Reply to How Do We Fix The Mental Health Crisis Among Affluent Teens?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was reading this article in The Atlantic about the suicides at Palo Alto High School:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-silicon-valley-suicides/413140/

It seems like living in a pressure cooker full of wealthy, well-educated parents in a highly academic environment is a major factor in poor mental health among teenagers. I remember reading a sociological study showing that depression, anxiety, and drug abuse among teenagers plotted to their SES status was like a horseshoe -- most common among wealthy/UMC and poor teens (for very different reasons), but least common among the middle-middle class.

Anecdotally, from DD's private, it seems like almost half of the kids we know are on medications and see a therapist or psychiatrist on a regular basis. The stress and pressure just seem nuts to me, and the constant judgement and competition seem unhealthy for teenagers.

Are there any ways that we as parents can fix this? Pull our kids out of private and put them in an economically diverse public? Move to the Midwest? Insist that our kids don't have to take the most rigorous classes available to them? Be okay with them going to UMD or a SLAC ranked below the Top 20 rather than an Ivy? Put them in therapy with an intense cycle of medications?[/quote]

I think wealthier families have the time and means to be able to diagnose their troubled kids. There are plenty of kids suffering in low in middle income families and guess what the parents don’t have the time to take off of work or the money to diagnose it and the kids know that so they just suffer through it. It doesn’t get diagnosed and added into these so called statistics. [/quote]

I will add do you have any idea how long it takes to even get a diagnosis of even a learning Disability not to mention some form of depression or anxiety. It’s a long wait to even get on a wait list for psychologists that do the testing or who are willing to see new patients. That’s just for regular psychologists that don’t deal with insurance. Forget about trying to get into a psychologist that takes insurance. I have friends that tried for six months and still could not get into anyone. Guest what both families are lower income. Wealthier friends were able to pay full cost and get in sooner because they pay out of pocket to someone that does not accept insurance. Most families in the us can not afford to do that.[/quote]

Therapists will happily spend their days listening to wealthy kids with ennui. A troubled kid whose parents don't have money is lucky to get any treatment let alone psychotherapy [/quote]

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