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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am surprised that no one is seeing the irony here.  This is a story/thread about the tragic loss of bright young lives; there is clear data in the mental health literature that young adults are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress, lack social and emotional supports, are facing challenging job markets and economic uncertainties.  All of these factors have been linked to poor mental health outcomes and increased risk of suicide (so is being young, male, in periods of life transition and a host of other factors).  The posters in this thread are looking to blame a host of factors---these kids must be mentally ill! the universities are not taking care of them! it's grade deflation!--and discounting any suggestion that these kids and young adults are experiencing extraordinary amounts of pressure to achieve.

This forum is filled with parents agonizing over whether Junior should take the SAT a third or fourth time because they have not gotten a perfect score.  Or asking about what classes middle schoolers need to take in order to get into a T20 school.  Or slamming others achievements or school choices--your kid will never get a job or into grad school if they don't go to a T10 school.  Or ridiculing kids for their academic interests--they will be unemployed if they don't get a STEM degree.  Or their grades.  Or piling on when someone doesn't get into a target school--they had no chance with grades like that!

The hyper demanding and hypercompetitive environment of modern parenting and the cruelly hypercritical nattering nabobs of social media is crushing the souls of these young people.  These kids are living in a hell of their parents making and being forced to try to meet unrealistic standards.

Maybe it is time for folks to rethink what they are saying to posters who come asking for guidance or looking for help.  Maybe offer more positive and supportive feedback.  Maybe let your kids know that they have more value than an SAT score.  I don't know.  This whole thread is heartbreaking.[/quote]

You are completely missing the main cause: social media/iphones (proven to cause a great deal of this mental illness) and microplastics and tainted food and water supplies.

This isn't a factor only seen with 'college' kids or UMC--the increase in serious mental health issues (30%) in adolescents starting happening right after the launch of iphones/SM.   We now having babies/toddlers being wheeled around in strollers with their heads buried in mom's phone or an ipad.[/quote]
IPhones and Social media definately contribute a lot to the mental health crisis.  It shouldn't be "reality".  Kids simply don't understand that nobody posts the Bad stuff on Social media, just the fun/exciting parts of their life they want to brag about. Even adults, rarely do we post "well I had a shitty day, and X, Y and Z happened and made it even shittier". We just post cute photos of our last vacation or us out for drinks with 10 of our besties (nobody really has 10 besties)

Covid did not help.  I had a kid in 10th grade when covid hit.  They did rest of 10th grade from their bed and all of 11th as well.  12th grade was fully in person, but they were masked. 
So this means 1/2 of 10th and all of 11th, they were not forced to actually interact with other kids or teachers.  Most teachers did not require cameras (because kids were having a difficult enough time with everything and heck they are teens).  So my kid (along with most) missed out on the key social skills developments and maturity that would typically happen in 10th/11/12th grade.  Sure my kid socialized with their own groups of friends (but even that, we are covid conscious so it was outside or masked.

Then they go off to college and have to figure out how to "meet people".  They haven't done that for 3 years.

Now I don't regret keeping my kid at home during covid (heck, our schools didn't go back with some inperson until the last 8 weeks of 11th grade, and even then it was every other day to prevent over crowding and masks were still required.  So my kid decided it was just easier to be on zoom at home---because the day you'd be in person, 30-70% of the class would still be on zoom, so it was really just zooming from a classroom in a mask, socialization wasn't really happening.  [/quote]

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