Causes of Mental Health Issues in Teenagers

Born into a post-9/11 world, today’s teenagers face a whole host of issues despite the popular belief that everything is handed to them. Economic instability, a global pandemic, ever-increasing income inequality, and harassment based on race, colour, or gender have left teenagers with anxiety and a daunting future: a world that they will have to fix or deal with the consequences of their ancestors. Unsurprisingly, this has led to the highest rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation in comparison to previous generations. 

 

One can argue that similar challenges were also faced by their parents and older generations, so why are we now talking about this issue? I have seen many parents telling their children stories about how they had to struggle for basic necessities, while ‘this generation has everything served to them on a platter and still they complain’. This is where we, as elders, lose the plot! We make the mistake of assuming that material prosperity is directly proportional to better mental health. The reality runs contrary to this assumption. 

 

Nuclear families and the propensity of parents to work long hours— either for their own career aspirations or to scale up in material abundance— have left teenagers alone to fend for their own insecurities. The spread of social media through each aspect of our life has complicated this equation much more. 

 

In theory, social media is supposed to bring us together, to stay connected with one another regardless of physical distance. Yet, an unintended consequence has arisen. It is all too easy to compare your life to what you see online. An influencer’s mansion, a celebrity party, or even a red carpet premiere is now all too accessible to impressionable minds. The youngest members of society run unchecked through the internet without having the requisite context or parents helping them to separate fact from online fiction. Online abuse of children has become so widespread that many countries around the world are framing laws to control this issue. 

 

Aside from our digital world, the food that we consume today does not provide us with nutrition. Food was supposed to be fuel for our body but today, it is being used to meet our emotional needs. If we have an expensive car, we are diligent about the type of fuel that we fill in our cars so that we get maximum life and mileage. Yet, when it comes to our consumption of the food we put in our bodies: we are thoughtless. Excessive consumption of sugar, packaged foods, fast food has become the bane of our society and has led to an overwhelming number of health issues. It also has an impact on an individual’s mental health. The food and pharma lobbies are so strong that they don’t allow research material or facts about alternative methods to reach the public. 

 

So the question arises: how do we protect our children’s mental health? How do we make sure that they have the required tools to differentiate facts from fiction and to put things in the correct context? Most societies and communities give a lot of focus on physical health but mental health is still considered frivolous by many, and not given the respect and seriousness this subject deserves. It is time that we put this subject at the forefront of our priorities and work towards a healthy gen-next: Physically and mentally healthy.