We caudle now so why is mental health worse off?

wtfunny wrote:

Trust Me wrote:

Mental toughness is developed through repeated exposure to hardship. That which does not kill you makes you stronger. Technology has created an environment in which our "hardship" consists of putting a pet down at a ripe old age whereas two hundred years ago, you could expect to lose a couple of children in your life.

We are soft and the therapeutic culture only exacerbates this issue. If you are a parent and wish to prepare your children for life, you need to push them into uncomfortable situations as often as possible. The idea is to give them as much difficulty as they can handle without breaking them, almost like how you try to achieve hypertrophy with a muscle without creating injury. The same obviously applies to adults.

There is nothing that is true in the above post. Nothing.

Don’t conflate what you’re referring to as ‘mental toughness’ with mental health.

You want to nurture kindness, compassionate, healthy people? Be kind to them, be compassionate, and engage healthy behavior. “Giving people difficulty” is being an a**.

Mental resilience comes out treating children well. A child who is loved, nurtured and well-treated will be far more resilient than a child who isn’t. Every time.

hank jr wrote:

Adoi wrote:

Jonathan Haidt wrote a good book about this a few years back. It's called 'The Coddling of the American Mind.'

The conclusion he reaches is that high school and college students are taught the exact opposite of what a cognitive behavioural therapist would advise when combatting trauma or conflict. That is: young people are taught to pay attention to their feelings at all times, that their subjection interpretation of interactions is 'their truth'; they're taught to catastrophise; and to seek an external authority to solve problems rather than confront them themselves.

This, in combination with 'helicopter parenting', which kicked in around the early 90s, and 'social media' - have placed young people in a situation where they've not developed the skills to solve their own conflicts (because they've always had parents hovering around to do that for them), whilst also occupying a social space in which they cannot turn off from conflict (their phone reminds them of such conflict at all times of the day).

Agreed. There are a lot more things in our world today that exacerbate mental health issues. The inability to turn off is a huge issue for everyone, but can be specifically problematic for someone who already has issues turning off (anxiety).

Additionally, its much easier to be open about mental health these days than it was even 10 years ago. Is it more prevalent? Maybe, maybe not, but its definitely discussed more. That could be for a number of reasons. Maybe health professionals are over diagnosing it, maybe there is an actual uptick in mental health issues. Personally, I think its because its so much more accepted to reach out for help.

Up until the late 90s, if you had depression/anxiety you just buried it down and drowned it in alcohol/drugs. You didn't tell anyone about it and you likely just toughed it out until you got over it. Today, its totally acceptable (even cool) to have a therapist you talk to regularly. I view this as a good thing. I think that we may not have more mental health issues these days on whole, but we are more likely to have them diagnosed/get professional help - so the numbers make it look like we are in a spiral. That may not be the case.

Adoi wrote:

Jonathan Haidt wrote a good book about this a few years back. It's called 'The Coddling of the American Mind.'

The conclusion he reaches is that high school and college students are taught the exact opposite of what a cognitive behavioural therapist would advise when combatting trauma or conflict. That is: young people are taught to pay attention to their feelings at all times, that their subjection interpretation of interactions is 'their truth'; they're taught to catastrophise; and to seek an external authority to solve problems rather than confront them themselves.

This, in combination with 'helicopter parenting', which kicked in around the early 90s, and 'social media' - have placed young people in a situation where they've not developed the skills to solve their own conflicts (because they've always had parents hovering around to do that for them), whilst also occupying a social space in which they cannot turn off from conflict (their phone reminds them of such conflict at all times of the day).

Not optimistic about the future of Humans wrote:

It's the failure of the human race.

We've lost human compassion to treat one another with love & respect.

We've become such a violent species. Humans are full of hate & anger, greed & selfishness, destruction & combatiness.

We would rather fight than talk, seek revenge as opposed to forgiveness, destroy than rebuild, argue than listen.

With all the stressors in life, such as seeking a good job & career, earning good money, obtaining a college education, forming good friendships, seeking a suitable mate & getting married, staying healthy, etc, we are constantly comparing ourselves to others.

And when things break down or we experience bad luck and fail such as unable to get a good job or earn enough money to live, unable to get a college degree, unable to find a suitable mate or suffering from a divorce, become seriously ill or a love one becoming ill, we find ourselves in depression & despairity unable to cope with the problems.

We find very little compassion from our fellow humans who become indifferent to our shortcomings many times telling us it's all our fault.

Depression, stress, anxiety, etc - destroyers of the modern human.