9 kids, during 2 World Wars and the depression. Amazing.

On the useless information topic (I say we are really overcrowded with useless information), there is a great read by McKibben - The Age Of Missing Information.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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I think the first step is to find a way to eliminate the abuse which is horrifically underreported. Women face this shit commonly. These mental health problems are, in my estimation, nothing more than the scars of what was done to them for perhaps the MAJORITY of them.



My knowledge of this is strictly anecdotal; but it is appalling how common it seems. I would say easily that the majority of women have been sexually assaulted, if not outright raped. A disgusting badge pinned on our society (if my perception is true).
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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On the useless information topic (I say we are really overcrowded with useless information), there is a great read by McKibben - The Age Of Missing Information.



Yes, I saw the irony of suggesting something to read after posting.;)
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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I would have to see some hard data to verify whether mental health problems are on the rise. Vague personal notions about an increase in mental health problems are not enough.

Maybe they're just diagnosed better now.
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I would have to see some hard data to verify whether mental health problems are on the rise. Vague personal notions about an increase in mental health problems are not enough.

Maybe they're just diagnosed better now.



It could be better diagnosis. Of course it may also be that since I am an in-patient in a mental health hospital most of my neighbours have problems:o:D
Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

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