[HN Gopher] Children's Hospital Colorado declares mental health ...
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       Children's Hospital Colorado declares mental health state of
       emergency
        
       Author : AndrewBissell
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2021-05-25 19:50 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (coloradosun.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (coloradosun.com)
        
       | readonthegoapp wrote:
       | most of the recent articles i've seen have been saying, "Why
       | didn't more people kill themselves during the pandemic??"
       | 
       | and now we have this. i think that doctor's diagnosis sounded
       | reasonable -- kids have run out of resilience -- their tanks are
       | empty.
       | 
       | and that's prob true of a lot of people.
       | 
       | i think the Trump Administration's handling of the pandemic
       | pushed most people at least to the edge, if not over it.
       | 
       | Cuomo and the rest of the Dem governors and Mayors (De Blasio,
       | Newsome, Witmer, etc.) were just as wanton in their disregard for
       | humanity (and that, imo, is being generous).
       | 
       | Whether the CDC was intentionally handicapped and turned into a
       | malevolent force, or was help along by misinformation 'heroes'
       | like Fauci, the effect was brutal.
       | 
       | Biden's CDC is seemingly only marginally less worse.
       | 
       | The GOP/Republicans - literally the most dangerous orgnization in
       | the history of the world - have been fighting climate change
       | legislation for decades, trying to send us all to our doom, so
       | their misinformation about Covid was to be expected, and in
       | context, is really almost nothing in comparison.
       | 
       | Fox News runs wild with racism and white supremacy and conspiracy
       | and misinfo.
       | 
       | Facebook and other mass media outlets are completely
       | uncontrolled, and we're unwilling to regulate them, regardless of
       | the obvious havoc and destruction they are bringing.
       | 
       | We had an attempted coup with almost no consequences at all. The
       | US is not Chile or some other small democracy -- we're one of the
       | few countries that can end the world in a single moment of
       | insanity.
       | 
       | The origins of Covid itself have not been properly investigated,
       | in part because US investors are so dependent on China's
       | manufacturing -- and US conglomerates so dependent on China's
       | population as prospective customers (e.g. NBA).
       | 
       | As adults, presumably we have at least _some_ control over our
       | situations. For kids, it must often be torture -- right out of a
       | CIA playbook -- make them feel the loss of control/agency.
       | 
       | The extreme capriciousnous of covid is now seemingly reflected in
       | everyday life for most people, but especially anyone without real
       | agency (kids, the poor/working class, the elderly, etc.).
       | 
       | And global warming risks/effects like Covid are just starting to
       | hockey-stick.
       | 
       | failed political system. failed media. failed health care system.
       | failing civil society. failing nation.
       | 
       | i'm not ready to give up, but we're in a bad way, and i feel like
       | these Colorado kids might be sending us a desperate message -- we
       | need to act differently, or maybe just act at all.
        
       | mensetmanusman wrote:
       | I always wonder about what would have happened if covid had been
       | age flipped, eg killing the young and sparing the elderly.
       | 
       | With no political and economic power, would children's health
       | have had the same impact on the world?
       | 
       | Consider that a growing number of bureaucrats have never raised
       | children...
        
       | a3n wrote:
       | I have absolutely no doubt that Colorado and elsewhere needs
       | greater immediate treatment options.
       | 
       | And that the pandemic had contributed to the crisps.
       | 
       | However, the article says this problem had been increasing for
       | years.
       | 
       | What in society causes so many kids to kill themselves? Why is it
       | getting worse? What should be done?
        
         | pickle-wizard wrote:
         | I can't say for sure is causing the crisis in teenager, since I
         | don't have one, and haven't been one since the Clinton
         | administration. However I have a hypothesis.
         | 
         | I have seen a decline in mental health among my peer group,
         | myself included. One common thread is an existential dread.
         | Climate change, the current state of political discourse, the
         | pandemic, the declining middle class, the raising costs of
         | medical care, out of control education costs, and so on. It
         | just leaves you with a feeling that you are screwed and there
         | is nothing to do about it.
         | 
         | Teenagers are pretty aware of what is going on in the world,
         | probably more now than ever. All this plus the normal teenage
         | problems, and new problems like cyber bullying. This is just
         | too much for someone who hasn't had time to build their coping
         | skills.
        
           | 908B64B197 wrote:
           | We also live in a much more competitive world than before.
           | 
           | Just look at the number of spots at top universities (didn't
           | scale with population growth) and the number of applications
           | the average student sends.
        
         | opwieurposiu wrote:
         | Social media use, and mollycoddling by parents.
         | 
         | https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/10/by-mol...
        
         | aaron-santos wrote:
         | > What in society causes so many kids to kill themselves? Why
         | is it getting worse? What should be done?
         | 
         | Here's a radical thought: ask kids what's wrong. Find
         | commonalities in their responses and then enact real change to
         | address the issue. What we shouldn't do is give them platitudes
         | like "things will get better, just wait." They don't have time
         | to wait. This isn't a problem that we can solve by deduction
         | from first principles.
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-25 23:02 UTC)