Comments: "Affluenza," Materialism Blamed For Teen Depression
Adults have always been dismayed by the behavior of teens. It says a lot about our society that we consider being a teen an illness. Still any time it is acknowledged that human behavior is a response to environment, it's good. We all know that exercise, sunlight, healthy diet, and maybe peer counseling is good for anyone.
Posted by Sally at June 25, 2008 03:18 AM
I have hyper-"successful" siblings in the eyes of society and they are quite affluent. I worry about their children, my nieces and nephews because they have everything a teenager, or in some instances a child can dream of having and I don't think they are ever told no to having anything they want. It's disturbing to me. They also have virtually no free time to be children. Every minute of the day is planned out with "enriching" activities. A few of which would certainly be wonderful and I wouldn't want to take those opportunities away, but when it's an activity every day of the week and no unstructured time whatsoever, I wonder if that is really healthy.
I'm very curious to see how it all plays out. We've currently got 3 teenagers and 4 younger ones getting everything they possibly desire and then some.
I hope my cynicism is wrong and they will all be delightfully content adults. For now, in any case, they are delightful children.
Posted by Gianna at June 25, 2008 03:43 AM
Wow. Someone went far off the depression reservation.
Posted by William Zeallor at June 25, 2008 04:25 AM
I am all for that Smoothie with th Omega-3s. I can not imagine recovery from "mental illness" without the Omega-3s.
I also think expectations can be the cause of depression. I know when I came to expect less, I became happier or at least satisfied. It is a terrible pressure to measure up, be successful, and not be able to do so.
Posted by Ms Naturalgal at June 25, 2008 06:18 AM
As you've noted in previous entries about over-medicating children, no one is studying and explaining how childhood has changed. Are more teens depressed than ever? What's different about children and adolescents today?
"Affluenza" reminds me of the book, A Tribe Apart, by journalist, Patricia Hersch. Hersch wrote about teens in my community. Here's an interview with her:
RD: Those are the years you're calling adolescence?
PH: Adolescence is when they hit middle school until they graduate from high school. Within that period of time, tremendous changes occur, and it's remarkable to me how the same parents who pay such close attention to those early years seem to forget about their kids as they approach adolescence. At adolescence, they breathe a deep sigh of relief, cross their fingers and let the kids go.
RD: Have parents always done that?
PH: Let's put it into some kind of historical perspective. The present generation of parents and workers has grown up during a period with such enormous social changes affecting the adult world, that it's still quite self-involved. Men and women are still trying to figure out the roles of men and women, families are still trying to figure out who should do what in the family. And certainly anybody who has a family is trying to figure out the balance between work and family. It's an economic reality in this country that families have to work. We are a working society. It's a reality for economic reasons, and it's a reality for educational reasons. We're not going back to a period that was actually an aberration in American society, where women were solely responsible for children. The '50s and '60s were a blip on the chart of history.
RD: What happened prior to that?
PH: Children were never left on their own. Mothers themselves were not necessarily responsible, but adolescents were more like indentured servants, apprentices working in sweat shops or out in the fields, or they were in the care of an extended family or a boarder in your house who watched the kids for room and board. In the post-war years, many mothers became part of a core of middle-class women who retained their status by not working. They were the moms baking cookies and manning the neighborhoods and overseeing volunteer efforts. Historically, America's children have never ever been left totally alone. Then, in 1972, when the recession hit, it was no longer possible for one person alone to support a family. At the same time, the women's movement was gaining ground. So we became a working society in the '70s. And now, in the year 2000, we still haven't figured out how families and work fit together. We have family leave laws, but nobody considers using them for anybody other than babies. So by the time kids reach 10 or 11, we essentially leave them alone.
The rest of the interview is here: http://www.holistic.com/holistic/learning.nsf/title/A+Tribe+Apart:+The+Secret+World+of+Adolescents
Seroquel is no substitute for the milk of human kindness, eh? What form of nurture do children and teens require from adults?
Cheers,
Moira
Posted by Moira at June 25, 2008 07:20 AM
Why don't say the truth?
Adolescence is a mental condition. Period.
Posted by Ana at June 25, 2008 07:58 AM
Ana said "Adolescence is a mental condition."
Yes, but the question, of course, becomes whether or not it is a treatable condition and, if so, how much money can be made off the backs of the people who suffer from it. We'll just have to wait and see.
Posted by Francesca Allan at June 25, 2008 10:07 AM
I took a class at a church a couple years ago. It was a video tape sieres with Tony Campolo named "Curing Affluenza." It was a great class and it changed my life. I had a chance to meet Tony, and I was as excited as if I had met a movie star.
He kids get more pleasure out of donating or giving to other children in need than owning stuff.
Parents and everyone would do well to learn more about how Affluenza is making us all sick.
Tony Campolo is well known for his teaching, books, videos and humanitarian work.
Go ahead and google "Tony Comoplo" and "Affluenza"
Posted by Ms Naturalgal at June 25, 2008 10:08 AM
I'm not making myself clear.
When I said:
"Adolescence is a mental condition."
It was implied:
1) "they" are almost claiming that all the problems that is normal during adolescent time will be seen as a "disease";
2) Its absurd that this period of life that involves a lot of emotional issues is being medicated;
3) it's normal to feel depressed, anxious and a lot of diferent feelings during this stage of life;
4) not only the brain is to blame;
5) a lot of hormones are at stake at this period of life too;
...............
It was stupid of me thinking that people already know my opinion on all this circus.
I'm deeply sorry!
I'll explain everything from now on.
Posted by Ana at June 25, 2008 03:36 PM
Or stop commenting. Jesus!
It's hard!
I see some endless discussion about subjects and issues that should already be common knowledge.
But I believe it will take some more decades!
Will be here discussion the same for centuries.
Fortunately I'm mortal!
Posted by Ana at June 25, 2008 03:39 PM
I've been thinking lately about what I call gourmet children. These are the kids who attend Montessori pre-school, private kindergarten, grow up in affluent communities with "good school systems" and persue more enriching activities than I could keep up with. They are usually highly verbal, sound like little adults and are Fully Maximized, operating on all six cylinders almost from birth.
So just what does it do to a kid to be Fully Maximized so early? My first guess is s/he is going to score far higher on an IQ test than kids used to when I was growing up or kids in other socio-economic groups simply because IQ tests measure one's likelihood of achieving success in a white, middle-class school system and these kids have been heavily programmed for that from the moment they were born (before, some of them).
So now you have a "gifted" child. But when ALL (or most) of the kids in a community are "gifted" (that's my community) my radar goes up. I've seen some of these kids. They're kind of creepy, frankly. I see them all the time in the supermarket, at the movies, etc. All very high verbal. All with parents patiently explaining every little facet of life to them as if they're the most important person on the face of the earth, negotiating every detail of their lives. It makes me want to rip my hair out.
Then I look at the suicide rate of this group of hot house flowers. I can't help but think that operating on all cylinders from such an early age maybe isn't such a good thing. For one thing, what happens when you top out, when you've used up that artificially induced 15 IQ-point "edge"? What happens if you really want to be a mechanic? What happens if you just plain get tired and burned out from all these extracurricular classes and activities (the prefix "extra" ought give us all a clue, no?)?
I just think there's an awful lot of hidden pressure in the lifestyle of the upper middle and middle middle class in the US. People really don't look very happy when they're rushing around, frankly.
I totally disagree, by the way, with the interviewee's contention that you can't support a family on one income. That's total BS. You can't support a family in a huge home, with each kid in his/her own room (when did *that* get to be a requirement, I wonder?), etc., etc. But I know plenty of people living "smaller" lifestyles on one income.
Actually, I can never figure out how anyone can tolerate working after they subtract the cost of childcare and all those activities to "keep them busy" because you're not home and yes, they *do* need to be kept busy somehow. I figure I'd come out with about twenty bucks a week, net, and a big, fat headache.
Posted by Sherry at June 30, 2008 02:07 PM